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Every year, there are thousands of different travel awards that hand out titles to the world’s premier travel destinations.

The Telegraph Travel Awards are not to be scoffed at, and this year, more than 39 000 readers responded to their survey.

For the seventh year running, the best city on earth is “a coastal gem, lying in the shadow of a cloud-hugged mountain”, where “wine flows, penguins waddle and – not too far away – majestic beasts roam“.

Yeah, that’s Cape Town for you.

Before we get into why the Mother City came out tops, let’s see the full list of the top 20 cities:

Not a bad list to sit atop.

According to the Telegraph’s South African expert, Pippa de Bruyn, Cape Town is “rather like dating a mercurial model”, in that you put up with some discomfort in order to enjoy waking up to a natural beauty.

Here are those 10 reasons why Cape Town comes out on top:

1. Geography

The original Khoi inhabitants named the iconic flat-topped massif ‘Hoerikwaggo’, Mountain of the Sea, and it is precisely this unique geography – towering mountains that drop, at times perpendicularly, into the vast blue – that is so seductive.

2. Boulders Penguins

The African penguin colony that settled at Boulders beach in 1982 has become a de rigueur stop on every peninsula tour, but those in the know pack a bather and join them in the bracing waters, or watch their antics while sprawled on the beach.

Every so often, there’s even the odd rare penguin visiting our shores.

3. Cape Dutch History & Winelands

The oldest winemaking region in the New World is a delight to explore, albeit rather overwhelming – you could spend an entire year sampling your way through more than 500 wineries, from historic Cape Dutch homesteads to modernistic cubes overlooking vineyard-clad valleys.

The fourth reason is Table Mountain Cable Car – I don’t think we need more details on that front, with number five being the Museum of Contemporary African Art.

Or, as one very odd email sent to us called it, the ‘Temple of Satan’.

Sixth is the V&A Waterfront, and seventh is Cape Point:

A 7750-ha nature reserve within Table Mountain National Park, the most southwesterly tip of the continent is oft beset by vicious winds, its sheer, jagged cliffs pounded by a wild Atlantic that devoured many ships prior to the 1859 lighthouse, accessed today via the ‘Flying Dutchman’ funicular.

8. Kirstenbosch Gardens

One of the world’s great botanical gardens, with manicured lawns that blend seamlessly into the dense indigenous forests that carpet the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch hosts sunset concerts in the summer – a backdrop that is worth a picnic, regardless of whose playing.

9. Bo-Kaap

Cape Town Travel

In a city that still suffers a geospatial hangover from apartheid, the predominantly Muslim neighbourhood of Bo Kaap is to be treasured, not least when the plangent call of the muezzin floats across the city, calling the faithful to prayer.

So far, I can dig all nine.

When it comes to number 10, though, we may have an issue:

10. Weather

Generally speaking, summers are hot and sometimes windy but temperatures and cloud cover can vary enormously at any particular moment, depending on which side of the mountain you find yourself, or how far you are from the coast. One weather pattern that is predicable: when it rains, the locals rejoice.

I think the use of the words ‘sometimes windy’ is a serious understatement, especially for those who live at the base of the mountain in Vredehoek or Gardens.

But yes, our weather does at least lend itself towards being outdoors, which is a good thing when you consider the natural beauty on offer.

So, Capetonians, when you find yourself cursing under your breath about the city you live in, remember that it’s just won the Telegraph’s vote for greatest city on earth seven years running.

I’ll take that.

[source:telegraph]