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In this beautiful city even transient visitors can't help but devote a few million brain cells to storing images of its grandeur: its striking Table Mountain backdrop, its glorious beaches and enchanting vineyards, its rugged landscapes and its strange and wonderful plants and animals.

Cape Town is famed for its hospitality: its mix of trendy establishments matches up favourably any other cosmopolitan centre. There's a lively cultural scene, particularly when it comes to music, which seems to pervade every corner of the city. The general ambience is open-minded and relaxed.

Hardly a week goes by in Cape Town without some event or celebration happening somewhere in the city and its immediate surroundings, from outdoor arts performances in January to Carols by Candlelight in the Company's Gardens in time for Christmas.

Although the weather is not a huge influence when choosing dates to visit Cape Town, it can get pretty cold and wet in winter. One of the Cape's most characteristic climactic phenomena is the famous Cape Doctor, a southeasterly wind that buffets the Cape and lays Table Mountain's famous 'tablecloth' (a layer of cloud that covers the City Bowl). It can be a welcome breeze in summer, but it can also be a wild gale, particularly in spring. When it really blows you know you're clinging to a peninsula at the southern end of Africa, and there's nothing between you and Antarctica.