Why This Is the Best City on Earth

We meet everyone at the airport, whatever time you land. Hugs, luggage in the car, and straight off to get to know the city. We show you our favourite streets and a couple of secret spots with the best views, the ones tourists never reach. You have arrived at our home, we are genuinely glad you are here, and we know every corner of it.

Everyone else queues for Table Mountain; we go higher. The best view of it opens from a helicopter — the real Cape Town, with the mountain, the city and the endless beaches all in front of you at once. First the English atmosphere and the high tea tradition at the legendary Mount Nelson: white tablecloths, pink walls, refinement. Then into the township in convertibles. The township is our own: plenty of celebrities and bloggers have been there through us. This day is built on contrast.

There is Africa. Within it there is Cape Town, which is its own thing. And within Cape Town there is a place where you feel the continent end — the Cape of Good Hope. Here the ocean beats against the rocks, the wind sounds different, and the horizon looks endless. We explore this edge of the world, gather mussels straight off the shore, walk through the village of Scarborough, and sit down to a genuinely singular lunch with a local woman — not as tourists, but as guests.

The morning belongs to the penguins. They will be right beside you; we know the secret spot. Funny, self-important, slightly clumsy on land and lightning-quick in the water. You stand a few metres away and realise this is not a zoo — this is their home, and you are the visitor. Then the fur seals in the harbour, the salt air of Kalk Bay, a working port, fishermen, gulls. And lunch at Harbour House, where the waves almost touch the glass and the ocean becomes part of the table.

We head up the West Coast to the town of Paternoster. We try to catch and cook a lobster, and if the coastal patrol is paying particularly close attention, we find one at the place of another of our own locals, Julian. Fresh, salty, straight out of the water — we eat oysters right from the lagoon. Local acquaintances. This day belongs to people. From a wonderfully characterful resident of the fishing village to Julian's farm, where he tells you the story of his family, one of the oldest in South Africa. And in the evening, dinner at the very table Nelson Mandela once sat at.

We visit the finest and most enjoyable wine estates, and by lunchtime we stop counting the glasses and simply give in to the pleasure of it. The atmosphere here is France: manicured avenues, old architecture, vineyards running up to the foot of the mountains, soft light, and the feeling of unhurried European life. The mountains hold the valley, the air smells of herbs and wine, time seems to slow. This is a day of inspiration, beauty and pleasure without haste. We spend the night on the estate itself — so that you wake among the vines.

In the afternoon we go on safari in the Karoo. Semi-desert, wind, sparse animals among the dry scrub, and a sense of space. It is a calm, almost meditative farewell to Africa — under open sky, looking out at a horizon that seems not to end. On the way, the futuristic Bosjes chapel, a white wave among the mountains. Dinner in the evening. Comfortable and informal. By now it is less a group than a circle of friends: people who were strangers a few days ago are laughing at the same table and remembering things they went through together.

We do not say goodbye; we say "see you soon". The group chats from our previous journeys are still very much alive — people keep talking, send each other holiday wishes, and meet up in different parts of the world. Today we take those who are flying home to the airport, calmly and without rush. Those who are staying on, we help settle into the rhythm of the city. So that parting from Cape Town is not about logistics, but about the feeling that you already have your own people here.