Sydafrika

Mpumalanga is one of South Africa’s smallest provinces and one of its most exciting. Visually, it's as beautiful as it is diverse, with mountain vistas, lush green valleys, arid bush, subtropical plantations and cool-climate towns. Its natural assets make it a prime target for outdoor enthusiasts, who come to abseil down waterfalls, throw themselves off cliffs, raft or tube down rivers, explore subterranean caves, gallop through grasslands, and hike or bike forest trails.

Route 62 takes you through some spectacular scenery changes, from the rugged mountain passes between Montagu and Calitzdorp to the arid semidesert of the Little Karoo region around Oudtshoorn. It’s touted as the longest wine route in the world and is a great alternative to the N2 if you’re travelling from Cape Town towards the Garden Route.

Up there on the podium with the world’s great ecotourism destinations, and near the top of the scribbled list marked ‘Places I Must See in South Africa’, the Elephant Coast (formerly ‘Maputaland’) is a phenomenal stretch of natural beauty, with a fabulously diverse mix of environments and wildlife.

Green Point’s common includes an imaginatively landscaped park and the Cape Town Stadium, built for the 2010 World Cup. There are several pleasant guesthouses and backpacker lodges to stay here too, but if it's luxe digs you're after then head to the V&A Waterfront. Known simply as the Waterfront, this shopping, entertainment and residential development is the city's most popular tourist destination and home to top sights such as the ferries to Robben Island and the new Zeitz MOCAA Museum, which opened in 2017.

With only a million people inhabiting its 373,000 sq km, the Northern Cape is South Africa’s last great frontier. Its scattered towns are hundreds of kilometres apart, connected by empty roads across the sublime, surreal wilderness expanses of Namakwa, the Kalahari and Upper Karoo. Under the remorseless sun, vehicles share park roads with lions, dune boards swish down roaring sands, and Kimberley’s pubs serve cold beer as they have since the 19th-century diamond rush.

The Sunshine Coast has everything the country is known for – pristine beaches, wildlife, stunning scenery, great outdoor activities and culture. It covers a significant chunk of the Eastern Cape coastline, including Port Elizabeth, the seaside towns of Jeffrey's Bay and Port Alfred, and numerous sandy beaches. In the hinterland are the best wildlife-watching areas within easy reach of the coastline between Cape Town and Durban: Addo Elephant National Park and the nearby private reserves.

Embracing an exquisitely beautiful lagoon and surrounded by ancient forests, Knysna (pronounced ny-znah) is probably the most famous town on the Garden Route. Formerly the centre of the timber industry, supplying yellowwood and stinkwood for railway lines, shipping and house-building, it still has several shops specialising in woodwork and traditional furniture. The lagoon is popular with sailing enthusiasts, and there are plenty of boat trips on offer.

South Africa’s administrative centre is a handsome city with some gracious old architecture, significant historical sites, prosperous leafy suburbs, and wide streets lined with jacarandas that burst into a beautiful purple haze in October and November. It’s always been more more conservative than Jo’burg – this was the centre of the apartheid regime and its very name a symbol of oppression. However, as the inner city undergoes something of a renaissance, and Pretoria becomes more cosmopolitan, there's a sense that the city is beginning to look to the future.

French Huguenots settled in this spectacular valley over 300 years ago, bringing their vines with them. Ever since, this Winelands town has clung to its French roots, and July visitors will find that Bastille Day is celebrated here. Franschhoek bills itself as the country’s gastronomic capital, and you’ll certainly have a tough time deciding where to eat. Plus, with a clutch of art galleries, wine farms and stylish guesthouses thrown in, it really is one of the loveliest towns in the Cape.

Hermanus is generally considered the best land-based whale-watching destination in the world. From June to December, the bay becomes the swimming grounds for a large number of southern right whales. So what might have otherwise just been a small fishing village is today a large, bustling town with an excellent range of accommodation, restaurants and shops.