City Bowl

The trailhead is at the Signal Hill Road turn-off on Kloof Nek, roughly 45 minutes to the top spiralling anticlockwise, with chains and staples near the summit. Full-moon nights bring hundreds of people with head torches. Go at dawn instead if you want it quiet, and never leave anything in the car at the trailhead.

Start at the Bo-Kaap Museum on Wale Street, about R60 entry, then Chiappini and Rose Street for the painted facades. This is a lived-in Cape Malay neighbourhood, not a photo set: ask before shooting doorways. Buy koesisters or a samosa at Rose Corner Cafe on the corner of Rose and Longmarket.

The lower cableway station is on Tafelberg Road above Kloof Nek, around R420 return, first car at 8am. Buy online and check the wind status page before you leave; the south-easter closes it for whole days. The Platteklip Gorge hike starts 1.5 km east along Tafelberg Road and takes two brutal, shadeless hours.

The District Six Museum on Buitenkant Street, about R60, is the single most important hour in the city for understanding what forced removals actually meant. The Castle of Good Hope is a six-minute walk east across Darling Street, R50, with the key ceremony and noon signal on weekdays.

Between Wale and Pepper Street: Clarke's for a breakfast burger, Culture Club Cheese for a toastie and a glass of red, Publik on Church Street for natural wine from about R60 a glass, Mulberry & Prince on Pepper Street for dinner. Book Bree Street tables three days ahead in high season.

The old Dutch East India vegetable garden runs from Government Avenue behind St George's Cathedral to the South African Museum. Free, shaded, full of squirrels and office lunches. The National Gallery and the SA Museum sit at the far end for around R100 each, and the garden restaurant does a decent R120 breakfast.

From the airport, Uber or Bolt to Gardens costs about R280 to R380 and takes 25 to 40 minutes on the N2, worse from 4pm to 6pm weekdays. Cape Town station on Adderley Street is the hub for the Metrorail Southern Line toward Observatory, Rondebosch, Claremont, Muizenberg and Simon's Town, and it is also the MyCiTi Civic Centre terminus for routes 104 to the Waterfront and 106/107 out to Sea Point, Camps Bay and Hout Bay, roughly R11 to R21 a trip with a myconnect card. Inside the Bowl, walk. Minibus taxis run Long Street to Sea Point along Buitengracht for about R12 and are fast, cheap and not for the nervous.

In daylight, on the busy streets, yes, with normal city-centre awareness. Phone snatching on Long Street and around Greenmarket Square is the common crime, not violence. After dark stick to Bree, Kloof, Long and Loop where there are people and lights, and use an Uber for anything over four blocks. Do not walk the Foreshore, upper Buitenkant or the station precinct at night, and do not leave anything visible in a parked car anywhere.

Gardens, between Kloof Street and Hope Street, is the answer for most people: restaurants downstairs, a flat walk into town, and MyCiTi stops on Kloof Nek Road. De Waterkant works too if you want the Waterfront within walking distance. Avoid the steeper parts of Vredehoek and Oranjezicht, which look close on a map and are a fifteen-minute uphill grind home from dinner.

MyCiTi 106 and 107 leave Civic Centre for Sea Point and Camps Bay every fifteen to twenty minutes and take 20 to 35 minutes for about R16 to R21. Uber to Camps Bay runs R150 to R220 and is quicker. Driving is only worth it out of season; in January the Camps Bay and Clifton parking is full from 10am and you will circle Victoria Road for half an hour.

Both. The upper end near Kloof has good bookshops, coffee and the baths; the lower end after 11pm is a drunken student strip with pushy door staff and overpriced shooters. Have one drink there for the experience, then move to Bree Street or Kloof Street for anything you actually want to remember. The Greenmarket Square stalls two blocks away expect hard bargaining, roughly half the opening price.