Salt River

The densest cluster is within 600 metres of Salt River Circle, along Cecil Road, Beryl Street and the Voortrekker Road frontage, added to each February by the public art festival. Go between 9am and noon when the light hits the west-facing walls. Take a local guide rather than walking it alone with a camera.

Durham Avenue, off Albert Road. Big industrial taproom, a tasting flight for roughly R90, burgers around R130, and a rooftop that catches the southeaster in summer. Busy from about 4pm Thursday to Saturday, dead on Mondays, and typically closed by 10pm. Secure parking on site, which matters here.

Any of the halaal takeaways along Voortrekker between the circle and Cecil Road will build you a full gatsby for about R110 — masala steak or polony, hot chips, achar and sauce inside a metre of bread. Order a quarter if you are alone. Cash is welcome, card is usually fine, and the queue at 1pm is a good sign.

The stretch of Albert Road and the side streets toward the old textile factories still carries wholesale fabric, haberdashery and trimming shops selling shweshwe, denim and lining at a fraction of mall prices. Most open 8.30am to 4.30pm weekdays and close by 1pm Saturday. Bring cash and expect to buy by the metre.

From the Salt River station footbridge you can watch the Southern Line peel off toward Muizenberg while the Northern Line runs east to Bellville — the busiest passenger junction in the Western Cape. Free, ten minutes, and oddly compelling. Daylight only, keep your phone away, and do not linger on the platforms.

Salt River station is the cheapest launch pad in the city for the coast: board the Southern Line in the morning and you are in Muizenberg in about 35 minutes and Kalk Bay in 45, for well under R20. Travel between 9am and 3pm, in a busy carriage, and check that services are running that day.

Salt River station is the junction of the Southern and Northern lines, about seven minutes and R10 from Cape Town station, with direct daytime trains to Muizenberg, Kalk Bay and Simon's Town in one direction and Bellville in the other. Minibus taxis run Voortrekker and Albert Roads every few seconds for R12 to R15 and are the fastest way into the CBD. Golden Arrow buses cover the same corridors. From Cape Town International an e-hail takes 15 to 20 minutes and costs R210 to R290. Inside the suburb, walk in daylight and e-hail after dark for R40 to R70 — that is exactly what residents do.

In daylight, on the main roads, with normal city sense, yes — it is a busy working suburb and thousands of people move through it every hour. It is not a place to stroll after dark, and the streets around the station and the yards are best crossed in a vehicle at night. Stay in a gated property, use e-hails from sundown, and do not walk photographing walls alone. Most visitors here are on longer stays and adapt within a day.

This is the cheapest real accommodation in the inner city. Private rooms in guesthouses run R450 to R750 a night in peak January, dropping to around R350 to R550 in June and July. Monthly self-catering rates can work out below R400 a night. You are paying roughly a third of a comparable Green Point room and spending some of the saving on transport.

The main public art festival takes place in February each year, when international and South African artists paint new large-format murals across Salt River and lower Woodstock over roughly two weeks. Walls are added every edition, so the route grows annually and older pieces sometimes disappear. If murals are your reason for coming, February is the month; the paintings themselves stay up all year.

Yes, easily, and it is the one walk here that everyone does. Albert Road runs continuously from Salt River Circle to the Old Biscuit Mill in about 20 minutes on flat ground, past the Salt Circle Arcade and Woodstock Brewery. Do it between mid-morning and late afternoon. Coming back after a dinner in Woodstock, take an e-hail for R40.