Sydafrika

From lush tropical forests to uninhabited desert expanses, and from easy-going hammock time to adrenaline-pumping adventures, the Eastern Cape offers a wide range of topography and experiences. Compared with the more developed Western Cape, it can feel like a different country and provides opportunities to learn about Xhosa culture. Some of South Africa's finest hiking (and slackpacking) trails wind along the province's largely undeveloped coastline and through its mountainous, waterfall-filled landscapes.

With the feel of a small country village, despite its double-capital status – it’s the Free State’s capital and the judicial capital of the country – Bloemfontein is one of South Africa’s most relaxed and welcoming cities. Although it doesn’t possess the type of big-name attractions that make it worth a visit in its own right, you’ll likely pass through 'Bloem' at some point on your way across South Africa’s heartland, and there are some small-scale sights and good restaurants to keep you occupied for a day or two.

This stretch of bushveld between Pretoria and the Kalahari is famous for Sun City, the southern hemisphere’s answer to Las Vegas. Though its slot machines and kitsch edifices are grotesquely fascinating, it's the nearby parks and reserves that we really love – Madikwe Game Reserve is a real gem, while Pilanesberg has terrific wildlife and is very accessible. And for that once-in-a-lifetime, romantic Out of Africa–style experience, a night in the bush at Madikwe’s exclusive lodges can’t be beaten.

Commonly known as Jo’burg or Jozi, this is the vibrant heart of South Africa, a rapidly changing city looking optimistically towards the future.

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.

A place of big skies and open pastureland, the Free State is ideal for a road trip. Broad horizons are interrupted only briefly by a smattering of towns and villages and, apart from Bloemfontein, the urban centres are small and manageable.

Rough and ready, smart and sophisticated, rural and rustic: there’s no doubt that KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is eclectic. It’s a region where glassy malls touch shabby suburbs, and action-packed adventurers ooze adrenaline while laid-back beach bods drip with suntan lotion. Mountainscapes contrast with flat, dry savannahs, while the towns’ central streets, teeming with African life, markets and noise, are in stark contrast to the sedate tribal settlements in rural areas. Here, too, is traditional Zululand, whose people are fiercely proud of their culture.

High on the must-see lists of most visitors to South Africa is the Garden Route, and with good reason: you can’t help but be seduced by the glorious natural beauty. The distance from Mossel Bay in the west to Storms River in the east is just over 200km, yet the range of topography, vegetation, wildlife and outdoor activities is remarkable.

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.