Direct from Cape Town. Travels and experiences in and around the city, and voyages that carry you beyond its shores.
Cape Town balances mountain and sea, and creativity with entrepreneurial spirit. It’s where café culture meets coastal calm, with easy access to an abundance of alluring wine farms and favourite neighbourhood spots, stylish hotels and coastal escapes. It’s where a simple drive can turn into a day trip worth writing about. These are stories about where to eat, stay, wander and escape. Told with an insider’s eye and a touch of attitude.
But the journey doesn’t stop there. Direct From Cape Town also follows travels that lead elsewhere – to spaces and places that stir curiosity, or soothe the senses.
Contact us on : info@directfromcapetown.co.za
Dining
Cape Town’s dining scene is among the most dynamic anywhere, shaped by its coastal setting, abundant produce, diverse cultural influences and imaginative, ambitious chefs. Yes, the city delivers exceptional fine dining, but its strength runs the full spectrum – from vibrant neighbourhood eateries to characterful coffee shops. The result is a food culture that’s refined yet relaxed, adventurous without pretence, and full of flavour.
Local
Cape Town is a city of neighbourhoods, each with its own rhythm and personality. Start with a coffee in the City Bowl beneath the rise of Table Mountain, stroll the Sea Point promenade with its mix of joggers, dog walkers and ocean air, or climb Lion’s Heaad for sweeping views. Venture a little further to Kalk Bay or Muizenberg, where the pace slows and the mood shifts. Wherever you go, the city’s creative spirit spills into galleries, weekend markets, music and design.
Overseas
There’s something quietly transformative about arriving in a new place – a fresh skyline, a different quality of light, unfamiliar flavours. Whether it’s a quick city break in Europe, a long-haul escape to Southeast Asia, or a slow, scenic wander through Mediterranean coastal towns, travel widens your world and shifts your perspective. The moods and moments you gather along the way have a way of lingering, reshaping how you live long after you return home.
The Hermanus hotel that feels like Cape Town’s best weekend escape
Cape Town isn’t short on beautiful hotels, but few offer a genuine escape from the city – for that you need to drive along the coast. Hermanus is close enough for an easy weekend trip, yet far enough to make the city feel like a distant memory. And…
Ancient rocks, wild landscapes and candlelit dinners: the magic of Bushmans Kloof
There are safaris where the prize is a lion, a leopard or a herd of elephants. And then there is Bushmans Kloof, where the memorable discoveries are often much quieter: a faded red eland painted on a sandstone wall, the flash of a bird through the fynbos, an ancient…
A century of motoring history, inside the Franschhoek Motor Museum
You don’t have to be a serious petrolhead to appreciate the Franschhoek Motor Museum. Among the vineyards of the Cape Winelands, about an hour’s drive from Cape Town, it’s one of those destinations that combines history, design and a little old-world glamour –…
The new Intercontinental Table Bay Cape Town
For years it was known simply as The Table Bay, a fixture of the V&A Waterfront’s hotel scene. Now, after a ten-month renovation reportedly costing around R1-billion, the property has reopened under a new name and a new identity: the InterContinental Table Bay…
Real hospitality at the Twelve Apostles
Real hospitality at the Twelve Apostles There’s a point on the drive from Sea Point to Hout Bay where the city seems to loosen its grip. The traffic thins, the Atlantic opens up, and the Twelve Apostles mountain range rises dramatically from the roadside. Then, almost…
The Thebe Magugu Suite: A New Chapter at the Nellie
Cape Town’s most storied hotel has a new address for African design. To mark the tenth anniversary of his fashion house, Johannesburg-based designer Thebe Magugu — Kimberley-born and winner of the 2019 LVMH Prize — earlier this year unveiled his first foray into…
Inside Leeu Estate: Franschhoek’s quietest kind of luxury
Some hotels announce themselves. Leeu Estates simply emerges, gracious and unhurried. Drive through the gates and the first thing that hits you isn’t grandeur – it’s stillness. Clipped hedges, long green sightlines, a composure that makes you lower your voice without…
Where fashion meets art: three exhibitions at the Mount Nelson
The Mount Nelson has evolved into one of the central cultural and artistic hubs in Cape Town and this month hosts three new exhibitions that make a compelling case for the vitality of contemporary African art and design. The Foreign Familiar is perhaps the most…
A global art conversation lands in Cape Town
It’s Art Week in Cape Town, that moment in the calendar when collectors, dealers, artists, curators and the art- curious converge on the city for the Investec Cape Town Art Fair – the largest contemporary art fair on the continent and a cultural anchor that draws the…
A Taste of the Golden Age aboard Cunard’s Queen Anne
When the Queen Anne docked in Cape Town, a small group of us stepped aboard for a walkabout and dinner – just enough time to get a feel for Cunard’s newest flagship. Launched in 2024, Queen Anne is Cunard’s most contemporary ship to date, yet it remains firmly…