Cape Town

Here is the persuasive line first, because it happens to be true: Cape Town is a direct overnight flight from London, two hours ahead, no jet lag. You land at breakfast in high summer while Britain is in January. Nowhere else on our list trades winter for summer this cheaply in hours.

The city runs on Table Mountain's moods. The cable car closes when the wind says so, which is why our ground team re-sequences days on the fly: mountain on the clear morning, winelands when the cloth comes down. The insider version is walking up Lion's Head at dawn and riding the cable car back down. The peninsula earns its full day too: Chapman's Peak Drive, the penguins at Boulders Beach, Cape Point, then fish and chips in Kalk Bay harbour on the way home.

Sleep by temperament: the Silo, stacked above the Zeitz MOCAA museum in its glass-pillowed grain elevator; Mount Nelson's pink colonial calm under the mountain; or Ellerman House in Bantry Bay, which feels less like a hotel than a friend's improbable art collection with sea views. Give the winelands two nights, and pick your valley: Franschhoek for the Wine Tram and the tasting-menu circuit, Stellenbosch for oak-lined streets and older cellars.

High season

November to March. February and March bring the calmest, warmest days.

Green season

June to August is moody and lush, with whales at Hermanus from July.

Jet lag

None. Overnight flight, GMT+2. The first day is a real day.

The classic shape

Cape Town, then safari, then winelands. Ten days that feel like three holidays.