Global magazine TimeOut has recently released its sixth annual list of what city dwellers think are the 40 coolest neighbourhoods in the world. Securing its spot on the list once more is the Mother City’s Sea Point, which comes in at number 21 – an impressive leap from last year’s rank of 38.
Also read: 20 Best Restaurants in Sea Point in 2023
Every year, the magazine combines input from its global network of local editors and writers with thousands of city dwellers around the world to establish a shortlist of ‘the neighbourhoods in their hometowns where everyone wants to be right now’.
This year, TimeOut polled more than 12 000 people from across the globe. To create the final rankings, the magazine considers factors such as community and social ventures, access to open and green spaces and thriving street life.
Given the explosion in new community spaces, multipurpose culture centres and the ever-expanding café scene thanks to the rise in post-pandemic digital nomadism, the focus this year, according to the magazine, was on places with ‘big personalities’: neighbourhoods that undergo transformations while remaining ‘resolutely local at heart’, entangling slick new developments, and cool cafés with old pubs and family greengrocers that ‘keep it real’.
If reading the above description caused visions of your last trip to Sea Point – South Africa’s coolest neighbourhood and highest ranking in Africa – to instantly pop up, then, like us, you need no further convincing.
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While Sea Point is certainly renowned for its ‘five-kilometre seaside promenade and public gardens that draw a refreshingly diverse crowd of locals and tourists’ – dubbed ‘a beautiful slice of Cape Town’, TimeOut describes the 200-year-old multicultural suburb as much more than just home to the promenade.
‘It’s long been home to a Jewish community (the city’s only eruv – an area exempt from ancient Jewish law that forbids the carrying or pushing of items in public on the Sabbath), and today it draws a happy mix of young professionals, pan-African migrants and digital nomads,’ said the magazine.
Painting the ‘perfect day’ in Sea Point, TimeOut said: ‘Start with coffee at Paris Cape Town for the best croissants in town, then head to the promenade for a wander through the urban park. Pack your cozzie for a dip at the Sea Point Pavilion.’
‘For lunch, try the global food truck flavours at the Mojo Market, before a slow window shop along Main Road. Grab coffee and macarons at Coco Safar to fuel up for an afternoon’s kayak adventure from Three Anchor Bay. Have sundowners on the terrace of The Winchester Hotel before dinner at Three Wise Monkeys, one of the best ramen and noodle bars in the city.’
Apart from Sea Point, only one other African neighbourhood features on the list: Cantonments in Accra, Ghana, which squeaks in at number 40.
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