Rondebosch

Signposted off Rhodes Drive above the university, the granite memorial looks straight across the Cape Flats to the Hottentots Holland mountains. Free to enter, best at sunrise or in the last hour of light. Park in the marked lot, do not leave anything visible in the car, and continue up the contour path behind it if you want a proper hour of walking.

The Baxter, on Main Road at the edge of UCT's lower campus, is the southern suburbs' serious theatre — new South African work, jazz, dance and a pantomime every December. Tickets typically run R150 to R350. Its concrete-and-orange 1970s foyer is a landmark in itself, and there is secure parking on site.

A flat forty-hectare block of protected renosterveld bounded by Campground Road, Park Road and Klipfontein Road, with a gravel perimeter track that measures a shade over three kilometres. It is busiest and safest between 06:00 and 08:00 and again from 17:00. In spring the grassland flowers; the rest of the year it is simply the best open running loop this side of the mountain.

The artist's own house on Cecil Road in neighbouring Rosebank, ten minutes' walk from Rondebosch station, holds her paintings alongside the African and European objects she collected. Entry is a few tens of rand, and the carved doors alone justify the trip. Check the hours before going — it is closed Sundays and Mondays and shuts mid-afternoon.

Park at the Newlands Forest lot off the M3 Union Avenue, ten minutes south, and climb the shaded pine and stone-pine paths to the contour path. Ninety minutes gets you a full loop with views over the suburbs. Go in a group, avoid dawn and dusk solo, and expect the stream crossings to run hard after winter rain.

The block where Main Road meets Belmont Road holds the Riverside Mall, a supermarket, bakeries and student-priced cafés — a decent meal here is R100 to R180 rather than the R300 you would pay in the city. The Rondebosch Fountain on the traffic island opposite is a national monument and the suburb's unofficial front door.

From Cape Town International, an e-hail to Rondebosch costs roughly R280 to R380 and takes 20 to 30 minutes via the N2 and M5, or the airport shuttle to the city plus a train. Rondebosch station on Main Road is on the Metrorail Southern Line to Cape Town station, a fifteen-minute ride and a fare in the low tens of rand, but service has been erratic for years — check on the day rather than planning around it. Golden Arrow buses run Main Road constantly toward Claremont and Wynberg south and the city north. Driving, the M3 gets you to the CBD in 15 minutes off-peak and 45 in the 07:30 crawl. Inside the suburb everything is walkable within twenty minutes.

Only if you are driving. It is leafy, safe by day and much cheaper than the Atlantic seaboard, but you are twenty minutes from the Waterfront and the beaches are all over the mountain or down the False Bay line. Visitors here for UCT, a conference or a hospital stay do very well; sightseers with no car will spend a fortune on e-hailing.

By car it is about ten minutes: Main Road south, then Rhodes Drive past Newlands, with the gate on Rhodes Drive itself. There is no direct train, and buses require a change, so e-hailing at roughly R80 to R120 each way is the realistic alternative. Arrive before 09:00 on summer weekends or you will queue for the car park.

The residential streets between Main Road and the mountain are reasonably relaxed until about 22:00, and students walk them constantly during term. The stretch of Main Road around the station and the taxi stops thins out after 19:00 and is not somewhere to stroll with a visible phone. Keep to lit routes, and take an e-hail rather than walking after a late show.

The Metrorail Southern Line does operate through Rondebosch, and when it runs it is by far the cheapest way into the city at a fare in the low tens of rand. Reliability has been poor for several years, with cancellations and long gaps between services. Treat it as a bonus rather than a plan, and never rely on it for an airport connection.