South Africa and its Mother City of Cape Town with its surrounding neighbourhoods continue to prove why you should be enjoying a holiday here. Last week the country and one of its major cities took top spots in two popular online travel magazines!

If you remember, Cape Town has enjoyed similar attention in past years. In 2014, the New York Times gave the top spot of 52 cities to visit in the world to this capital of the Western Cape while readers of the Telegraph voted the city as the best place in all the world for a city break. In that same year, Cape Town was the World Design Capital, showcasing the diverse local talent from the neighbourhoods and suburbs of the Mother City.

In 2015, National Geographic awarded the second spot on their top 10 beach cities in the world to Clifton while the International Garden Tourism Network named Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens as the International Garden of the Year.

Now to the present. In the 2015/2016 Telegraph Travel Awards, readers named Cape Town as the best city in the world, for the fourth consecutive year! That put them ahead of the likes of famous cities such as Vancouver and Venice. In the best country category, South Africa came third, with New Zealand and Maldives taking first and second place respectively. This country and city must be doing something right.

That’s not all. The popular traveller magazine, Condé Nast, hosted their famous Reader’s Choice Awards recently, where their readers voted for their favourite food city out of 15, and Cape Town came out on top! Other contenders that filled the lower rankings included London, Singapore and Rio de Janeiro.  This is a superb improvement over last year, where Cape Town made it to number 3 on Condé Nast’s World’s Best Food Cities list. While featuring on this list, the traveller magazine made sure to highlight some of the Mother City’s attractions. You could be indulging in a sundowner at the top of the iconic Table Mountain, exploring the options of the sensational tapas-inspired menu at the Pot Luck Club in Woodstock or treating yourself to delicious bite-sized meals at the popular Neighbourgoods Market, also in Woodstock. Then, there are the contemporary dishes at the wonderful Test Kitchen in Cape Town, the casual atmosphere of the fish-and-chips treasure of Kalky’s in Kalk Bay, and the original Gin Bar in Cape Town, where patrons can get a refreshing taste experience with blends of small-batch spirits accentuated by the flavour of the famous local flora of the Western Cape, fynbos.

What Condé Nast offered regarding the Mother City is actually just a snippet of what you can get up to in and around Cape Town, and it certainly does not give you the whole picture. In just the city centre itself, various commercial and unique restaurants, cafés, bars and stores are available, ensuring you could spend days discovering them all. You could be checking out the collection situated on Long Street, or those found on Loop Street or even those at St. George’s Mall. These are only some of the streets where you can indulge in a dining experience that suits your wants and needs. Many of these establishments come highly rated and recommended and cater to visitors from anywhere on earth with various local and international cultures influencing the dishes.

If the idea of an adventure exploring these eateries appeals to you, you’re only getting started with those offered in the city centre. Many of the surrounding neighbourhoods and suburbs of Cape Town are preferred bases for accommodation simply because of the high concentration of eating establishments they offer, as well as for other exciting and leisurely attractions.

As an alternative and superb counter to these many venues, various tours and activities are available throughout the various suburbs of Cape Town as well as within the city itself. For the thrill seekers, you could try surfing at the beaches of Muizenberg, Big Bay and Llandudno. Some of these beaches are additionally ideal for kite surfing, one of the activities which made this region a top venue for various tournaments. Then, of course, you could try paragliding from the top of the various hills and mountains in and around Cape Town, which also offer superb hiking trails, catering to various levels of fitness and experience.

For those just wanting to relax, there is sunbathing at the various beaches and public pools in the coastal areas surrounding the Mother City while art lovers can spend time at various galleries. Anyone interested in the history of these areas will delight in what these historically rich areas offer, including architecture from the colonial parts of the city’s past while numerous museums tell stories of the different eras of Cape Town and South Africa.

Again, all this just offers a taste of what you can do while visiting either Cape Town or one of its suburbs and neighbourhoods. If you really want to discover all that the Mother City and its many areas can offer you, book accommodation here and experience it all for yourself!