What's a good 3-day itinerary for Cape Town?

Day 1 stays in Cape Town's City Bowl, which keeps the geography tight and your energy saved for later. The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway opens at 8am — arrive at the lower station by 7:30 and you'll share the first car with maybe five other people instead of the two-hour queue that builds by 10. The wind at the summit cuts through anything lighter than a fleece, even in autumn, and the views north past Robben Island fade into cold Atlantic grey. Ninety minutes is enough. Cab down to Bo-Kaap by 10:30 and walk Chiappini Street past the painted houses, but the real stop is Bo-Kaap Kombuis on Rose Street: lamb samoosas, a pot of rooibos, and the sound of the Auwal Mosque's noon call to prayer floating across the rooftops. Lunch on Bree Street at Clarke's — their bobotie with yellow rice is about R145 and better than what most hotel restaurants attempt. Company's Garden after lunch is a twenty-minute walk end to end, and the squirrels will climb your arm for a peanut.

By 3pm, cross to Zeitz MOCAA at the V&A Waterfront. The building is a converted grain silo — light pours down through carved concrete tubes five storeys tall, and the contemporary African art rotates often enough that I can't tell you what's on, but the Zanele Muholi portraits on the upper floors tend to stay. Entry is R230. Head to Signal Hill for sunset by 6pm, then back to Bree Street for dinner at Chef's Warehouse. There's no menu — the kitchen sends out what it wants, tapas-sized. Expect R450 per person before wine, and a room that smells like burned butter and cardamom. Day 2 needs a car. Rent one the evening before or book a driver through your guesthouse — Cape Town's peninsula coast road is too good to experience from a tour bus. Leave the City Bowl by 8am on the M3 south. Forty minutes later you're in Kalk Bay, where the harbour still has a working fishing fleet and the smell of diesel and brine carries across the parking lot.

Walk Main Road in Kalk Bay for the antique shops, then sit down at Olympia Café for a flat white and their corn fritters — the place seats maybe thirty, so expect a short wait. By 11am, drive ten minutes south to Boulders Beach in Simon's Town. The African penguins are smaller than you'd imagine and louder than seems reasonable, honking like geese. Entry is R176. Lunch at the Salty Sea Dog on Simon's Town harbour — a hake and chips basket is about R120 and the seagulls will absolutely contest the last chip. After lunch, forty-five minutes south to Cape Point. The road thins and fynbos scrub closes in on both sides; roll the windows down for the wild rosemary smell. The old lighthouse is a fifteen-minute walk from the car park. Mind you, the baboons are not decorative — keep all food locked in the boot. Drive back via Chapman's Peak, which might be the finest coastal road on the continent, but check whether the toll gate is open before you commit — it closes in high wind.

Day 3 drops the tempo. Drive to Constantia — fifteen minutes from Cape Town's city centre — and start at Beau Constantia by 9:30am. It's a small estate on the upper ridge with a tasting deck that looks straight down over False Bay. Their Viognier is the one to try. Move to Groot Constantia by 11, the oldest wine farm in the country, where the cellar smells like cold stone and old oak. Lunch at Bistro Sixteen82 on the Steenberg estate: the springbok loin with roasted beetroot is R265 and properly good, not just tourist-menu good. By 2:30pm, head to Kirstenbosch. Walk the Boomslang canopy walkway, a curving steel-and-wood bridge through the tree crowns, then sit on the main lawn until Table Mountain's shadow reaches you. Drive to Camps Bay by 5pm for sunset. The sand is white, the water is about 12°C year-round, so swimming is a dare rather than a plan. Dinner at Codfather — you pick your fish from the ice counter and they grill it. Kingklip or yellowtail. Skip the prawns; they're imported.