An insider’s guide to the World Cup cities
Cape Town
England play their second match in the World Cup at the spanking new Green Point Stadium in Cape Town, which looks like an enormous flying saucer at the foot of Table Mountain. There can be few more spectacular backdrops for football anywhere.
Cape Town differs from the rest of South Africa, with fewer crime problems than in Johannesburg and a different ethnic mix: about 31 per cent of locals are black Africans, while the national average is just below 80 per cent. While there are pockets of extreme wealth, especially along the coast towards Camps Bay, there are also vast, poverty-stricken townships. A township tour is a must (see below), as is a drive along the coast to Cape Point and a visit to one of the many fine vineyards.
Football fans will probably congregate at the lively bars and clubs along Long Street, or at the bars and restaurants in the modern, well-to-do V&A Waterfront.
Travellers’ tip It can be wet and cold with maximum temperatures in June and July of about 18C and lows of 7C, so take a jumper and a rain jacket.
Where to eat and drink
The Green Dolphin
Popular jazz venue with a buzzy atmosphere in an old brick building on the V&A Waterfront. The menu has a seafood bent and includes mussels, clam chowder, tempura prawns, crayfish and calamari. Three courses for about £20 (00 27 21 421 7471, dining-out.co.za).
Den Anker
Terrific Belgian restaurant overlooking the harbour and Table Mountain on the V&A Waterfront. There’s a good selection of local wines at about £1.50 a glass, and Belgian beers. Three courses about £22 (00 27 21 419 0249, denanker.co.za).
Hildebrand
Down-to-earth Italian restaurant with cheap prices and no-nonsense service. There’s a large terrace overlooking the ferries that go to Robben Island. Three courses about £15 (00 27 21 425 3385, hildebrand.co.za).
The Kirstenbosch Tea Rooms
Just inside the entrance to the beautiful Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in a quaint building, and offering simple salads, sandwiches, fish ’n’ chips and burgers in pleasant surroundings. Three courses about £18 (00 27 21 797 4883, www.sanbi.org).
Long Street Café
A good choice for a relaxed meal in the heart of the city centre, close to the antique shops and quirky retro clothes shops. Menu includes pizzas, burgers, sandwiches and omelettes. The café doubles as a bar, and is a popular place to watch live sport. Dishes are about £6 each (00 27 21 424 2464, dining-out.co.za).
Kauai
This is a cool, very good value, fast-food chain that serves sandwiches, salads and burgers — there’s a particularly well-located branch on the beach just outside the city on Camps Bay. Sandwiches and wraps — good food for fans on the move. About £3 for a sandwich and £2 for a smoothie (www.kauai.co.za).
What to do
- Go up Table Mountain (tablemountain.net), £6.50 one-way, to see Cape Town from above. Best to go early to avoid crowds.
-Take a tour of Robben Island (robben-island.org.za), £17 for a four-hour tour of the island on which Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in captivity. Book well in advance on the internet.
- Visit the Cape of Good Hope (tmnp.co.za), where the Cape Peninsula juts out into the Atlantic, entrance £6.50 — beautiful views and unspoilt landscapes.
- Try wine-tasting at Groot Constantia (grootconstantia.co.za), in Constantia, a short drive from the V&A Waterfront — £2.50 to taste five wines at one of South Africa’s oldest and most beautiful vineyards.
- Do not miss the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden (www.sanbi.org), entrance £3 — terrific for all the unusual southern hemisphere plants.
- Go on a township tour offered by Cape Capers (tourcapers.co.za), £30 for half a day. This takes in Langa township and is an eye-opening insight into life beyond the tourist sights. Money goes directly to the communities.
Places to stay
Almost every hotel in Johannesburg is fully booked (so best to try one of the tour operators listed below for rooms in or near the city). There are still some places in Cape Town — but they aren’t cheap.
Table Bay Hotel
Grand, traditional-style hotel bang in the centre of the V&A Waterfront. Rooms are elegantly decorated and there’s a rooftop pool and spa. B&B doubles from £670, three nights minimum booking (00 27 21 406 5000, suninternational.com).
Cape Grace
Also on the waterfront, Cape Grace is set aside from the malls on a quay and has a glamorous interior. There’s a chi-chi pool and a terrace bar (best to book evening tables in advance), with terrific views of Table Mountain. B&B doubles from £495 (00 27 21 410 7100, capegrace.com).
One&Only Cape Town
With its Gordon Ramsay Maze restaurant and its Nobu sushi, the One&Only is perhaps the trendiest of the hotels by the waterfront. There’s a cool central bar serving cocktails and a spa on a mini-island, with steam rooms and hot tubs and treatment rooms. Doubles from £392 (00 27 21 431 5888, oneandonlyresorts.com).
Mount Nelson
A five-star spa hotel on the foothills of Table Mountain, offering fine views of the city below and the mountain looming above. The terrace bar is popular for sundowners and has a colonial feel. Doubles from £320 (00 27 21 483 1000, mountnelson.co.za).
15 on Orange
A new design hotel in the city centre, within walking distance of the National Gallery and the quirky shops on Long Street. Rooms are slick and comfortable. Doubles from £260 (00 27 21 469 8000, 15onorange.com).
The Grand Daddy Hotel
This is a funky hotel on Long Street with quirky modern bedrooms and, most bizarrely, a mini trailer park of shiny chrome Airstream trailers that double as suites on the roof. Each is decorated differently, in jazzy, kitschy styles. Doubles from £175 (00 27 21 424 7247, granddaddy.co.za)
Long Street Backpackers
For cheap and very cheerful, this hostel fits the bill, just along the road from the Grand Daddy in the heart of all the bars and restaurants on Long Street. There are dorms with five single beds in each, as well as private rooms. The downstairs bar is lively and there are big balconies with sofas overlooking the street (a fun nightclub called Mama Africa is opposite). Dorm beds from £22, but very limited space now (00 27 21 4230615, longstreetbackpackers.co.za).
Where to watch the games
If you don’t have tickets to the games at the fabulous new Green Point Stadium, there is a screen showing the matches in the amphitheatre at the V&A Waterfront. Otherwise you are best off going to one of the many bars with screens on Long Street or at the Waterfront.
Getting around
It is almost essential to hire a car if you want to explore the Cape area properly. Holiday Autos (holidayautos.co.uk) has a week’s rental from £118, with easy pick-up from the airport. For getting around at night after a drink, Rikkis (0861 745547, rikkis.co.za) has fares around the city centre from about £3. Elite Taxis (021 447 9003, elitetaxis.co.za) is also recommended by the local tourist office.
Johannesburg
Poor old Johannesburg — few places on Earth get such a bum rap. There’s no denying that the city of gold has a disturbingly high crime rate, but it’s not the hell-hole of urban legend. It’s worth remembering that most front-page- headlining acts take place in areas a tourist would never go to. Would you visit New York and head straight from JFK to the dodgiest parts of the Bronx or step off the Eurostar at Gare du Nord and mooch around the 20th arrondissement in Paris?
Here’s the thing about Jo’burg — aka Jozi or Egoli — that will truly shock you: it’s a fantastically fun metropolis, with an energetic vibe, a buzzing arts scene, heaps to see and do, friendly people, great restaurants, bars, cafes and clubs. Use common sense, be cautious, not paranoid, and use a local guide and you too will come away with a positive image of Africa’s most cosmopolitan city.
Where to eat and drink
The Butcher Shop & Grill
South Africans are big on steak — braaing (barbecuing) is more a religion than a culinary way of life and here you get cuts of meat the size of a Springbok prop (00 27 11 784 8676, thebutchershop.co.za).
Casa da Galinha
Portuguese-Mozambican influences, with live music most nights (00 27 11 803 9691, corner First Avenue/Rivonia Road, Morningside).
Brown’s of Rivonia
A wide range of affordable meat and fish dishes; two prime ostrich fillets cost only £13.50 (00 27 11 803 7533, browns.co.za).
Chief’s Boma
It’s a buffet, but an upmarket one and a carnivore’s dream. On Thursdays and Fridays there’s a special that costs R155 (£14) for two people excluding drinks (00 27 11 840 6600, indabahotel.co.za).
The Codfather
As you’d guess, a large selection of fish (00 27 11 803 2077, corner First Avenue/Rivonia Road, Morningside).
Gramadoelas
Eclectic and eccentric, this place mixes Malay and African influences (00 27 11 838 6960, gramadoelas.co.za).
Go for an evening of township jazz. Boyang Gape can organise a spin round some of Soweto’s most happening joints from £90pp (min three) which includes transport, guiding and some drinks (00 27 11 465 5053, boyanggape.co.za).
Areas for decent bar and restaurant hopping include 7th St in Melville for a studenty vibe, Melrose Arch, Rosebank, and 4th Ave in Parkhurst.
What to do
- Township tours needn’t be voyeuristic if you go with an operator based there, and when money is going back into the local community. Try the father and son-run JMT Tours (083 307 6038).
- Gold Reef City This theme park has rollercoasters and a casino, but the real draw is the chance to go 200m underground to see what it’s like down one of the city’s old goldmine shafts (00 27 11 248 6800, www.goldreefcity.co.za).
- Apartheid Museum Make sense of South Africa today by exploring its troubled past here. A must see (00 27 11 309 4700, www.apartheidmuseum.org).
-Cradle of Humankind If you’ve looked up your family tree and felt that half your family was still in it, come here to see where it all began. This is where some of our earliest ancestors (4 million years old) were found (00 27 14 577 9000, maropeng.co.za).
-Constitution Hill Home of the constitutional court, but also to the old prison where thousands were detained during the apartheid era (00 27 11 381 3100, www.constitutionhill.org.za).
-Orlando Cooling Towers If the adrenalin rush of a penalty shoot-out is not enough, come here to bungee between the two cooling towers of a disused power station. You can even jump inside them (00 27 12 345-5114, orlandotowers.co.za).
Where to watch the games
Three fan parks will be set up where ticketless crowds will be able to watch matches — see joburg.org.za for more information. The Montecasino complex in Fourways (montecasino.co.za) will show games on a huge outdoor screen.
Getting around
Car hire Despite government-funded public transport projects, the car is king in Joburg. If you hire one (holidayautos.co.uk), get one with sat-nav (£5 per day extra). Joburg’s freeways have two speeds — gridlock, and rollercoaster fast, not helped by minibus taxis cutting in from all sides.
Train and bus Gautrain (gautrain.co.za) is the new light rail system. Its most tourist-friendly line is the one linking the airport with Sandton. A new bus system is being rolled out too — details at reavaya.org.za.
Taxis have to be prebooked and are cost-effective when shared. Try Corporate Cabs (00 27 11 771 2200), Rose Taxis (00 27 11 403 0000), Safe Cab (0861 665566) and SA Cab (00 27 44 382 0444).
Further info: southafrica2010.org, fifa.com/worldcup, southafrica.net
Tom Chesshyre travelled to Cape Town with ITC Classics (01244 355527, itcclassics.co.uk), which offers five nights at the Table Bay Hotel from £1,580pp, flights and transfers included. BA (ba.com) has flights from £619.
Will Hide travelled to Johannesburg with Virgin Holidays (0844 5573859, virginholidays.co.uk), which offers flights and five nights’ B&B from £839pp.
Prices quoted here are for travel outside the World Cup period.
Need to know
Getting there Thomson Sport (0845 1212018, thomsonsport.com) has five-night trips watching one of the group qualifying matches from £2,537; four-star hotel, tickets and flights included.
Thomas Cook (020-8739 2360, thomascooksport.com) has a 17-night trip covering all three England group games leaving on June 8 from £4,399; flights, tickets, transfers and four-star hotels included. It also has a four-night trip for the England-Slovenia game in Port Elizabeth leaving on June 20 from £1,597.
BAC Sports (020-7456 7100, www.bacsport.co.uk) offers tickets to the opening England game from £3,250, with three nights in a four-star hotel in Sun City and flights to Johannesburg.
Sportsworld (01235 555844, sportsworld.co.uk) has three-night trips with tickets and flights from £2,200, while Keith Prowse (0845 1254880, keithprowse.co.uk) has 19-day tours leaving on June 8 for all three England qualifiers from £4,495.
Trailfinders (0845 0505892, trailfinders.com) has return BA flights to Cape Town during the World Cup from £825, and return SAA flights to Johannesburg from £849.
All prices were correct as we went to press