On a cloudless day final April, Cape City seemed from above like a large sandstone amphitheater. A colossal, flat-topped mountain tumbled steeply down towards the seashores to kind a bowl by which town lay. It was autumn within the Southern Hemisphere, however from a helicopter, the ocean seemed nearly Hawaiian—turquoise and deep sapphire, roiling with sharks and humpback whales. The pearly beachfront inns, too, might need been on the coast of Maui, however for the swooping, elliptical soccer stadium close by, an icon of town because it was constructed for the 2010 World Cup.

Seen from even farther afield—within the pages of historical past books, say—Cape Town can appear a veritable Ultima Thule, a bountiful Eden on the southernmost tip of South Africa, the place merchants on the spice route stopped to revictualize their ships midway between Europe and Asia. The town sits on a crescent-shaped cove, with the Cape of Good Hope extending towards the antipodal south—which makes for the disorienting expertise of being on the southern tip of Africa and, if you’re going through the marina, watching the solar set to your left. 

Perceptions in South Africa, and perceptions of South Africa, turned a sort of deal with the a number of visits I made to the nation throughout an prolonged journey across the continent within the spring of final 12 months. Three many years after its first democratic elections, the nation was making ready for what felt like a brand new paradigm shift, a nationwide election that introduced with it a cautious optimism. Everybody I spoke with, from retirees to younger individuals born post-apartheid, was warily making ready to maneuver on from the African Nationwide Congress, the get together of Nelson Mandela, and hoping for extra progress and accountability from their authorities. (As of this writing, the brand new coalition, the primary within the nation’s historical past, appears to be business-friendly, encouraging international funding—although questions stay about the way it will use its mandate to deal with excessive unemployment and financial disparity.)

After all, it takes a great deal of optimism to maneuver a rustic previous the established order, and a confidence that the longer term may be higher than the current, unconfined by the previous. In Cape City, in Johannesburg, in Pretoria, the artifacts and legacies of lots of of years of oppression, colonialism, and apartheid are nonetheless on show. However in every single place I went in South Africa there was additionally a bloom of satisfaction, within the nation’s tradition, its delicacies and hospitality, its panorama and seashores and pure wonders—and in its positioning on the worldwide stage. 

Cultural narrative and perspective are necessary, however neither one is everlasting. Someday I sat in a sublime suite on the newly renovated Cape Grace, a grand red-brick French classical constructing now managed by Fairmont Accommodations, searching over the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront marina and watching seals sunbathe on the docks beneath. I fantasized about what would occur if, say, successful Netflix present have been set there—possibly a Miami Vice–type sequence filmed alongside the harbor and the string of miraculous seashores round Cape City. What wouldn’t it do to South Africa’s tourism business if the world have been to see the nation in all its glamour and marvel, its romance and riches? 

If the Cape City projected by journey magazines is a Mentos-colored metropolis by the ocean, the powdery-pink Mount Nelson, a Belmond Resort, was the proper place from which to expertise it. Behind a gate of white classical pillars and down an avenue lined with palm timber, the Mount Nelson is a grand Victorian wedding ceremony cake of a constructing, with pewter-colored shutters and wrought-iron balconies giving out onto inexperienced lawns. At breakfast overlooking the pool, or on the beloved excessive tea, girls who seemed a bit like Vanessa Redgrave deliberate or recounted their adventures round city. Within the night, aperitifs arrived with varied varieties of biltong whereas the shoulders of Desk Mountain behind the lodge cottages light right into a dusty mauve. 

Wandering out of the lodge towards the harbor, previous the thorny acacias that border the sidewalk, I discovered retailers and eating places that wouldn’t be misplaced in Miami or Melbourne, with generically hip names (Gipsy Rabbit, Black Betty). Not that anybody would ever confuse Cape City for anyplace else. In entrance of the red-and-white-brick Victorian Athletic Membership restaurant I noticed a souped-up previous Land Cruiser, dusty from a drive via the bush, idling beside a gold Lamborghini. Each noontime, a cannon shot rings out from Sign Hill, above the Crayola-colored buildings of Bo-Kaap, the neighborhood settled by slaves, exiles, and refugees from Malaysia and Indonesia that’s house to the oldest mosque within the nation. On this, the Mom Metropolis—so referred to as as a result of it was the primary South African settlement of the Dutch East India Buying and selling Firm—the maritime and colonial historical past is obvious in every single place. 

As I drove east from town, towards the wine nation of Stellenbosch—partially on a freeway referred to as Settlers Method—a protracted parade of pine timber was quickly joined by dense thickets of eucalyptus. Olive timber gathered in groves, and distant, Misplaced World–trying mountains got here into focus. I used to be impressed by their mild, human scale. From the highway, they seemed surprising, taking pictures straight up like one thing out of science fiction, however additionally they gave me an unimaginable sense of consolation, of grounding and orientation. I drove up a steep sandstone escarpment, alongside which the spiny, mollusk-like protea flower was blooming in lavender and yellow. Then, instantly, I used to be surrounded by vineyards.

The primary road of Stellenbosch is a bit like Napa Valley—if Napa Valley have been set in the identical world as The Lord of the Rings—and lined with quaint, cottage-like constructions promoting luxurious items. The church buildings of Stellenbosch are blinding-white affairs within the colonial Cape Dutch type. So too are the buildings at Babylonstoren. The brainchild of businessman Koos Bekker and former journal editor Karen Roos—who additionally created the Newt resort in Somerset, England—Babylonstoren is a wildly beloved lodge, farm stand, and vineyard within the Franschhoek wine valley. (It’s named after a hill on the property that was thought to appear like the tower of Babel.)

I’m undecided the place my obsession with biltong—or, certainly, with Cape wines—began, nevertheless it actually reached its apogee at Babylonstoren. The resort’s three eating places are rightly happy with their beef, which is sourced from its small herd of Chianina cattle—a large, muscular Italian breed that seemed like bodybuilders in contrast with the opposite cows on the farm. There may be even, two nights per week, a communal feast referred to as Carnivore, geared toward showcasing the zillions of the way the meat may greatest be delivered to desk, from zingy tartare and unctuous tagliata to the perfect biltong I’ve ever eaten. And if there may be by no means such a factor as an excessive amount of meat on the menu right here, I did study a brand new tactic for managing my method via an impressive parade of native wines: zebra-striping, which suggests alternating a glass of wine with a glass of water. 

We could also be approaching the worldwide peak of farm-stand branding and aesthetics, however nobody does it higher than Babylonstoren. I used to be given a tour of a lately opened venture in an adjoining valley, for which they reconstructed a whole Cape Dutch Nineteenth-century village round a home museum, the place children can watch costumed woodworkers and leatherworkers whereas their dad and mom partake of the preindustrial-style distillery and buy handcrafted leather-based items on the reward store. 

Farther into the valley, tucked right into a cul-de-sac created by the Groot Drakenstein and Franschhoek mountains, the city of Franschhoek, as soon as well-known for the elephants that roamed there, is now higher identified for its bountiful produce. Past the sycamore timber that, throughout my autumn go to, have been beginning to flip gold and copper, the Sterrekopje Therapeutic Farm resort felt like one thing out of a fairy story. Once I arrived, in late afternoon, I used to be overwhelmed by simply how fantastical all the things seemed—just a little bit previous grasp portray, a little bit Narnia. 

The backyard, which has been revived by Nicole Boekhoorn and Fleur Huijskens, the Dutch couple who purchased the property in 2019, was comparatively restrained—appropriately for the season—whereas on the similar time being the image of abundance. An excellent white stallion being put via its paces in a corral might need been one thing out of a medieval tapestry. Egyptian geese carved glittering arrows into the black waters of the assorted lakes on the property. The workers, of their apricot-colored linens, made their method via the gardens to the tiled open kitchen and sitting room, escorting me to magnificent feasts, or to a spa space hung with dried herbs for a hammam session or an alignment. All through my keep, whether or not consuming or mountaineering or just mendacity, blissed-out, by the pool, I felt a bit euphoric—an excellent sort of euphoria, one I couldn’t wait to inform others about. 

And possibly I have to, as a result of so a lot of my American pals have by no means been to South Africa—and haven’t any plans to go anytime quickly. We discuss on a regular basis about how the world is shrinking. However everybody I do know who recurrently travels to Asia, India, or the Mideast nonetheless thinks of Cape City because the far aspect of the moon.

Granted, South Africa is a really lengthy journey for People, and costly in each {dollars} and time. The nation has not been terribly effectively serviced by American carriers. (I took the one nonstop from New York to Cape City, on United.) Maybe for that reason—and due to the bounty on provide in South Africa—many of the People I met there have been, like me, making an attempt to mix a wide range of experiences in a number of areas. Whether or not they have been on honeymoon or a vacation, most first-time vacationers have been on an identical itinerary: Cape City for the seashores, mountaineering, and meals; wine nation for the plain; after which, safari.

South Africa is, in spite of everything, the place that lives within the creativeness because the land of the Massive 5. Elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard, and rhinoceros have been probably the most treasured trophies as a result of they have been probably the most harmful to strategy on foot. Out towards the jap fringe of this huge nation, close to Kruger Nationwide Park (one of many first areas within the nation to be put aside for the safety of huge sport), I visited one of many excessive holies of safari. Constructed alongside the Sand River, on a non-public sport reserve, Singita Sabi Sand is a group of properties that features Ebony Lodge, which was Singita’s first property, and Boulders Lodge. I checked in to Ebony Lodge, which was celebrating its thirtieth anniversary with the disclosing of a brand-new renovation. 

Within the native Shangaan-Tsonga language, “singita” interprets as “place of miracles.” To say the sightings at Sabi Sand have been miraculous could be to undersell it—one morning we noticed every of the Massive 5 earlier than 9 a.m.: a leopard in a tree, a pair of lions; a rhino operating alongside our car, 5 ft away; elephants galore; and extra buffalo than I might depend. However what I proceed to consider, many months after returning house, are the interactions I had with the workers at Ebony Lodge, from my information, Coman Mnisi, whose father was among the many final residents be relocated out of the world, to the waiter and sommeliers who appeared to be assigned to me personally. 

My fellow company too, with whom I bonded in that intense, transient method I’ve solely ever skilled on safari, have been very best firm. One couple, honeymooners from Guadalajara, Mexico, described the lodge as an opulent Tarzan tree home—which appeared spot-on as we sat on the terrace and watched a household of elephants cross the Sand River beneath.

My expectations earlier than visiting South Africa have been sky-high, and nonetheless I used to be blown away by the wealthy, vibrant actuality. Even now, I can’t fairly imagine that I ate meals that good, noticed views that outstanding, had sensations and conversations and experiences so affecting. South Africa toppled me, with awe, with inspiration. And isn’t that how we’d describe witnessing a miracle?  

A model of this story first appeared within the March 2025 subject of Journey + Leisure beneath the headline «Southern Star.»