Green Point

The paved seafront path runs from the Mouille Point lighthouse on Beach Road all the way to Bantry Bay, about three kilometres one way. Free, floodlit, and busiest between 6pm and 8pm in summer when half the city is out on it. Stop at the outdoor gym and the Sea Point pavilion pool at the far end.

At the Beach Road end, the candy-striped Mouille Point lighthouse dates to 1824 and is the oldest still-operating light in South Africa, foghorn included. It is not generally open inside but the surrounding lawns, mini-golf course and the wreck viewpoint make an easy hour. Putt-putt costs around R60 and is far more fun than it sounds.

Entrances off Fritz Sonnenberg Road and Bay Road, open roughly 7am to 7pm, free. The Biodiversity Garden section plants fynbos, wetland and forest with proper interpretation, and the ponds pull herons and Egyptian geese. There are two large playgrounds. It is the one place in the area small children genuinely enjoy.

The 55,000-seat bowl on Fritz Sonnenberg Road runs behind-the-scenes tours on most weekdays, taking in the tunnel, changing rooms and pitchside, for roughly R70 to R100. Book ahead as tours are cancelled on event days. On match nights, walking in from Main Road with the crowd beats any tour.

The long-running Sunday market on the Green Point Common beside the stadium runs from about 9am to 3pm with clothing, crafts, tools and food stalls. It is a local, unpolished, bargaining sort of market rather than a boutique one, and it is where people actually buy things. Cash helps.

Ten minutes on foot up Somerset Road, the cobbled De Waterkant streets and the Cape Quarter at 72 Waterkant Street hold the area's best concentration of restaurants and pavement tables. Mains R160 to R280. It is calmer than Somerset Road proper and the walk back down to Green Point is safe and busy until late.

From Cape Town International, take the MyCiTi A01 airport bus to the Civic Centre station — every 20 to 30 minutes, roughly 25 minutes, around R120 with a myconnect card — then transfer to route 104, 106 or 107 for Green Point and Sea Point, another eight minutes and about R13. An e-hail door to door is 25 to 35 minutes and R280 to R400. Inside the area MyCiTi buses run Main Road and Beach Road every 10 to 15 minutes until late evening, the Waterfront is a 15-minute walk along Beach Road, and the CBD 20 minutes up Somerset Road. Do not hire a car unless you plan to leave the peninsula.

Green Point if you want to walk to the Waterfront and the CBD, and if the stadium, the park and the nightlife on Somerset Road appeal. Sea Point if you want more restaurants per block, the pavilion pool and slightly better value on rooms. They are twenty minutes apart on foot along the same promenade, so the choice matters less than people think — pick on price and on which end of the walk you prefer.

Not really. The Mouille Point and Green Point shoreline is rock, kelp and cold Atlantic surge, with no sheltered sand. The realistic options are the Sea Point pavilion pool at the far end of the promenade, which has a heated and an unheated pool for around R30 to R40, or a 15 to 20 minute drive to Clifton and Camps Bay. Water on this coast sits at 12 to 16 degrees regardless of the season.

Very, from November to February. The southeaster funnels between Signal Hill and the sea and can blow at gale force for three or four days at a stretch, usually strongest in the afternoon. Mornings are typically calmer. Book restaurants with enclosed or sheltered terraces, keep a windproof layer even on a 30-degree day, and expect the promenade to be genuinely bracing after 3pm.

No, and it is arguably a liability. MyCiTi buses cover Green Point, Sea Point, the Waterfront and the CBD for R11 to R15 a trip, e-hails within the Atlantic Seaboard cost R50 to R100, and parking runs R10 to R20 an hour on the street or R60 to R120 a day in a garage. Hire a car for the two or three days you go to Cape Point, the winelands or Hermanus, and hand it back.