The holiday season may be over but the sun’s still shining (very) brightly in Cape Town. With this beautiful weather, what better than to spend it outside with your family and friends? Today, we list Cape Grace PR Executive, Jana van der Spuy’s Top 5 favourite al-fresco activities:

Picnics:

I love picnics and a firm favourite location is Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, offering world-class gardens, botanical walks and talks as well as an abundance of picnic spots, in the sun or shade.

Another beautiful spot right in the middle of Cape Town is Company’s Gardens. This large, beautiful public space is what’s left of the original gardens, cultivated to feed the first colonisers and supply their trading ships in the mid 1600’s. Cape Grace has a suite named after the Company’s Gardens and a replica mural of the original garden design (read more about it here).

Summer Concerts:

Summer concerts have taken Cape Town by storm; with Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens being the first to offer this wonderful event to the summer leisure calendar. De Waal Park  followed suite with Free Summer Concerts, which includes the likes of Karen Zoid, Mark Haze and Arno Carstens. The V&A Waterfront have a series of free concerts in their open-air amphitheatre, but there are just two more dates to go; 26 and 27 January 2013.

 Hiking:

A firm favourite is the hike up Table Mountain, with the option of an easy way down by cable car or vice versa. If you’re an experienced hiker, you can go up and down in one go, but not in the midday sun! The 360º view over oceans and mountain tops makes it worth every single step!

Lion’s Head is another great city hike and will take you anywhere from 1 hour onwards to reach the top (or 30 mins if you jog up – people do!). It’s not a difficult hike, but be warned – you will have to do some climbing on ladders and chains fixed to the steeper rocks!

Open Air Cinemas:

A rather new concept to Cape Town is open air cinemas; Grand Daddy has a very popular Rooftop Cinema called The Pink Flamingo, which shows classic movies as well as newer releases.  R50 will get you a ticket and a cone of sweet treats, welcome drink and choice between three firm favourites: an Eskimo Pie, Candyfloss or (the obvious winner in my eyes) Popcorn. The R200 package secures a comfortable front row couch for up to 3 people, all the previously mentioned treats and a cooler-box of cold beverages.

The newly launched Galileo Open Air Cinema, with Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens as your backdrop has Capetonians in an uproar of excitement. The cinema runs once a week (usually on Wednesdays) from November until April 2013. Each week offers a different genre: the 1^st week features Documentaries, the 2^nd week Best Foreign Films, the 3^rd week Adventure Sports and the 4^th week, All-time Favourite Classics. Snacks and drinks are on offer and there are a limited number of chairs and blankets to hire (book them in advance). No private chairs are allowed, but you can bring your own blankets and picnic food and drinks. For more info visit their FAQ.

Open-Air Theatre:

Al-fresco theatre can only mean one venue for Capetonians and that’s Maynardville in the southern suburb of Wynberg! They always put on a Shakespeare play or two and a ballet during the summer season and the delightful forest glade setting lends itself to fanciful theatrics like Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is on this year until 23 Feb 2013. Read here to know more about Maynardville’s history and this year’s line up or here to find out what other al-fresco events are on in and around Cape Town this summer.