Just one sleep is all it takes to get to Cape Town: a 12-hour overnight flight. And at the end of it, no jet lag, but instead an instant hit of winter sun. And a city, which is really no more than a small seaside town, with an attitude that's way more than the sum of its parts.
The pop-up concept could have been invented in this town. Things here really do just pop up. Penguins on Boulders Beach. Shacks along main roads. Hip urban coffee shops selling antique motorbikes alongside freshly roasted beans. Market stalls hawking toy cars conjured from Coke cans. Restaurants that out of the blue join the ranks of the world's Top 100.
It's a big old cultural stewpot, a place where you might find Nigerian bankers and Italian rastafarians, where the food includes Indian curries and Afrikaans biltong, the music both bongo drumming and French folk singing. That you never know what you're going to get is part of the excitement, and people here are always, as they say, 'making a plan'. It's buzzing, which is why stars such as Lily Allen choose to make their music videos in Cape Town, why this year The New York Times named the city its top holiday destination and why Puma's former CEO Jochen Zeitz is moving his African modern-art collection into a converted grain silo here.
Just 10 years ago, there was no point in going into the town centre. It was dead - and could be deadly, if you wandered up the wrong alleyway. Today, central Long Street is packed with cool bars, and the surrounding lanes are full of teenagers scoffing cupcakes at the lurid-pink Charly's Bakery, chocoholics scoring their cocoa fix at Honest Chocolates, and artists exploring the graffitied walls of District Six.
Of all the areas, Woodstock has been most freshly transformed. Although it has always been home to an alternative multi-cultural crowd (even when apartheid's Group Areas Act forbade different races from living together), today the run-down buildings around The Old Biscuit Mill have been mostly colonised by creatives. Their workshops border crumbling houses that for generations have been inhabited by fishermen and factory workers.
On Saturday mornings Capetonians flock to the triple-storey, stripped-brick factory, where local craftsmen sell their wares before clocking off for a long Cape lunch. Nearby, tents house the city's busiest food market, piled high with treats: koeksisters (plaited doughnuts soaked in cinnamon syrup), craft beers, lamb-and-apricot samosas, hot pickled fish. Those who have booked well in advance might stroll to starry chef Luke Dale-Roberts's The Test Kitchen, with its theatrical Heston Blumenthal-style food, or take a glass lift upstairs to The Pot Luck Club, his edgier rooftop restaurant/gallery, for pan-African and Asian sharing platters and far-reaching views.
After lunch, wander beyond the factory precincts to explore the once derelict flats and empty churches that now hold independent shops. At number 66 Albert Road, The Woodstock Exchange is where to find local furniture stars Pedersen + Lennard and fashion favourites Made in Maboneng and, at number 160, The Woodstock Foundry houses John Vogel's modern riempie furniture workshop and the popular Dear Rae jeweller. Galleries, too, are here, with some of the biggest names in the South African art world now within a few blocks, including What if the World, Goodman Gallery, Bell-Roberts and Stevenson.
First-time visitors unsure of how to negotiate this edgy area, with its beerhalls and industrial workshops, the drunks and the graffiti, should consider booking Natalie Bulwer, who knows the city's arty areas inside-out, and can create bespoke tours. She is also an expert on the shops. Thanks to her I discovered some of the trendiest downtown stores: Missibaba (the Anya Hindmarch of South Africa) and neighbouring jeweller Kirsten Goss on Bree Street; the Scandi-style Okha furniture shop on Hatfield Street and around the corner, Woodhead's, which sells Ugg-style boots and shoes; and for stylish African souvenirs, Africa Nova in the Cape Quarter and Tribal Trends on Long Street.
Lots of people go to Cape Town to shop (with the pound buying nearly 18 rand, it's an addictive hobby), but this is also a city surrounded by natural beauty, from rose-edged vineyards and shell-strewn beaches to forested mountain ranges. Whichever way you go, there are wonderful places to see, particularly on the road along Chapman's Peak to the southern Cape Point, dug into the coastal cliffs by Italian prisoners during World War I.
To explore this southernmost African road, the trick is to set off early from the city, driving against the incoming morning traffic, and stop off en route. First at Clifton and Llandudno beaches, their white sands and shaded boulders overlooked by grand mansions, then at Noordhoek, where you can take horses for a gallop along the aptly named Long Beach, and finally at the very tip of Africa, which Sir Francis Drake described as 'the fairest cape that we saw in the whole circumference of the earth'.
Driving back into Cape Town along the east coast of the peninsula, Kalk Bay is a good spot to stretch the legs and browse the quirky boutiques along the seaboard, including Casa Boho; or stop for a glass of wine overlooking the ocean at Harbour House. Sissies who couldn't bear to dip their toes into the cold water on the Atlantic coast might enjoy driving a bit further for a plunge into the warm waters at Muizenberg or taking a surf lesson at Surf Shack. Then, if it's a Friday, nip in for a snack at the hippyish Bluebird Garage Market.
When it comes to food, the sea and farms around Cape Town produce much of the fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, so everything is fresh and delicious (the fish particularly so in Hout Bay, where the catch is cooked within hours of coming off the boats). Although most dining spots are pretty casual, two of the world's Top 100 restaurants are in South Africa, and Cape Town has its share of stellar chefs at modern places including Myoga and Bistro Sixteen82, as well as at smarter classics such as La Colombe. Coffee lovers can indulge their cravings in the lifestyle-shop/café House of Machines and Truth Coffee, with the enormous retro-futuristic Professor Jones's Fabulous Coffee Bean Contraption at its heart.
And there are equally cool hotels in which to unpack your bikini and hang out by the pool. In the quiet, green suburbs is the minimalist but comfy Kensington Place and the homely Four Rosmead, both within walking distance of the Oranjezicht City Farm Saturday market, which is great for stocking up on picnic fodder. At Camps Bay, the new 11-suite Marly hotel has its own Japanese restaurant, the sleek and superbly situated Pod has a rooftop pool, and the Cape View Clifton guesthouse has soothing pale interiors and possibly the most glorious beach views in the city.
My favourite places of all to stay, though, are private homes, which range from antique-filled Cape Dutch farmhouses and casual whitewashed beach huts to futuristic steel-and-glass pads created by some of South Africa's leading architects. Most are available to rent through agencies such as Perfect Hideaways, Cape Portfolios and Luxury Retreats and come with home help, from cleaners to cooks and nannies, or through Cape concierges including Lew Rood and Michelle Snaddon, who can organise entire itineraries, as well as shopping excursions, vineyard visits, children's activities and township tours.
While visiting a township isn't on most holidaymakers' agendas, it is guaranteed to be interesting and unforgettable, not just because of the range of people you're likely to meet - inspiring artists, vegetable growers, choirmasters, footballers and orphans - but because of the brilliant guides who accompany you. Charismatic Capetonian James Fernie set up Uthando to link visitors with township dwellers, with the aim of showing the difference that tourism can make, the trust it can build and the skills it can give to people who have won their freedom but still share very little of their country's wealth.
'Cape Town is an incredible place for restaurants, there's such variety. If I am going for a posh meal - somewhere smart, with white tablecloths and a sense of occasion I'll probably head to The Greenhouse at The Cellars-Hohenort, which also has beautiful gardens. For casual tapas, the Chefs Warehouse and Canteen on Bree Street, run by the Irish-born chef Liam Tomlin, is fun; for great modern Italian, I go to 95 Keerom; and for a casual, Asian-style dinner, I like sitting at the counter at Nobu in the One&Only Cape Town. I don't get much time to go out for drinks, but if I do, the Orphanage Club is popular and funky Publik does great natural wines. At weekends, I'll try to do something with my seven-year-old, like go surfing on Muizenberg Beach, where the water's reasonably warm and the community is very friendly. If it's windy, we'll go swimming at sheltered St James Beach and then head to nearby Kalk Bay for fish and chips at Kalky's or mussels at Olympia Café.
To read about Pyrnnsberg Estate, South Africa, the South African estate where Rudyard Kipling once stayed, click here.