CPT - What do you think of when you think of South Africa? What if I told you you can have majestic scenery, top notch night life at a fraction of the cost for US, EU and UK earners, plus absolute blonde baddies running around?
In December of 2023 I decided to sell everything in Barcelona, Spain and move to South Africa, similar time zone to -1 hr CET and GMT timezone. Getting there For those lucky enough to currently reside in Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, São Paulo and (Houston, please fact check me) you are the lucky few with direct flight access to the Mother City of South Africa, for others like myself only 1 stop, from what I have come to know as “my African paradise”.
Stays like the other 99%, when you think of travelling, you think of staying as close to if not in the city centre, PLEASE DONT! I made this mistake and don’t wish it on anyone else. Cape Town is the only city I have visited where the downtown area or CBD (central business district) is the worst possible place to stay, it is exactly that, a business district so there is nothing to do. For those “sheltered” travellers, yes the CBD is dangerous and you will get pickpocketed during the daytime if not vigilant and at night.. Bloody Mary, don’t get me started.
Now, depending on your budget, as I mentioned US/EU or similar earners, you will live like an absolute GOD here. I would recommend staying in and only in the following, in order: Sea Point Camps bay Green Point Socialising/Night life Unlike most of the western world where just a small interaction with a stranger is like pulling teeth and they can’t conjure up a single phrase and you have to identify them as a tooth brush or they get offended, Cape Town is very different.
Imagine a city where everyone actually smiles and is courteous, what a concept! I moved, alone at the peak of summer (the 1st week of December) and I was impressed on how responsive and friendly everyone was. Now, I followed BTSocials suggestions. I first visited Cape Town last year to see if it was a city I would actually live in. What did I do? As BTSocial suggested, I logged into IG, started searching for keywords related to Cape Town. Let the IG algorithm do its thing and when you hit the search button on the IG, magically I was presented with posts and suggested accounts.
I found an event at a very popular bar/club, signed up for the event, reserved a table and went. As I arrived I ordered, 5, yes 5 bottles of champagne and a sushi platter. Now you ask, why the hell would you do that? Well, remember what I said about being an EU earner? When the bill came AND after a heavy tip, it was less than 400, yes, 400 Euros, you can’t even get 1 meagre 75cl bottle at a club in Barcelona for that.
Anyway, I got sidetracked, after speaking to the doorman, the security staff, the wait staff and tipping cash to each interaction, I was approached by what I would call and “engagement or entertainment manager”, he quickly introduced me to other “high value men” at nearby tables, what do local, high value men have, besides money.. a shit ton of baddies sitting around looking pretty, bloody hell was I heaven, I was introduced to what I would consider 9-14 solid, solid 8s and above.
Now this is my personal example because I am someone who knew he was moving and wanted to setup a crew or social circle when I moved later in the year. Let’s say you don’t want the high life, hit up Kloof, Bree or Long street and you have bars, clubs and what they call social gathering houses, similar to the UK having bars and pubs. How cheap it is in USD, EUR or GBP.
Socialising is so easy, that just by talking to people when queuing for coffee of waiting to be seated, you meet others. Also, some situation nal awareness is a good thing, every coffee shop that has a person on a laptop is most likely working remotely which means they, like you are here alone and also looking to meet up, the possibilities are endless.
Fitness
For those who are keen to stay in shape while visiting, you have 3 options, your hotel gym, the provided beach “gyms” for calisthestics or the day passes at gyms. If you stay where I mentioned, you have access to the virgin active gyms, BUC fitness, oxygen functional fitness and other gyms. Point gym at green point which is a virgin active gym, is very good and was my favourite when I first visited.
Food
Oh the food, now South Africa cuisine is not the go to food for Capetonians as like most cities, their “native” food is usual for home cooked meals or holidays. I will suggest you try game meat (Orxy, ostrich, Kudu, Wildebeest etc.) very delicious, I personally like a restaurant called Carne, they have 2 locations, but I prefer the one of Kloof Street.
For breakfast, Sea Point is where the good spots are (Naked coffee, Jarryd’s, Arthur’s mini mart, Coco Safar).
Tourism
This is where Cape Town shines above most, starting for the iconic Table mountain, to Lion’s head, to the V and A Waterfront, to Signal hill, to Robben Island (where Mandela was held prisoner) to the beaches, the beauty of this city is unmatched. The entire area is walkable and easily accessible, just mind the traffic, it’s like the UK, we drive on the left side of the road, don’t get hit by a car!
If it’s night time, Uber is everywhere and even taking Uber black everywhere is only 3-5 EUR, regular Uber is 1-3 EUR.
For Table Mountain, there is an access point most people don’t know about. When you buy your tickets, there is a side entrance, for VIPs, the funny this it’s mislabelled and all you do is go back to the ticket office, pay the extra 5-6 Euros, and you get the skip the queues and save anywhere from 15-75 minutes. Paragliding from signal hill to the Sea point promenade is also amazing and cheap, mine cost 50 euros.
Finally, if you are really keen on spending like I was, I took a helicopter tour from the V and A waterfront for 12 minutes to see the city from above, it was 85 euros, yes 85 euros! For comparison, in Barcelona, I took some girl on a 6 minute flight at it was 165 Euros per person, again South Africa is very, very cheap for those US, EU earners.
Culture
Finally, culture this may not apply to you as you may not want to move here, but the demographics here are Black, Coloured (yes,it’s rea, look it up) and White. The split is very easily identified, the rich are White and some coloured, and the poor at the black. Why is this relevant. I am from Mexican, Spanish background and look like one of the coloureds. One day, someone asked me if I was coloured, I was about to get into a fight until someone interviewed and helped out, just want to ensure no one else has this type of incident.
Dating
I moved here because I love tall, leggy blonds. Cape Town and South Africa as a whole did not disappoint. South Africa, I believe is number 2 in the miss universe competition behind Venezuela (fact check me), there are so many baddies here and whats even more impressive, they are actually fun, friendly and love, absolutely love foreigners. As a man we all know our best qualities. I literally went to my favourite Mexican restaurant, purposely asked to be sat next to a table of gorgeous girls, started speaking Spanish to the wait staff and joking around, the table of hotties started to chat me up! I pulled a couple of numbers and speak half a week with them partying last year before moving and even invited one to visit me when i was still in Spain, it is an untapped city and wish I didn’t share because, as we all know, someone will come and ruin it :)
I want to thank David for writing this post
Capetown is a beautiful city. I have family who live there. It is super underrated and has the most gorgeous women in the world
Visit Stellenbosch as it has amazing vineyards and is the Aspen of South Africa
There are also drive in Safaris that are really cool
Hope to revisit soon
Highly recommend going as you can live like a King with the dollar to rand conversion
You can find David on X here