CAPE TOWN

South Africa's 'Mother City' has shaken off its post-pandemic funk and is welcoming visitors with exciting hotel openings, shiny new restaurants and its evergreen natural beauty

- ZANE HENRY.

There are a few things you immediately notice when arriving in Cape Town. The first is Table Mountain an omnipresent, flat-topped massif rearing up above the Atlantic seaboard, wrapping itself around the city, presiding over everything with reassuring solidity.

The second is that the city centre itself is relatively small, spread across a mere handful of blocks. This compactness is less by design and more a physical necessity. Cape Town started out as a halfway station for Dutch and Portuguese spice traders on their way around the southern tip of Africa to India in the 1600s. Ideally placed, it sprung up sandwiched between the sea and that huge massif.

To grow, the city had to spill out into neighbourhoods beyond the foothills of Table Mountain. Each has retained its own distinct personality, while remaining indelibly part of the city. There's Observatory's chilled hippy vibes; recently gentrified Woodstock; the beach resort feel of Camps Bay; the sleepy coffeeshops of Sea Point; and the genteel bohemia of Hout Bay - all within easy reach of the centre.

The other thing you can't help but notice is the lived reality of its inhabitants. Cape Town is still grappling with a history of segregation, economic hardship and rumours of ongoing government corruption. There's the omnipresent load-shedding (regular scheduled power cuts stemming from poor infrastructure) and Covid-19 has left vivid scars in the tourism industry, from which it's still recovering.

For better or worse, little of this filters down to the visitor's experience. The city remains perennially popular with international travellers, and for good reason. The people are unflappably friendly and welcoming, eager to share and show off their city's staggering natural beauty.