subject: Cape Town; The gateway to Africa [print this page] Cape Town; The gateway to Africa
There are few places in the world that offer first world luxury for third world prices on the doorstep of some of the most sought after natural beauty on the planet. Cape Town is however one of those places. Considered by tourists to be the modern gateway to Africa it is the historical gateway to sub-Saharan Africa. The place where Europeans first made their permanent mark on Southern Africa has lost very little of it colonial history and charm while developing a unique African identity of its own. The first world facilities available today that make Cape Town such a popular tourist spot are in reality a sad throw back from apartheid. The Group areas act forced certain ethnic groups onto the poorly serviced outskirts of the city and poured funding and development into the white inner city and suburbs. The effects of this are still visible today and any tourist arriving via the Cape Town international airport is made only to aware of this chapter of our history as they approach the city on the N2 which is today hemmed in by shanty towns.
For the overseas visitor though Cape Town offers everything one would expect from visiting any of the major cities anywhere in the world, world class hotels and restaurants for a truly luxurious experience as well as mid-level self-catering accommodation and B&B's to back packers dormitories. There are certain nuances that will constantly remind you that you are indeed in Africa, if you choose to use the busses or trains you will find that the numbers, that in any other country would indicate a time of arrival or departure, are actually just there as way of keeping an accurate record of how long you have been waiting for.
If you're visiting from overseas you have almost certainly been warned endlessly about the crime and the dangers of wandering the streets of Cape Town without some form of chaperone or weapon. This is for the most part nonsense, in fact crimes against tourists is down significantly and most of the fear is created by one or two stories that the foreign press get hold of. This is not to say you should not be careful, you should be as careful as you would be anywhere else in the world if walking at night with money a passport and possibly a camera, this is called common sense.
What makes the world class facilities and first world luxury of Cape Town so special is that the city sits at the base of one of the great natural beauties of the world, Table Mountain. Considering this alongside the peninsula which provides some of the most beautiful and photographed coastline in the world and it is easy to see why tourist flock to the city every summer.
It is however not just the city itself that attracts visitors, it is the proximity to some of the best wildlife viewing in the country. From Cape Town one is only a short car journey from the Addo Elephant Park which has in recent years become a world class game reserve. It is now home to the big five and is aiming to become the first park in the world that will have the big seven as it plans to extend into a marine reserve.
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