on foot or by rental bike – all along the seafront with great public art , good coffee shops and awesome views like only Cape Town can supply . You can even include a dive in the I & J Ocean Exhibit at the Two Oceans Aquarium , where you can swim with the sharks and watch the people on the other side of the glass .
If supping sounds like too much hard work , you can take the scenic water taxi . This is a great trip on your own , but chances are you won ’ t have too much trouble persuading someone you love to fly in to join you for a day or two . If you push in to a weekend , have brunch at the Oranjezicht City Farm Market on Saturday morning , and if you ’ re in Cape Town at the beginning of the month , try to include a First Thursdays night-time trawl of the best downtown art galleries , studios , and music and food venues .
Durban – field of dreams
If you need to go to meetings in the city , it ’ s best to find a hotel along the Golden Mile overlooking the ocean . That way , when you have some free time , you can – literally – stroll across the road and you ’ re on the beach . Many hotels , like the Elangeni , for example , have rental bicycles , so you can pedal all the way along the promenade watching the surfers heading out to sea , and the whole parade of life that is Durban beachfront . If you ’ re feeling adventurous , you can learn to surf , SUP or kayak , or you can head down to uShaka Marine World to look at the fishies big and small .
But what sets Durban apart from almost every other city in South Africa is that it is the only one to have any lasting positive legacy from the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ . While all the other stadiums in the country are considered to be at best okay , and at worst a moneysucking eyesore , Durban ’ s delicate picnic basket-shaped Moses Mabhida Stadium is both beautiful and economically sustainable . Take a SkyCar tour for a bird ’ s-eye view of Durban or , if you ’ re feeling energetic , do a walking tour . And , if you ’ re feeling adventurous , do a bungee jump or big swing . Or do them all . You can organise trips and / or shuttles direct from your hotel .
If you plan your business trip for a Friday , you can get clever . It shouldn ’ t be hard to persuade your significant other to fly down on Friday night , and you can move into one of the lovely oceanfront hotels on the North Coast for a seriously chilled weekend . It ’ s a super-quick shuttle back to the airport from there , so you could leave on Monday morning and be back in the office at nine .
Joburg – one incredible thing before breakfast
One of the best things about going to Joburg on business is that you probably won ’ t need to rent a car . The Gautrain will get you right into Sandton , and you can probably walk – or definitely Uber – to wherever you have to go . And then , if you want to do something incredible before breakfast – either on your own , with a significant other , or even with a client or colleague – Bill Harrop ’ s Original Balloon Safaris will pick you up long before the sparrows emerge from REM sleep , and whisk you off to the Magaliesberg where you can clutch a warm cup of something while you watch the balloons being inflated , and then float off into the dawn . Upon landing , you ’ ll be fed a sumptuous breakfast – but best you pass up on the bubbly
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