Best things to do in Cape Town: the secret spots
Best things to do in Cape Town: the secret spots
| by Willem Steenkamp
Cape Town is filled with famous experiences, and hidden gems, too. But what about the best-kept-secret places and experiences that only locals know about? Here’s the inside track on the real Cape Town!
(We suggest that you enlist local companionship for most of these experiences. With many off the beaten track for visitors, or hard to find without insider knowledge, it’s really handy to be with someone who knows their way around.)
Hike to the waterfall in Cecilia Forest
While most people hike Lion’s Head, Signal Hill and the front (western) side of Table Mountain, locals seeking a more tranquil escape head to the beautiful Cecilia Forest on the mountain’s eastern slopes.
You’ll be rewarded for walking the trail less travelled, too: a moderate, shaded hike through pine and indigenous forest leads you to a stunning, multi-tiered waterfall cascading into a pool. It’s a magical, peaceful spot that feels worlds away from the nearby city bustle, offering a cathedral-like atmosphere under the cool forest canopy.
(Bonus: not too far away, in the Newlands Forest, is the contour path. This beautiful, relatively flat trail snakes along the slopes of Table Mountain, offering views across the Cape Flats towards the Hottentots Holland mountains. You’ll walk through shaded forest and fynbos, passing streams and waterfalls, sharing the path with trail runners and dog walkers.)
Discover the fabulous gatsby
Like the Philly cheesesteak is best enjoyed in Philadelphia or the doner kebab was perfected in Berlin, Cape Town’s iconic sandwich is the gatsby – and the place to get one is at the Golden Dish in Gatesville, a takeaway joint that’s delighted hungry Capetonians, from famished families to homeward-bound clubbers, for decades.
So what’s a gatsby, and what’s in it? There are many variations, but a standard gatsby is a large baguette stuffed with hot, vinegary slap chips (French fries), a protein such as steak, polony, Russian sausage, calamari or fish, cheese and sauce (for example, tomato sauce, chilli sauce or mango atchar). And it easily feeds up to four people.
Fine dining it’s not – but great eating it certainly is! (It’s also worth noting that the Golden Dish isn’t only famous for its gatsbies; if that’s not up your alley, then a masala steak sandwich just might be.)
Catch an indie movie at the Labia
The Labia, once upon a time a theatre, is South Africa’s oldest independent cinema. Located in Orange Street in Gardens, close to the iconic Mount Nelson Hotel, the Labia is a cherished city institution – and worlds away from sterile multiplexes.
The foyer offers you several refreshment options of the kind one doesn’t find in regular cinemas, including those of the alcoholic and good-quality coffee varieties, as well as delicious baked goods and freshly made popcorn.
The Labia shows a curated selection of art-house, foreign and independent films in an intimate, old-world setting. You can even take your glass of wine or a spiked slushie from the bar into the theatre with you. It’s a unique and character-filled night out, and it’s a trip to the movies like you don’t find anymore.
Take a stroll in the Arderne Gardens
In the quiet suburb of Claremont is a remarkable public garden, a Provincial Heritage Site where Capetonians in the know have been going for walks, relaxing on the lawns and taking cherished wedding pictures for generations: the Arderne Gardens.
Established in 1845 by successful timber merchant Ralph Henry Arderne, this beautiful garden, with its Japanese ponds and fascinating nooks, contains the largest collection of exotic trees in South Africa (over 400 of them!). This includes four Champion Trees, among them a Moreton Bay fig that may be the largest in South Africa (called, for obvious reasons, the Wedding Tree), and possibly the biggest Aleppo pine in the world.
The garden also boasts the world’s largest collection of mature Gondwana trees – ancient species, over 200-million years old, that were found on the supercontinent before it split into several pieces. Among the living fossils of this age of dinosaurs are palm-like cycads, woody, evergreen Podocarpus trees, and Araucarias such as the Norfolk Island pine.
Love the art at the Montebello
Hidden away in the green suburb of Newlands, only a stone’s throw away from the South African presidential estate in Cape Town, the South African Breweries’ historic brewery (the country’s oldest industrial site) and the world-famous Newlands cricket oval, is the Montebello Design Centre.
Situated in a cluster of historic farm buildings dating to 1880 (they were the stables for brewer Anders Ohlsson’s horses), this creative oasis houses the studios of over 20 local artists and craftspeople who work with everything from ceramics and jewellery to weaving and metalwork.
You can wander through the studios, watch the artists at work and buy unique pieces directly from them, and then enjoy a meal at the Montebello’s inviting garden café.
Do Sunday-morning koesisters
Here’s an important South African culinary distinction: a koeksister (note the second “k”, pronounced “cook-sister”) is plaited, fried dough dipped in sugar syrup. It’s a South African delicacy that’s finger-licking yummy when made well – but it’s not a koesister (note only one “k”, and correctly pronounced “koo-see-sta”).
The koesister is a particularly Capetonian confection. It’s a fragrant, oval-shaped doughnut spiced with cinnamon, cardamom and aniseed, fried and then simmered in syrup, and dusted with desiccated coconut. You can eat them cold, but warmed up is infinitely better.
A good koesister is spicy and light, with a syrupy and coconutty outside, and the best time to have one (or two, or three) is freshly baked with a cup of coffee on a lazy Sunday morning. Good places to find them are in Cape Malay bakeries or corner cafeterias, or home kitchens in the Bo-Kaap; for optimal happiness, ask someone in the know where they get theirs.
If Cape Town’s best-kept secrets have sparked your curiosity, our Travel Achitects can help you experience the Mother City in your own unforgettable way.
Related gallery
