Between two mountainous flanks, reaching away from the docks, through the intense city centre and up the mountain is the City Bowl (made up of the Upper and Lower city center and the Waterfront), where lively areas, such as Long Street, the Bo-Kaap and Gardens rub shoulders with the serious new wealth of Tamboerskloof and Oranjezicht.

Straggling south from the centre along the eastern slope of the mountain, the predominantly white southern suburbs become progressively more affluent as you move from arty Observatory through the comfortably middle-class districts of Rondebosch and Newlands, culminating with the Constantia wine estates. Along the coastal belt, the Atlantic seaboard is drier and sunnier, with the wealthiest areas like Clifton and Camps Bay clinging to the mountainside above the sea, white sands and rocky beaches.