2 Best Sights in Cape Town, South Africa

Spectacular in every season, this renowned botanical garden was established in 1913, and was the first in the world to conserve and showcase a country's indigenous flora. With its magnificent setting extending up the eastern slopes of Table Mountain and overlooking the city and distant Hottentots Holland Mountains, these gardens are truly a national treasure. In addition to thousands of out-of-town visitors, Capetonians flock here on weekends to laze on the grassy lawns, picnicking and reading while children run riot. Walking trails meander through the plantings, and there's emphasis on the fynbos biome—the hardy, thin-leaved plants that proliferate in the Cape—so you will find plenty of proteas, ericas, and restios (reeds). Highlights include the Tree Canopy Walkway (aka "Boomslang," a large cycad garden), the Bird Bath (a beautiful stone pool built around a crystal clear spring), the fragrance garden (which is wheelchair-friendly and has a tapping rail), and the Sculpture Garden. Free 90-minute guided tours take place daily except Sunday. Those with difficulty walking can enjoy a comprehensive tour lasting one hour (R70, hourly 9–3) in seven-person (excluding the driver) golf carts. Concerts featuring top South African artists—from classical music to township jazz to indie rock—are held on summer Sundays at 5 and everyone rocks up with blankets and picnic hampers (arrive early to get a good spot), and the Galileo Outdoor Cinema ( thegalileo.co.za) screens movies on select weekday evenings an hour after sunset. The visitor center houses a restaurant, bookstore, and coffee shop. Several trails take you to the top of Table Mountain, from which point you can hike all the way to the cable car station.

In the heart of the city, this is a great place to seek relief from a sweltering summer day if the beach is packed. These lush, landscaped gardens are all that remain of a 43-acre tract laid out by Jan van Riebeeck in April 1652 to supply fresh vegetables to ships on their way to the Dutch East Indies. By 1700 free burghers (Dutch-speaking colonists no longer indebted to the Dutch East India Company, aka VOC) were cultivating plenty of crops on their own land, and in time the VOC vegetable patch was transformed into a botanic garden. It remains a calm haven, surrounded by museums, art galleries, the country's oldest cathedral, and Parliament, and is graced by fountains, exotic trees, rose gardens, and a pleasant little tea shop (careful, though, there's also a large café which is not so pleasant). At the bottom of the gardens, close to Government Avenue, look for an old well that once provided water for the town's residents and the garden. The old water pump, engraved with the maker's name and the date 1842, has been overtaken by an oak tree and now juts out of the tree's trunk some 6 feet above the ground. A huge statue of the colonist Cecil Rhodes, the Cape's prime minister in the late 19th century, looms over the path that runs through the center of the gardens. He points to the north, and an inscription reads, "Your hinterland is there," a reference to his dream of extending the British Empire from the Cape to Cairo. A self-guided walking brochure with detailed historical information about the gardens and nearby sights is available at the shop adjacent to the small but informative visitor center.