Veteran visitors to South Africa are always full of good ideas for things to do for those who are about to go for the first time.
Newcomers to Cape Town generally hear the same list of essentials: go and see the penguins at Simonstown; go and see the whales at Hermanus; go and taste the fine wines in Stellenbosch.
There is also a common refrain about one of Cape Town's trendiest areas – the beach area of Camps Bay: "You simply must go to this fabulous restaurant in Camps Bay. The food is wonderful, the wine is amazing, and try as you might, you can't spend more than £15 ($26) a head."
Tasty profits Most of this advice is well founded. With seemingly unlimited supplies of superb local crayfish, plump oysters from Namibia and huge prawns from Mozambique, the restaurants do offer fabulous food, at least for seafood fans. But £15 a head? It's so cheap that it sounds too good to be true. And it is.
Even one year ago, conversion rates for the South African rand were extremely favourable for the foreign traveller, at roughly R17 to the British pound.