Cape Town has a wide range of suburbs from millionaire coastal resorts, tree lined middle class suburbs  to dangerous gang controlled ghettos and shanty towns.  This is the same as for the vast majority of cities in the world and especially those in the developing world.

For the tourist, areas such as the V&A Waterfront and Camps Bay offer many accomodation options and are close to all the action of the city and beach.  The suburbs of the Atlantic Seaboard (Green Point, Sea Point, Bantry Bay, Clifton, Camps Bay, Hout Bay and Llandudno) are mostly upmarket and have a beautiful coastal setting. Sea Point can be a little seedy after dark and is the least appealling area of these suburbs.Blouberg has a fantastic beach and provides the classic shot of Table Mountain seen in most photos. Hout Bay has a small shanty town within its borders which has resulted in an increased level of crime.  It is also further from Cape Town centre than the other Atlantic Seaboard suburbs.

Durbanville: situated in the Northern suburbs of Cape Town, about a 20 minute drive from central Cape Town along the N1 in the direction of Paarl.

Durbanville itself is a flourishing suburb with more shopping malls than just about anywhere else in the Cape Area! There is the Tygervalley centre which has many shops and boutiques, then directly opposite that is the new Willowbridge shopping Mall which is rather lovely, this also has a theatre in it called "The Barnyard theatre". In the centre of Durbanville village are two other shopping Malls, and many other quaint shops.

There are a number of cabaret type theatres and restaurant/theatres in the area as well; Die Boer is one that seems very popular and the Durbanville high school has an auditorium that is often used for concerts.

Durbanville itself is sub-divided into various areas. On the hill just prior to reaching Durbanville is Welgemoed, then Kenridge, Durbanville Hills, Aurora, Vierlanden and many more.

Durbanville has its fair share of art galleries, mostly quite small, but vibrant non-the-less and there is often a craft market held on a Saturday morning in the centre of town as well as one in Kendridge.

Durbanville is part of the wine route and there are many wine farms represented here, and perhaps not visited as often as those in Stellenbosch or Franschoek.

One can also reach Durbanville by turning off the N7 and driving along the Vissershok Road. It is interesting that one drives along winding country roads, often with sheep or cows grazing in fields and passing all the wonderful vineyards and then out of nowhere this busy suburb arises. It is very like a city but with five minutes driving, one is in the farmlands. This is a good example of South African middle class suburbia.

Here is a list of the wine farms with links to their web pages:

 Altydgedacht : www.altydgedacht.co.za   Bloemendal http://www.bloemendalwines.co.za/  D'Aria http://www.daria.co.za/

De Grenedel http://www.degrendel.co.za/  Diemersdal www.diemersdalwine.co.za  Durbanville-Hills www.durbanvillehills.co.za

Hillcrest http://www.hillcrestfarm.co.za/  Meerendal http://www.meerendal.co.za/ 

Nitida  http://www.nitida.co.za/

Most of these wine estates have wonderful restaurants on them. At D'aria, the name of the restaurant is Poplars and they have a very interesting menu with excellent service. Bloemendal is situated right on the top of a small hill, so if one eats at the restaurant, there are the most incredible views of the surrounding area. The road one has to drive along to reach the restaurant is somewhat narrow and winding and not all that pleasant to negotiate. A very acclaimed restaurant is that on the Meerendal wine estate. The chef who gives recipes on the local radio station, KFM 94.5 and he sounds wonderful (as do his recipe ideas!)