#1. Durban
Cosmopolitan Durban, South Africa’s third-largest city (known as eThekweni in Zulu), is sometimes passed over for her ‘cooler’ Capetonian cousin. But there’s a lot more to fun-loving Durbs (as it’s affectionately known) than meets the eye.
The city had a major makeover leading up to the 2010 World Cup, with a sleek new stadium and a revamped waterfront. The renewal of the promenade and the sweeping away of the old sleaze has given municipal authorities new confidence and ambition, which you can see in the development projects all over the city.
Home to the largest concentration of people of Indian descent outside of India, Durban also boasts an unmistakeably Asian feel, with the marketplaces and streets of the Indian area replete with the sights, sounds and scents of the subcontinent.