Africa’s savannahs lure with the Big Five. But when it comes to the continent’s startup capitals, it’s all about the Big Four Countries making headlines — Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa — whose major cities attract the lion’s share of venture capital funding.

Renowned as a green energy, financial services and technology hub, Cape Town serves as the continental headquarters for many domestic and multinational corporations. At the northern end of the city on the Foreshore, an area built in the 1930s and 40s atop reclaimed land from Table Bay, Cape Town International Convention Centre sits within an easy stroll of the scenic iconic V&A Waterfront, offering business travelers ample opportunities to mix work with leisure.

The city provides the backdrop for all manner of cultural, music and arts festival throughout the year. And hundreds of expos, trade fairs and exhibitions make Cape Town’s evocative landscapes the backdrop, too, for marquee events on their annual calendars.

Whatever type of business brings you to Africa, no city fits the bleisure bill quite like Cape Town.

© ELLERMAN HOUSE

Make a spectacular coastal neighborhood like Bantry Bay your base to ensure the vibe conjures vacation in style, and check into Ellerman House, a Relais & Châteaux property with a sparkling clifftop swimming pool overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. In the main lodge, elegant hotel rooms with spacious private balconies gaze upon lush gardens, while contemporary private villas serviced by your own personal chef and butler crawl up the hillside and have rooftop lounges for private gatherings. More than 1,000 artworks scattered throughout the hotel and housed within its incredible private art gallery showcase the talents of South African painters, sculptors and other artists, adding to the deep sense of place of a stay.

A break from the boardroom can come in almost any form you can dream up in these landscapes backdropped by vineyards; mountains with striking, serrated peaks; and wild ocean at every turn.

Consider teambuilding exercises in the form of surf lessons in Camps Bay. Or ride pillion (if you’re not licensed to rumble yourself ) during motorcycle tours along the renowned Chapman’s Peak Drive with West Coast Motorcycle Rentals.

Cape Town Helicopters’ eco-friendly fleet lifts off for tours of Robben Island, the city, Table Mountain, and the Twelve Apostles and full peninsula forays.

You can also maximize your time by taking to the air for a quick transfer to Constantia, South Africa’s oldest wine region. There, a power lunch overlooking the vines awaits at Beyond, where Chef Peter Tempelhoff showcases indigenous ingredients from the surrounding terroir in elegant, multicourse menus.

© DELAIRE GRAFF ESTATE

Further afield, on the slopes of the Stellenbosch Mountains, billionaire Swiss diamantaire Laurence Graff ’s exquisite Delaire Graff Estate commands views of False Bay and Table Mountain. A business or celebratory gathering unfolds with understated elegance at Hōseki, the estate’s Japanese farm-to-table jewel. Chef Virgil Kahn sources most ingredients from on-site gardens, local organic farms and Cape Town’s sustainable seafood purveyors. The property’s Wine Lounge offers another intimate space for cocktail hours and wine tastings focused on the estate’s award-winning vintages.

Back at sea level in Cape Town, there is no more coveted table than Tempelhoff ’s FYN, named among the 50 best restaurants in the world and known for the chef ’s use of ingredients from the fynbos — shrublands surrounding the city where heirloom vegetables, aromatics and other ingredients that exist no place else on Earth flourish.

Whether for business or pleasure, a multicourse dinner paired with wines from South Africa’s celebrated winelands proves as memorable as the extraordinary views that greet visitors upon arrival in one of the continent’s most captivating cities.

INFO TO GO
Domestic and international flights arrive at one of the continent’s most highly lauded airports, Cape Town International Airport, roughly 12 miles east of the city’s V&A Waterfront. The airport is serviced by many international airlines offering direct service from Europe, the United States, the Middle East and South America, as well as across African destinations. Luxury chauffeurs offer private transfers to the city in style, and official metered taxis also stand by outside of the terminal.