Reading this post on the Telegraph, “22 reasons why Cape Town is the world’s best city”, is actually a little nauseating.

It’s like, we know Cape Town is the best city in the world – so if you want to give 22 reasons as to why, you should be able to skip over the generalisations and get to the nitty gritty.

So here’s the first reason the news platform gave, and to me, it’s the coolest:

Sir Francis Drake was a big fan

“This cape is the most stately thing and fairest cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth,” wrote the swashbuckling explorer in 1580. A city has sprung up since then, of course, but the peninsula’s natural beauty (think pristine shores, dappled forests and the imposing sight of Table Mountain) remains undiminished.

Here are a few more:

Its history is profoundly moving

Learn all about it on the 2.5-hour walking tour, Footsteps to Freedom…which provides a unique insight into apartheid South Africa. Hungry for more? Then feed your brain at District Six Museum, Slave Lodge and Iziko South African Museum, which are amongst Cape Town’s top attractions.

You should pay tribute to Nelson Mandela

Robben Island may look idyllic, but it has a harrowing history – for this is where the late, great Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 18 lonely years. A visit to his damp and dingy prison cell offers a poignant reminder of what this remarkable man, and his contemporaries, endured during apartheid.

You might see one of these

Table Mountain supports a huge diversity of wildlife including this little thing, the dassie (or African badger). Hikers can also expect to see anything from grazing zebra and playful baboons to elusive ghost frogs and the highly venomous Cape cobra, which, admittedly, would be a less welcome sight.

It’s effortlessly cool

“Cape Town has a cool urban edge, with excellent art galleries, hip bars, world-rated restaurants and design-savvy shops,” writes our expert, Pippa de Bruyn. The city is also home to Africa’s most innovative artists and designers, who have been drawn by the city’s distinctive beauty and sophisticated charm.

Look, I’m not being ungrateful, I just think it’s time to be a little more real about a city and what exactly makes it so cool.

Check the full list off 22 reasons HERE.

[source: telegraph]