Where to Stay in Cape Town, Western Cape

What is Cape Town known for?

The oldest city in South Africa and the seat of the South African Parliament, it grew from a trading post near the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. Its museums and galleries crowd the old centre, from the Two Oceans Aquarium to the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. Inland lie the vineyards of the Cape Winelands.

What are the main landmarks in Cape Town?

Cape Town packs its landmarks into the old town. The Iziko South African Museum, the South African National Gallery, and the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa carry the city's art and natural history, while the Two Oceans Aquarium draws families to the harbour. Memory sits alongside them.

The District Six Museum and the Slave Lodge record forced removals and slavery, and the old Groote Kerk anchors the colonial-era churches of the centre.

What is the history of Cape Town?

Cape Town began in 1652 as a supply station for passing ships. The Dutch set it up on the shore near the Cape of Good Hope, and it became the first lasting European settlement in what is now South Africa, known in Dutch as Kaapstad. The little station grew into a colonial port.

Enslaved people were brought from distant colonies to build and work it, a history kept in the Slave Lodge. The Cape was a crossroads from the start. Control of the Cape passed between colonial powers before the wider country was unified, and Cape Town was made the seat of its Parliament, a role it still holds as the legislative capital.

Its later history carries hard chapters. Under apartheid the mixed inner-city district of District Six was declared white and its people forced out, a story the District Six Museum tells on the ground where it happened. Groote Kerk and the old churches trace the colonial centuries.

Museums, docks, and Parliament all sit within the compact old town. Cape Town wears its full past, first port and legislative capital alike, in plain view.

Where is Cape Town?

Cape Town sits on the southwestern coast of South Africa, in the Western Cape. The city curls around a harbour where the land narrows toward the Cape of Good Hope, the rocky point that marks the southern end of the African continent. Sea frames it on more than one side.

Inland the ground runs on to the valleys of the Cape Winelands.

What is the climate of Cape Town?

Cape Town has a mild climate shaped by the surrounding sea. Ocean water keeps the city's temperatures even through the year, warm rather than hot in the sunnier months and cool rather than cold in the darker ones. Strong winds are a fixture of the coast.

The Cape of Good Hope catches the full force of them.

How do you get to Cape Town?

Cape Town is the main entry point to South Africa's southwest. International flights land at the city's airport, and roads and rail run on from there along the coast and inland to the Cape Winelands. The long national route links it to the interior and Johannesburg.

Ships still call at the old harbour. Most southern trips begin here.