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Cape Town

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Three amazing road trips in South Africa

Perhaps the finest thing about South Africa is its diversity. There are 11 official languages and many more cultural groups, each with their own stories, dances, customs and traditional dishes...

Perhaps the finest thing about South Africa is its diversity. There are 11 official languages and many more cultural groups, each with their own stories, dances, customs and traditional dishes. There are snow-capped mountains, tropical beaches, stark semi deserts, ocean-weathered cliffs and vast savannah lands home to birds and beetles and all of the Big Five...

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Five of the best Cape Town day trips

Once you arrive in Cape Town, you’d be forgiven for not wanting to leave...

Once you arrive in Cape Town, you’d be forgiven for not wanting to leave. But as beautiful and jam-packed with galleries, restaurants, shops and museums as it is, there is also plenty that’s worth leaving the city limits for. Day trips from Cape Town offer wondrous wilds and variety. Take the wineries – hundreds of them, lending a pretty finishing touch to an already exquisite landscape backed by jagged purple-grey mountains...

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How to live like a Local in Cape Town

Lonely Planet Local Lucy Corne fell in love with Cape Town following an overland trip across the continent...

Lonely Planet Local Lucy Corne fell in love with Cape Town following an overland trip across the continent. She was hooked by its mountain-meets-beach beauty, its laid back attitude to life and its vibrant dining scene. She moved there in 2010 and every time she catches a glimpse of glorious Table Mountain, she considers herself one very lucky lady...

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A tale of two townships: Soweto & Khayelitsha

The suburbs of Soweto, part of metro Johannesburg, and Khayelitsha, the vast township on the Cape Flats east of Cape Town, are throwing off their reputation for 'misery tourism'...

The suburbs of Soweto, part of metro Johannesburg, and Khayelitsha, the vast township on the Cape Flats east of Cape Town, are throwing off their reputation for 'misery tourism'. These reborn townships are embracing an enterprising future that includes new monuments, contemporary theatres, community centres covered in public art, gourmet restaurants and third wave coffee shops...

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African art capital: Cape Town transformed

Table Mountain, white-sand beaches, rich history and cosmopolitan culture and cuisine have long lured people to visit Cape Town, but today the Mother City's African art scene is proving to have pulling power. And it's not just the new Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa – the continent's largest museum opening in over a century – but also an exciting (and ever growing) number of pioneering art institutions that is impressing art lovers...

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South Africa's top 10 Nelson Mandela sites

It’s fair to say that no single person has had such a powerful and lasting effect on modern day South Africa as Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela...

It’s fair to say that no single person has had such a powerful and lasting effect on modern day South Africa as Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. His memory lives on in the minds of the people and is immortalised in statues, museums, exhibitions and monuments across the country...

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Muizenberg: Cape Town's regenerated seaside suburb

It wasn't long ago that Muizenberg's beachfront was virtually derelict, with more boarded-up buildings than visitors – it's early 20th-century heydays as one of South Africa’s most fashionable seaside resorts long behind it. However, residents refused to let it rot and today, thanks to plenty of hard work and investment from loyal locals, Muizenberg is once again the place to be seen on the Cape Town coast...

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Craft beer rising: finding an inner city pint in South Africa

Sipping a chilled glass of chenin blanc at a whitewashed winery backed by rolling mountains – it’s a quintessential South African travel experience...

Sipping a chilled glass of chenin blanc at a whitewashed winery backed by rolling mountains – it’s a quintessential South African travel experience. But in recent years, beer has started to give wine a run for its money. Pints of local ale don’t always come paired with an idyllic view, but they do come with something more befitting craft beer’s cool image – the chance to explore up-and-coming neighbourhoods in the most bustling cities of South Africa...

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Top free things to do in Cape Town

A relatively weak rand makes Cape Town a more affordable destination to visit, and the city certainly provides value for money when it comes to eating and accommodation...

A relatively weak rand makes Cape Town a more affordable destination to visit, and the city certainly provides value for money when it comes to eating and accommodation. However, everyone likes to get something for free, and in this respect the Mother City is overflowing with options...

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Cape Town's hybrid culture

The bookshop-café combo is nothing new and a shrewd move in a world where a cappuccino and the new Deon Meyer (a top Capetonian crime novelist) make smart commercial bedfellows...

The bookshop-café combo is nothing new and a shrewd move in a world where a cappuccino and the new Deon Meyer (a top Capetonian crime novelist) make smart commercial bedfellows. Cape Town, however, has taken the concept of such hybrid businesses to new levels with laundries in which you can buy art and sip wine, cafés that double as boutiques and galleries, and cocktail bars that also serve up customize motorbikes...

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Cape Town's top activities

Cape Town's reputation as a rather laid back place, is reflected in its nickname ‘Slaapstad’ which means ‘sleepy town’ in Afrikaans, the local lingo...

Cape Town's reputation as a rather laid back place, is reflected in its nickname ‘Slaapstad’ which means ‘sleepy town’ in Afrikaans, the local lingo. All very strange as the Mother City and its surrounds are stacked with opportunities to stay awake and get active. Indeed, adventure sports operators here are lining up to make sure you don’t go home without having experienced an adrenaline rush...

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Cape Town: take a walk, join a street party

Cape Town is embracing its pedestrian-friendly side like never before with the regular First Thursdays, Thursday Late and Open Streets events as well as creating the City Walk to become one of its official top seven attractions. Cape Town crowds at First Thursdays event on Bree St. Image by Simon Richmond / Lonely Planet Reclaiming the Streets Under apartheid, street gatherings were actively discouraged, if not banned across South Africa...

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Cape Town's controversial (and free) public art

During early 2015 it’s still possible to view several temporary public art works that were official projects of Cape Town’s stint as World Design Capital 2014 (WDC2014), along side permanent pieces that grace the Mother City. Some have provoked heated reactions from Capetonians, others address sensitive issues of the past and present. 'Perceiving Freedom', a set of Raybans that look out to Robben Island, Cape Town...

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Mother City markets: where to shop 'til you drop in Cape Town

The fervour for markets in South Africa's Cape Town has a long history, but the city's market scene has experienced a renaissance in recent years, with artisan foods, craft beers and designer goods drawing crowds across the 'Mother City'. In the late 18th century in cobbled Greenmarket Square, the city’s second-oldest public site, slaves were traded alongside food staples like fruit and vegetables. Today the very same site is popular with tourists for its mix of arts, crafts and curio stalls...

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24 hours in Cape Town

It’s 65km from Cape Town’s Victoria and Alfred Waterfront (the city’s most visited attraction) to the wind-whipped tip of the peninsula in the Cape Of Good Hope Nature Reserve, past majestic Table Mountain, golden beaches, charming fishing villages, verdant vineyards and a colony of super cute African penguins at Boulders...

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Insider tips: Cape Town

Known as the Mother City, Cape Town's colour and calm can entrance and beguile. Here are some tips to make sure you’re not too relaxed to get the best out of the city. Weather can change quickly in Cape Town. Image by Warren Rohner / CC BY-SA 2.0 Watch the weather Keep your plans flexible since some of Cape Town’s best activities are weather dependant...

Cape Town travel tips & articles

Three amazing road trips in South Africa

Five of the best Cape Town day trips

How to live like a Local in Cape Town

A tale of two townships: Soweto & Khayelitsha

African art capital: Cape Town transformed

South Africa's top 10 Nelson Mandela sites

Muizenberg: Cape Town's regenerated seaside suburb

Craft beer rising: finding an inner city pint in South Africa

Top free things to do in Cape Town

Cape Town's hybrid culture

Cape Town's top activities

Cape Town: take a walk, join a street party

Cape Town's controversial (and free) public art

Mother City markets: where to shop 'til you drop in Cape Town

24 hours in Cape Town

Insider tips: Cape Town

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