Imaging the future for a second. As generations continue to intermingle cultures, races, languages, religions, you’ll get a wide range of skin colors and everything that comes from a mix of cultures. Downtown Cape Town is this future I imagine.

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Considering, I’m mixed myself I love seeing a wide range of skin colors. No wonder they call it the rainbow nation. It’s a rainbow of people with a diverse range of colors and ethnicities. I personally, have never seen an intermixed society like this. From the food to the languages, it’s impressive.

Now, I’m not going to pretend I know anything about racial politics in South Africa considering this is just such a short trip. With that said South Africa has 11 national languages. Afrikaans and English is just two of those languages.

Cape Town, The Western Cape

The province of the Western Cape, is huge. Think of it as the size of California. If you’re from California, you probably know that doing certain things, or driving between certain places can take hours. That Western Cape is like that.

I spent the main part of this trip in Downtown Cape Town. From the many areas I visited in the province, downtown is my favorite.

If you’re planning to visit Cape Town South Africa in the near future, I want to paint a picture of what you should expect. I also want to give you some tips on what you might need to prepare for.

Downtown Cape Town is a giant city. It’s like visiting any big city in the United States. You have high rises, clusters of buildings upon buildings. There are many food and bars to choose from. People walk about their business day in and day out. The traffic is bad. There’s no shortage of hustle and bustle in the Downtown Area. Apart from all the man-buns I saw, I’m smitten. 

I stayed in the Hilton, which is the only Hilton in the downtown area. It’s also directly across the street from the historic district of Downtown.

From here you can venture to Bo-Kaap and see the old Dutch colony. It’s colorful and fantastic. Although, it’s a lot smaller than I anticipated. I walked the entire length in a couple of minutes. Nevertheless, I made my way around and took some excellent images.

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This part of town is also the Muslim quarter. This means they don’t sever pork in the nearby restaurants, including my hotel. Alcoholic beverages must be concealed. You also hear the call to prayer about 5 times a day. It makes for a pretty atmospheric stay.

To make things better, you have the awe-inspiring and breathtaking Table Mountain in sight. It’s love at first sight for nature lovers.

Table Mountain is so high it touches the clouds. One of many interesting facts about Table Mountain is the descending clouds and fog into the city. It’s weird and almost science-fiction in nature. They call it the Table Cloth. It’s beautiful to say the least.

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Is Downtown Cape Town Dangerous?

This is a tough one because I’m from Los Angeles which I firmly believe is a dangerous city. If you’re from LA or even San Francisco, then I would say, it’s just as dangerous as either city.

Most locals will tell you to get an Uber instead of walking back to your hotel. Although, from experience, and as a person of color, I was left alone. Only because I walked around with my partner (who is white) locals considered us tourists. In fact, two nights in a row, homeless men followed us begging us for money or food. They literally followed us to our hotel, block after block.

When I walked on my own, they all greeted me in the traditional Muslim way, al salama lakum.

The homeless are aggressive but this behavior is seen in San Francisco. Leaving items in a rental car can guarantee your car get broken into. Something we overheard a tourist complain about. She accused the hotel for the break in, even though the hotel kindly informed her that all personal belongings should be taken out of the vehicle.

With all of this in mind, it’s imperative to be street smart. Walking around with a group instead of alone. Sensing when a street may not be safe. You wouldn’t walk around Los Angeles Skid Row district alone at night would you?

Mind you this is only the Downtown Cape Town area. The research I found before arriving here suggested that certain neighborhoods are filled with gang members and a tourist must not enter. Although, this makes sense I wouldn’t think tourists will go out of the way to enter these neighborhood which are far from the tourist areas anyway.

Cape Town also has a huge wealth gap, like Brazil. There are shanty town located on the outskirts of Downtown. These areas are also not for tourists.

CHECK OUT THE VLOG I MADE OF MY FIRST DAY IN CAPE TOWN!

The Cuisine 

I know that African food is tasty. I’ve tasted several African dishes in The States. I’ve ventured into the African neighborhood in Berlin to find amazing African food.

Although, food in Africa is a FREAKING game changer! It’s so incredible the United States cannot compete. The US has lost a few notches in the culinary world from this trip.

You must be an adventurous eater when coming here. To start, Africa has animals we don’t have in The States. If we do have them, they’re considered high-end and are too expensive to try.

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I ate at Mama Africa, an authentic African restaurant in the heart of Downtown Cape Town with several types of meats. This place is an absolute must.

I tried their ostrich and Kudu meat. Mind you, I had no idea what Kudu was before eating it. I also had a springbok sandwich. Everything is tender and made to perfection. It’s the most amazing set of meats I’ve ever tasted.

They also had Bobotie, a mix of ground springbok and egg which is fantastic. Seriously try it all. 

There is plenty more to eat. From Crocodile, to many lamb preparations, but these are the ones I tried and recommend.

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Apart from authentic African food, Downtown Cape Town literally has everything you can find in The States. From Italian food to Indian cuisine. If you’re not an adventurous eater, you can eat all the westernized hamburgers you want.

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It all depends on how you vacation.

To top if all off, everything is super cheap. The USD is 1 to about 14 Rand. Don’t be alarmed at the high number, I assure you, it’s still cheaper than anything you’ll find back home.

Cape Town Tourism

Although Downtown Cape Town is pretty big, it’s still a compact city. However, since its right in the center you can find your way to other parts of town quickly.

If you’re in the mood for a shopping spree or just a little dinner by the water front, you can head to the V&A Waterfront. It’s a giant tourist destination… or trap.

The mall is also there and I needed shorts. Considering, I don’t enjoy large crowds I wasn’t impressed. However, there are many shops and restaurants here, you can make a nice evening out of it.

Camps Bay, or Cape Towns great beach town is only an 8 minutes Uber ride away. It makes for a great day trip or weekend getaway.

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Table Mountain is up the road as well.

If you’re looking for day trips from here, you can head to Boulders Beach to see the penguins. You can head to the Cape of Good Hope to see the edge of the world and the baboons play in their natural habitat. Or, you can drive to wine-country and have yourself a day of relaxing and sipping some amazing Southern Hemisphere wines.

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Another thing I recommend doing is buying and supporting the local eateries and vendors. You’ll give money to the locals that need it most and you’ll help their economy flourish.

You’ll find chains like McDonals and KFC. Although, I didn’t see too many American chains, I chose to eat from smaller vendors, kiosks, restaurants, that I’d never heard of. I also chose to drink alcohols made in South Africa.

Try their beer. It’s called The Black Label. I also tried the local Brandy’s.

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Being a responsible tourist is very important.

Speaking of Responsible Tourism

One MAJOR thing you should be aware of is their water crisis. If you’re from LA and/or California you might be aware of the California water crisis. However, since the Western Cape is within the same latitude and longitude as California (only upside down) they have the exact same weather and weather patterns. This also means, they have a water crisis like California.

I should mention, as I write this California has had more rain in the last couple of weeks and have officially declared the water crisis to be over.

Cape Town, however is still in danger. As of last summer they were about to close the taps to around a million homes. Since then it’s rained some and things are slightly better.

Each hotel informed us of the water crisis. At the most extreme, we had to take 30 second showers to avoid using too much water.

In addition to this, the residents of Cape Town are required to only use a few gallons per person per household. They must now pick up their water from designated areas around town.

This is very severe and if there is any sign that global warming is a real danger, it’s this, right here. California just got lucky. But luck is a fickle bitch. She may not be on our side next time.

Cape Town, South Africa is now considered the first westernized part of the world to officially run out of water. If that doesn’t scare you, I’m not sure what will.

Let Me Break It Down For You:

Cape Town South Africa is a destination like no other.

Its westernized and big, like any US city.

Try the springbok, the kudu and the ostrich.

Eat at Mama Africas.

Be street smart. It’s as safe as LA or even San Francisco— Kudos if you know what that means.

Downtown Cape Town is hustle and bustle central.

It’s a mix of people, and cultures, languages and races like I’ve never seen before.

The tap water is also safe to drink although they have a severe water drought at the moment. Just buy bottled water.

Do I recommend Cape Town? Hell yeah! Although, this wasn’t a gay trip, I can tell you they do have a gay scene. This place is a perfect getaway for everyone looking for a unique place with natural occurring phenomenon where animals run in the wild like a dream come true. Cape Town is that destination that needs to be on your list. Sometimes going back to mama Africa will inspire you and give you the foresight for your own future.

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