This week’s dream: A reawakening Cape Town

South Africa’s so-called Mother City “bursts at the seams with excitement for its future,” said Stephanie Allmon in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Twenty years after the end of apartheid, this beautiful port is the 2014 World Design Capital, and that’s giving it a chance to show off its new energy and affirm its standing as a leading global city. The New York Times recently named it the world’s No. 1 place to visit this year, and I can’t disagree. Plan a culinary tour of Cape Town and the nearby wine region, and you will collect memories to last a lifetime.

The sun woke me early on my first morning in the city, rising high enough by 5 a.m. to “peel back the curtain of night and reveal the majesty of Table Mountain.” The flat-topped mountain looms over the city; when Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on nearby Robben Island, he looked back upon it imagining it a beacon of hope. I set out that first day to the Old Biscuit Mill, a village-like collection of cafés, shops, and restaurants in Woodstock, a neighborhood that’s undergoing a renaissance. By 11, I’d sampled buffalo mozzarella, a pastry called the Flying Dutchman, and a tuna jerky, but we pushed on for more noshing in the Bo-Kaap, or Cape Malay Quarter. Brightly colored homes and cobblestone streets make this district a popular choice for photo shoots, while the food—like sumptuous lamb curry and samosas—reflects the district’s Muslim heritage.

“Entire vacations can be spent in wine country,” stringing together stays in boutique hotels in the region’s charming small towns. The Cape Winelands are so beautiful that even teetotalers should see them. But my luxurious hotel, the One&Only, kept calling me back to Cape Town, and on my last night, I indulged in the child-like fun of riding the Ferris wheel on the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. From the ride’s highest point, I looked back at Table Mountain as clouds hovering above it began spilling down its sides, creating an effect locals call a “white tablecloth.” The sight “made my last sunset in this exotic and storied city as memorable as the first sunrise.”

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At One&Only Cape Town (oneandonlyresorts.com), doubles start at $487.