Sprawling across endless, staggeringly blue coastline, and watched over by the iconic plane of Table Mountain, Cape Town is without doubt one of the world’s most beautiful cities. A blend of spectacular mountain scenery, multiculturalism and relaxed ocean charm awaits in the Mother City, where you can venture out to rolling vineyards, dine in laid back sea suburbs, or spend days exploring cool urban culture. Cape Town’s natural splendour fully reveals itself as the cable car rears sharply to the top of Table Mountain. From the summit, 3,500 feet above sea level, you can let the scale of the panoramic vistas of the city rolling down towards the ocean wash over you. Another heavenly perspective waits at the top of Lion’s Head’s tapering peak. A sharp hike and an early start is required, but the views of the morning sun painting Table Mountain honey-gold are some of Cape Town’s finest. Cape Town’s glorious sunshine and inviting blue rollers can be a little deceiving – these oceans are anything but warm at times, with nothing between the peninsula’s end and Antarctica’s icy chill. This cool water has upsides though, bringing a colony of adorably cute African penguins to Boulders Beach. Boarded walkways offer the perfect vantage point to see the cute creatures dipping into the sea and lounging in the sun. Nearby, journey to the end of Africa at the Cape of Good Hope, where you can stand at the bottom of this mighty continent, watching out over the merging waves of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Cape Town’s beauty is counterpointed by the ominous island form, which sits four miles offshore from the bustling restaurants and lazy seals of the lively V&A Waterfront. A living history lesson, you can sail in the ships that transported prisoners out to Robben Island, before a former prisoner tells of the traumas of life on this offshore prison. Your guide will show you the cramped cells, and render Mandela’s long walk to freedom in heartbreaking, visceral clarity.

The scorched desert that surrounds Luderitz means the city’s collection of German art nouveau architecture couldn’t look more unusually placed along the Namibian coastline. This quirkiness is what gives the destination its charm. See gangs of playful penguins skipping across the waves, pink flamingos wading by the coast, and dolphins leaping into the air near Penguin Island and Seal Island.

Home to a beautiful lagoon, washed pale pink by a colony of resident flamingos, Walvis Bay is a colourful African call, where you can meet some of the continent’s most flamboyant wildlife. A small Namibian city on the Atlantic coast of southern Africa, the city takes its name from Whale Bay – which gives a clue as to the wonderful wildlife watching opportunities available here. The deep-water blossoms with rich levels of plankton, drawing curious marine mammals in large numbers to feast.

Home to a beautiful lagoon, washed pale pink by a colony of resident flamingos, Walvis Bay is a colourful African call, where you can meet some of the continent’s most flamboyant wildlife. A small Namibian city on the Atlantic coast of southern Africa, the city takes its name from Whale Bay – which gives a clue as to the wonderful wildlife watching opportunities available here. The deep-water blossoms with rich levels of plankton, drawing curious marine mammals in large numbers to feast.

Port Elizabeth is the third largest port and the fifth largest city in South Africa. The center is spread over steep hills overlooking Algoa Bay. Except for some interesting historical architecture, 21st-century Port Elizabeth, or PE as it is commonly known, has few attractions of note. To compensate, the town is surrounded by charming countryside; it bills itself as the Friendly City. Its origins go back to the site of Fort Frederick around which settlers from Britain established Port Elizabeth in 1820.

Port Elizabeth is the third largest port and the fifth largest city in South Africa. The center is spread over steep hills overlooking Algoa Bay. Except for some interesting historical architecture, 21st-century Port Elizabeth, or PE as it is commonly known, has few attractions of note. To compensate, the town is surrounded by charming countryside; it bills itself as the Friendly City. Its origins go back to the site of Fort Frederick around which settlers from Britain established Port Elizabeth in 1820.

As South Africa’s only large river and sea port, East London is important for the export of citrus fruit, mineral ores and wool. A considerable amount of goods are imported here as well. The first documented vessel to arrive in these waters was in 1688 while searching for survivors of a shipwreck. In 1848, a proclamation annexed the area to the Cape Colony. Today, East London serves as the area’s commercial centre and is a bustling town with a population of approximately 175,000. The town’s small museum contains the world’s only surviving egg of the extinct dodo bird, as well as a mounted coelacanth caught near East London in 1938, a fish thought to be extinct.

Richards Bay was named after Frederick William Richards of the British Royal Navy. When he learned of the conflict the English experienced in Zululand, Richards arrived with 250 men in support of his fellow countrymen. He also made a survey of the coast in 1879. In 1906, development of the area got underway with the founding of the Zululand Fisheries and the first ox wagon trek to the town of Empangeni. In 1928, Richards Bay got a hotel and a store, from which it gradually developed into the economic center of Northern Kwazulu-Natal. A new deep-water port inaugurated in 1976 is the second largest port in the country after Durban. In its wake, a number of large and small industries, hotels, shops and restaurants have sprung up, causing the town to develop at a record-breaking pace. The most important attractions however are found outside Richards Bay in the game reserves and cultural villages. For many visitors Zululand represents some of the “real” Africa, an area that covers much of central Kwazulu-Natal, including the port of Richard’s Bay and the adjacent Hluhluwe Game Park. The region is dominated by the Zulu tribe; their customs, historical traditions and culture are evident throughout the region. The name Zulu derives from an early chief, whose descendants were called aba-kwa Zulu, or people of Zulu. Their capital is Ulundi, located north of the Tugela River. Much of Zululand comprises a scenic, hilly interior plus some coastal areas, where it is usually hot and humid.

The great natural harbor of Port Natal, on whose shores the city of Durban now stands, was thought by early Portuguese navigators to be a lagoon at the mouth of a large river. They called the harbor Rio de Natal (Christmas River), as its discovery fell on Christmas Day in 1497. The name Durban was acquired in 1843 when Port Natal was renamed for Sir Benjamin D’Urban, the Cape governor who had ordered the British annexation of Natal. Durban became a municipality in 1854 and a city in 1935. Today it is one of the principal cargo ports on the African continent, a center for industry and a major holiday resort. With a population of almost one million people, Durban is a bustling, subtropical city with a warm, more often hot and sultry climate that favors the luxuriant growth of trees and gardens. It is considered to be the Asian capital of South Africa with a massive Indian population. While the downtown area is predominantly Muslim, Hindu Durban lies to the north of the city center. It was here in the Phoenix Park Settlement that Mahatma Gandhi set up his retreat center in 1903, from where moral support was drawn for the Indian demonstrations of 1913. Durban’s 21st-century economy can largely be credited to the immense amount of cargo passing through its huge port, as well as to the thousands of Transvaal holiday makers who, since the 1930s, have turned the city’s beachfront into a popular playground. Its most dominant landmark is the handsome Grey Street Mosque, the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

Sprawling across endless, staggeringly blue coastline, and watched over by the iconic plane of Table Mountain, Cape Town is without doubt one of the world’s most beautiful cities. A blend of spectacular mountain scenery, multiculturalism and relaxed ocean charm awaits in the Mother City, where you can venture out to rolling vineyards, dine in laid back sea suburbs, or spend days exploring cool urban culture. Cape Town’s natural splendour fully reveals itself as the cable car rears sharply to the top of Table Mountain. From the summit, 3,500 feet above sea level, you can let the scale of the panoramic vistas of the city rolling down towards the ocean wash over you. Another heavenly perspective waits at the top of Lion’s Head’s tapering peak. A sharp hike and an early start is required, but the views of the morning sun painting Table Mountain honey-gold are some of Cape Town’s finest. Cape Town’s glorious sunshine and inviting blue rollers can be a little deceiving – these oceans are anything but warm at times, with nothing between the peninsula’s end and Antarctica’s icy chill. This cool water has upsides though, bringing a colony of adorably cute African penguins to Boulders Beach. Boarded walkways offer the perfect vantage point to see the cute creatures dipping into the sea and lounging in the sun. Nearby, journey to the end of Africa at the Cape of Good Hope, where you can stand at the bottom of this mighty continent, watching out over the merging waves of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Cape Town’s beauty is counterpointed by the ominous island form, which sits four miles offshore from the bustling restaurants and lazy seals of the lively V&A Waterfront. A living history lesson, you can sail in the ships that transported prisoners out to Robben Island, before a former prisoner tells of the traumas of life on this offshore prison. Your guide will show you the cramped cells, and render Mandela’s long walk to freedom in heartbreaking, visceral clarity.