Cape Town's Hidden Local Gems

If you're travelling to Cape Town, and you are looking for a place to stay, FZP self-catering rentals are beautiful, well maintained, centrally located apartments,which provide the perfect base from which to explore this remarkable city. Choosing the self-catering option means you will have a lot more flexibility to really explore and to live like a local. Cape Town has many well- known attractions, such as the famous landmark Table Mountain, the stunning golden beaches, shopping centres such as the V&A Waterfront and Century City, and the bustling streets of the city itself. However, there are many secret locations that even some of the locals don’t know about! Here are our top ten hidden gems in Cape Town, a city of secrets and surprises.

                                         Image by Pod pictures

1.      Explore the secret tunnels under Cape Town 
      Wander through the now abandoned canals located underneath the city, and marvel at their impressive architecture. Once used as underground channels to supply the Company Gardens and the passing ships with fresh water, today these waterways are used to convey the water from Table Mountain to the sea. This is an exciting activity for the adventurous and the fairly fit!
 

2.      The Power and the Glory

Located underneath the popular restaurant Rafiki’s in Kloof Street, this trendy hotspot offers delicious food and famous hot chocolate along with an enticing Indie atmosphere, live performances and a busy bar. 

3.      Silvermine Nature Reserve

Fancy a relaxing stroll? Silvermine is a stunning nature reserve, proffering spectacular panoramic views and beautiful indigenous flora and fauna. The trails range from easy to difficult, and in summer you can take a refreshing dip in the dam.

4.      Picnics on Chapman’s Peak

Here’s a sneaky tip, if you don’t want to pay to drive all the way along the Chapman’s Peak road, at the first toll booth tell them you are going on a picnic, and then stop at one of the designated look out spots, before the second toll, and you won’t have to pay a cent! The views are absolutely breath taking, and it’s the ideal location for a romantic date- bring some champagne and watch the sunset. 

5.      Jason Bakery

Located in Bree Street, with delicious deli style food, including amazing sandwiches and scrumptious vegetarian options, Jason Bakery is fast becoming a famous local haunt with incredible pastries and a relaxed atmosphere. Their breakfasts are a fantastic way to start your day, and their general manager is called Captain Bread.
 

6.      The Tokai Earth Fair Market

Found in a forest, offering fantastic local produce and delicious food, this market is rumoured to have the best chocolate brownies in town! It’s open on Saturday mornings and on Wednesday from 15h00 until 20h00.

7.      Olympia Café and Kalky’s

Kalk Bay has a number of wonderful little restaurants and shops on offer, and Olympia and Kalky’s are two of the best options! Olympia Café is known for its ‘chilled out’ atmosphere, and is always jam-packed, offering the tastiest pastries in town. Kalky’s is famous for its fantastic fish and chips, and for its cheeky resident seal that pesters all the local fishermen. 

                              image by Tripadvisor

8.      The Creamery

Ice cream fans, this is one for you. The creamery is based in Mowbray and has the most amazing ice-cream in town-once you start, in no time at all, you will be completely hooked! Some of their unique, wonderful flavours include coffee and praline almond, spiced pecan, barley malt, sweetcream cookie dough, prickly passion, jasmine blossom and chocolate peppermint leaf. 

                               Image by the Creamery

9.      Pub quiz at the Fireman’s Arms

Every Thursday at 20h00, people gather at the Fireman’s Arms to compete in the weekly pub quiz. Located in Buitengracht Street, this is one of the oldest and most well-known pubs in Cape Town, which has a fantastic atmosphere, delicious food, and lots of beers on tap. 

10.  Rondevlei Nature Reserve

Did you know Cape Town is home to a family of hippos? They live at Rondevlei, one of the city’s lesser known nature reserves, and can be spotted from the hide along with a number of beautiful bird species and other animals, such as the elusive porcupine. 

Come to Cape Town and explore everything that the vibrant city has to offer, including the lesser known, hidden gems!

The Cape Town Jazz Festival

This weekend, the 30th and 31st of March, Cape Town will be host to one of the world's most famous and celebrated Jazz Festivals. The Cape Town Jazz Festival began during the year 2000 and received a huge turn out, with over 14 000 people purchasing tickets for the event. Last year, record numbers visited the festival, and this year, twelve years since the very first event, Cape Town's Jazz Festival is aiming to have more than 2011's 34 000 visitors.

It's known to be "Africa's Grandest Gathering", and showcases the soul, style and true elegance of South Africa's local Jazz scene, which adds its own twist to the event with a touch of Mzanzi. This year, the festival is set to bigger and better than before - packed with workshops and training sessions by some of the world's greatest and most talented Jazz professionals. 

Ranked number four of its kind in the world by Melodytrip, the Cape Town Jazz Festival will undoubtedly, once again, put on a great show this year. And with a line up of international and local big names, they're already on their way; with the likes of Lauryn Hill, Alfredo Rodrigues and the Alexander Sinton Jazz High School taking the stage and leading tickets to quickly sell out. For a full list of performances, click here. 

Speaking of tickets, you can purchase weekend passes for R550, day passes for R400 and performance passes for R30. You can purchase tickets from Computicket or can purchase passes for selected performances on arrival at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

With over 34 000 locals and foreigners set to visit the event, make sure you book your self-catering accommodation as soon as possible. Making your way to the event shouldn't be difficult however, as it's based in the centre of Cape Town - easy to find, with many private taxi's readily available. 

The Most Beautiful Race in the World...

If you’re visiting Cape Town over the long Easter weekend, it’s likely you’ll come across several thousand runners timing their personal bests around Cape Town. This is the event all Capetonian runners work towards and spend their Sunday mornings training for. The Two Oceans Marathon is quickly becoming South Africa’s most popular and loved marathon, and promises to be even more of a success than last year with a record number of entrants and a new scenic route for the runners to enjoy.

The first Two Oceans Marathon took place in the 1970 with just 26 runners gearing up to run the race. At this start, the only option was to complete the 42km or pull out of the race with better hopes for next year, however now a days runners can sign up to run the Two Ocean’s Half Marathon, allowing them to call themselves champions even if their legs aren’t able to manage the whole marathon’s 42km route.

What used to be one event has now become several, with trail runs, fun runs, expos and of course, the famous half marathon. Thousands of volunteers line the streets on race day to serve drinks and cool down participates while both professional cheer leaders and locals make their ways to the event to cheer on the brave runners.

The race has become known internationally as “the most beautiful race in the world” with scenic views to distract any runner from the pain of the distance they’re covering. The Ultra Marathon – the 42km run – has made a name for itself by covering some of the most beautiful roads in Cape Town, taking runners through the Southern Suburbs, along the sea front of Kalk Bay, and eventually over Chapman’s Peak and to the University of Cape Town via Hout Bay. Runners can also enjoy being looked after by professional biokenetists, a medical team and can even enjoy free massages after the race.

If you’re planning on visiting the Mother City during this big event, make sure you get ahead and book the self-catering Cape Town accommodation needed for your holiday before the masses get their chance.  Not only will you be sorted in time to participate in the famous Two Oceans Marathon, but you’ll have the chance to see the best of the Mother City and support thousands of runners brave the streets to reach their personal bests and call themselves champions.

Even as a local I still find Cape Town to be absolutely astonishing. While its Summers seem to get hotter every year and our whining grows even louder about the rain in winter, Cape Town never seizes to pleasantly surprise us with it's extraordinary climates and bizarre weather patterns.

When it rains, it pours and when the sun shines it lights up the entire city, however the weather has a tendency to do one when it's supposed to do another. During the summer months, it'll hardly rain during the day. But every now and then we'll wake up to a thunderstorm and have the opportunity to see the flashes of light dance around our iconic Table Mountain. 

What is truly remarkable, is that it can also be the middle of winter and amongst days of rain the Cape of Storms somehow transforms itself into a bright and light city, with temperatures reaching close to the 30's. 

One of Cape Town's most charming attributes is that it's temperatures and weather is mild throughout the year. The days are never particularly freezing and the hot days are always bearable. Regardless of the time of year, there's sure to be a grand sight to behold and a surprise awaiting you. 

We've found some stunning photographs of Cape Town's bizare weather. Some call it Global Warming, others simply state "Africa...", regardless, we're sticking around for the show.

Cape Town - A photographer's Paradise

It quite often goes without saying as the countless Japanese tourists snap away on the top of Table Mountain or as endless camera flashes scatter the beaches of the Cape Peninsular, but Cape Town has become somewhat of a photographer's paradise.

Known as one of the most beautiful cities in the world and recently voted by Trip Advisor as being the most desired holiday destination on planet Earth, Cape Town is undoubtedly a pretty place to take photographs of. But it's also a lot more than that - it also allows us to take pretty pictures of other things.

Every where you turn, there is an amateur photographer in Cape Town - it's the perfect backdrop for every image and has a temperamental weather pattern which offers a range of moods for photographers to style their objects and subjects around. Photographers can make the most out of any weather in Cape Town, and cradled by the mountains and reflecting off the oceans, the light available is a true photographers dream. On the rainy days, the clouds accentuate and on the sunny days the sun lightens and brightens up. Depending on the time of day, photographers can capture soft sides of their subjects and can even bounce the colours of the Mother City's vibrant sunsets off their skin tones.

When it comes to holidaymakers, every second one of them is equipped with an impressive camera, tripod and zoom lens. While in Cape Town they can map out a holiday against the backdrop of some seriously impressive sights, and can capture their loved ones amongst the diversity and vibrancy. This is where a professional, amateur or the simply snap happy can take beautiful photographs which they can treasure for a lifetime.

For examples of these photographs, go this stunning photography blog; http://www.capetowndailyphoto.com/

Design Indaba 2012

Over the last few years the South African design Indaba has made an incredibly popular name for itself, and what was once visited by the amateur designers who wished to one day be a part of it and the select view who could pass opinion on each designer, is now one of Cape Town's most popular annual exhibitions and events.

Last year, Cape Town was voted as 2014's design capital - a title and award which will no doubt expose itself to prove just why the talented locals in the Mother City led the city to gain it. The combination of the designers, their pieces, the Indaba as a whole and the people who choose to visit it will express South Africa's true vibrancy and unique talents.

This year we can look forward to an extra 1000 square meters of the Design Indaba which will be dedicated to hosting more local designers than usual. Designers will have the opportunity to present their portfolios, show their abilities and to sell items to the public. They'll also be able to interact with the public directly; removing the online platforms or shops which host their collections from coming in between their direct interaction with the public.

This year, one of the slogans attached to the Indaba is: "Take home the best of South African creativity at DI2012 - a trip to the Cape Town International Convention Centre during the first weekend of March will enable you to do just that.

Event Details: 

Date:
2 March 2012 - 10:00 am to 8:00 pm
3 March 2012 - 10:00 am to 8:00 pm
4 March 2012 - 10:00 am to 6:00 pm

Venue: 
Cape Town International Convention Centre


Tickets: 
Tickets can be purchased at the ticket office on the above days. No tickets will be sold after 7:00pm on the Friday or Saturday.

For those of you coming from a far to visit the exhibition, there is plenty of closely situated Cape Town accommodation establishments to stay in.

Take a sneak peak at the Design Indaba website to see what you can expect. Go to www.designindaba.com to "inspire, interact and indulge".

QM2 Graces Cape Town - Cape Town Docks Disgrace QM2

Despite much complaining about the state of the harbour and the arrivals hall for cruise ships at the Cape Town docks it doesn’t seem to prevent world class cruise ships from visiting Cape Town. This morning as I was driving into town I was greeted by the site of the Queen Mary 2 docked in the harbour and I was forced to ask myself; what does this mean for Cape Town as a tourist destination and what does it mean for Cape Town holiday accommodation. Not really I actually asked myself “How the hell do you park something like that,” then I asked my girlfriend how the hell they would park it, she rolled her eyes and muttered “tug boats retard.” It was early in the morning I was concentrating on far more important issues, such as how I was going to persuade my colleagues that I have not been leaving dirty coffee mugs in the sink.

My scheming was interrupted though by her diatribe on the state of Cape Town holiday accommodation and the embarrassing spectacle that is the arrivals “hall” at the Cape Town docks. I expressed much the same sentiment that I did at the start of this article. If it is so dire why do cruise ships keep coming and why do tourists keep flooding the city. I thought it was quite simple really Cape Town is so beautiful and the people are so unique we could shove the visitors into sleeping bags and tents and they would be happy just to be basking in our Mother City glory.

The gf felt differently however and as this is actually her blog I won’t describe the tone or look on her face when she told me as such but I can tell you that it reminded me of the face the cat makes right before it scratches your face and steals your tuna sandwich; the knowing look of inevitable victory. I was forced to concede that she made a valid point, I conceded I part because she did make a good point and in part because I knew from the look and past experience that resistance or arguing was futile. She pointed out, or rather shouted out that unless Cape Town and South Africa wanted to be a developing hole in the great African wall forever then they best start creating a better perception of themselves, and the best way to do this is to provide world class facilities to tourists.

It must be said that the state of the “arrival hall” at the Waterfront docks is less than the ideal first impression for anyone visiting. As a place for welcoming the passengers of a world class luxury liner however it is downright abysmal. The class of person that can afford a cruise on many of these ocean liners can generally afford to spend much of their time on holiday and send a fair amount of money while doing so. It makes sense therefore to upgrade not only the arrival area but also the entire foreshore area. As charming as it may be to us locals to have a working harbour on the edge of our CBD you can bet your hacky sack that most visitors will not be overly charmed by the smell of fish and the oil soaked concrete underfoot when they disembark from their five star cruise liner.

The real frustration with very poor conditions that await disembarking passengers at the V&A Docks is that the rest of the city and Cape Town holiday accommodation is generally in world class condition. Despite the fact that the 2010 World Cup is one of the Mother City resident’s favourite thing to complain about, the improvements made to the tourism infrastructure have benefitted the tourism industry and Cape Town immeasurably. It is frustrating then to know that there is a scene from Tank Girl welcoming some of the most lucrative tourists to visit our shores. It is time the local government looked at a serious proposal to turn the foreshore into a hub of entertainment and a fitting gateway to the greatest city in Cape Town.