Now, Cape Town was a top international tourist destination even in 2013 - I remember at the time my Uncle was telling me I would love it as he so enjoyed it on his trip out here which was probably even a decade prior to that. Cape Town in 2013 had Table Mountain, and the Wineries and the Waterfront. But this was a long time ago in terms of how we see a place - before Eater, Reddit, oodles of online travel blogs, etc. I still used DK and googling. Uber was not really there, and Cape Town's miserable cab system made it tough to see the city. The Cape Town of 2013 was basically a place to visit some amazing sights, and either mill around The Waterfront or Long Street, with nothing in between.
Twelve years later, The Waterfront is still idyllic (though changing a lot as well), but Long Street has lost its place of prominence, and the stretch of the city between the two (more or less) now usurping it. The net result has been something of making Cape Town equally a great city for, let's call it, "vibes" from food, drink, music, partying, and just hanging around. And really, this transformation has happened in two phases.
The first was let's call it the expansion. I'm not lying when I say that on my first trip, and probably even the second one in 2016, I basically confined myself to The Waterfront or Long Street and nothing in between. Especially in 2016, when Uber was available, it really was just these areas after say 6pm. Now, I don't know how much of the danger was perceived vs. real, but it was basically the advice of even locals to just follow those simple rules.
By 2018, you saw things starting to change, as the roads around Long Street started to open new restaurants, bars, etc., particularly uptown (e.g. towards Table Mountain) where you had a second hotspot area develop near Kloof Nek Road. By 2022, it started spreading downwards into the Central area. If anything, by now these areas both up and down from the main Long Street area are safer, more well developed, and as busy at night. Long Street is still packed, but much more R&B / hip-hop focus (which I'll get to later), but these other areas have grown up. Case in point - in 2020, I walked from The Waiting Room in Long Street down to Reset, a club on Loop - this was say a 10-minute walk, abuot 15 blocks, the last half of it with downwards from the main Long Street area. It was a nervous walk. I never felt in danger, but for sure felt an eerily silence and air of unease. By 2022, this was nearly gone, by 2023 - I kind of stopped needing to go to Long Street anyway.
This in all is a net positive - these are areas of the city that now house trendy bars, restaurants, clubs. These are blocks that are in the heart of the city, that should have been full of life. The biggest thing that Cape Town has done to make this happen is station a bunch of security personnel in bright green vests that patrol those streets at night. This isn't necessarily to kick homeless away or something, but put a stop to muggings and burglary - just their presence has made whole blocks of Cape Town become waht they should be.
This has had some knock-on impacts that are a bit sad. I already covered Long Street losing its position as the nightlife hotspot for vacationers, but there's been more oblique ones. For instance, for years I'd hailed Cause Effect as a leading cocktail bar, and it is. But it is also placed so strangely in the casual tourist haven that is the V&A Waterfront. It never made sense a true gourmet style cocktail bar would be there. Well, now they have cocktail bars in those blocks below Long Street (Talking to Strangers - a new personal favorite) and the people that want craft cocktails go to those areas because they are closer to everything else late night. This has definitely resulted in an emptier Cause Effect, to the point I worry for its future (or maybe it should just relocate...). But at least it's not losing out because cocktail bars don't work in Cape Town, it's losing out because it isn't the only option anymore.
The same can be said of fine dining, most pointedly at the "just below tasting menu" level, where these beautiful, artful, trendy dining spots are all over those blocks. Before, they used to mainly be lunch only or you had to get door to door uber service. Those days are long gone. All of these changes to Cape Town are for the better. And before people may say it is due to overtourism (and certainly that is a part of it), what has been fascinating to watch over the 12 years is when I go out to these places, mainly the bars and clubs, every time it is more and more locals, and more and more diverse.
On the diversity point, it is inescapable that South Africa is a predominantly black country, as is Cape Town similarly as a city, and the black population on average is poorer. That is still true and due to decades of racism, will be true for many years to come, but absolutely I have seen an increase in black locals at these bars, restaurants, clubs, etc. And more than that, taking over certain areas with more African, rap, hip-hop, etc. No where is this more true than in Long Street, which is as busy as before, but just in a way that caters to locals - which is great for them, even if my days traipsing down Long Street will probably never come back.
But with all this change, expansion and growth has come the second phase of change, which is a bit more sad - and this I'll call the over corporatization of Cape Town. The best example is around The Waterfront, which always was the most tourist-friendly, built up, "Western" part of Cape Town. But that's gone into hyperdrive, mostly through corporate/commercial interests. The best example is probably that in 2013 through I think my 2020 trip (if maybe 2022?), right at the start of the Waterfront area, near Mitchell's, sat a giant ferris wheel. It then got moved to a less trafficked part of The Waterfront, in its place is now a fairly souless looking building that houses Nike, Wedgewood, and a fancy restaurant.
The best example is probably also in The Waterfront, where an old abandoned warehouse first became the V&A Food Market, which was a place of frequent visits, quick lunches, etc., on my 2018, 2020 and 2022 trips. It was a lovely space with local vendors selling all types of food both as quick meals, but also grocery (a lovely biltong stand was my favorite) and even a store selling local gins, cheeses, etc. It was awesome. Well, imagine my dismay on my 2023 trip with my parents when I took them to it to get a lunch to realize it was closed and in process of being turned into a Timeout Market (which was open by my 2024 trip). It's largely the same, but a bit souless, less unique, and is nowhere near as busy as what the prior V&A Food Market was. Now, this isn't a broad criticism on the concept of Timeout Markets, the OG one is Lisbon is excellent, but here was a large tourism brand taking over a beloved local thing and making it a bit less interesting.
In smaller ways this has happened in other parts of the city. Reset, which was a fantastic EDM club, closed during Covid - the area lay dormat for a few years, but was reopened as a club called Halo, which is right out of Western club velvet rope & table service style, rather than the brilliant underground place it used to be. None of these are all that problematic, because it was a bit natural that as more money was put into the city, that it woudl start getting a bit corporate, but I do hope that there is a maximum point.
In the end, Cape Town remains a gem of a city, remains my favorite city to visit in the world, and the changes in that time period cater more towards making it firm its place there. Even if I can belie the loss of the V&A Food Market, or more upmarket brands and stores, if that is the smaller price while gaining more restaurants, more bars, more blocks to roam around in and more areas where you can walk at night and not be fearful, is an amazing development.
