Cape Town hotel recommendations

[JasGill]

Good morning

First time visitor visiting to celebrate a major birthday for a few days and feeling utterly confused about where to stay in Cape Town in an upcoming visit in February. I’ve been steered away from staying at the waterfront area and have been looking for a boutique hotel at around the £400 per night mark but have been left completely confused due to the amount of choice available. Please can someone recommend somewhere to stay in a nice location but still within reach of the major sites etc.
Many thanks

[Mouse]

I recently stayed at the Manor House at the Queen Victoria hotel adjacent to the Waterfront. Very large, comfortable room, excellent service, good location and about £300 per night. The Queen Victoria hotel itself (where you check in and take breakfast) seemed very pleasant too.

Avoid the Table Bay hotel – tired and overpriced, and poor service. And avoid the Westin unless you’re desperate for the points and don’t mind being surrounded by the business conference crowd.

[JDB]

JasGill wrote:

Good morning

First time visitor visiting to celebrate a major birthday for a few days and feeling utterly confused about where to stay in Cape Town in an upcoming visit in February. I’ve been steered away from staying at the waterfront area and have been looking for a boutique hotel at around the £400 per night mark but have been left completely confused due to the amount of choice available. Please can someone recommend somewhere to stay in a nice location but still within reach of the major sites etc.
Many thanks

If you have a car, you have a wealth of options. Villa Lion View in Constantia is good – if you don’t know it, Constantia is a smart residential area so lots of good shops and restaurants as well as beautiful unbusy wineries and not too overbuilt. The views from the hotel are wonderful and the pool is immaculate. It doesn’t have a restaurant, but they serve an excellent breakfast and they have the best stocked honour bar you could imagine, lots of great artwork and Ardmore furnishings. The Twelve Apostles is an excellent, one of a kind hotel and you can usually get a deal to fit it into the budget as it’s not cheap, but is very special – it has a lovely terrace for breakfast overlooking the sea and a free shuttle that goes to Camps Bay (lots of restaurants) and the Waterfront. It’s very close to the Table Mountain cable car and on the route towards Chapman’s Peak etc. Both are very good bases for visiting Cape Town and surrounding area. I agree with not staying on the Waterfront, it’s just a shipping centre for tourists full of poor, overpriced restaurants. The Mount Nelson was the former grande dame of hotels in Cape Town but not longer justifies that as Belmond have squeezed the life out of it.

If you are looking for a special place for celebratory dining – the Chef’s Warehouse either at Beau Constantia or Tintswalo are both exceptional for their food and very different settings and views, maybe better at lunchtime for those views. Also not formal and a fraction of their UK equivalent cost. FYN in the city also has great food, good for lunch (when it’s a bit cheaper) or dinner. Some say La Colombe in Constantia is the best, but it’s rather formal, austere and charmless. Those are some of the fancier places, but there are plenty of other excellent dining options at great prices.

[George K]

This will fall way short of your price point, but I had an outstanding stay at the Protea North Wharf, which is near enough to the waterfront, but not on it. It’s an apartment-style hotel – I had a massive fully equipped apartment for a few days, with great view and good breakfast. Pool is nothing to write home about though.

On the boutique scale, I’ve heard good things about Cape Cadogan, but don’t have direct experience.

[Birdy]

We stayed at Harpers House in Green Point in December and also recommend Welgelegen, close to Kloof St, though it was a few years ago when we stayed. Both are small, boutique hotels but below your budget so maybe not luxury enough.

We prefer Green Point and Sea Point but I don’t think the Waterfront is a bad place to stay as a first time visitor. We had a good stay at Radisson Red in 2020 – it’s on the edge of the Waterfront next to the Silo.

[LD27]

Currently in South Africa. Stayed in Cape Town a couple of weeks ago. As first timers we split our stay and agree with lots of @JDB’s suggestions. Spent first couple of nights at O&O, which was lovely – modern African style, with view of Table Mountain from room. Also good afternoon tea, but need to book. Really close for Robben Is boat, which was handy when all trips were cancelled.

We then headed to the Twelve Apostles and Steenberg in Constantia. Can recommend both. Enjoyed meal at Chef’s Table Beau Constantia. Uber is your best friend for getting around Cape Town. Really cheap. Didn’t hire car until we moved to Constantia. Still having an amazing time even though we have encountered snow flurries on Table Mountain and major flooding at Knysna.

[mzb]

We visited Capetown for the first time earlier this March. We had a great time, and as a first time visitor I don’t actually think staying by the Waterfront/downtown is necessarily a bad idea (at least for a few days, while you’re mostly doing the touristy bits). Let’s face it you will be a tourist for at least 2-3 days.

We did actually stay at the Protea North Wharf George mentioned, and found it to be very comfortable – nothing luxurious but worked well as a base: 15 mins walk into the waterfront, can walk into downtown, and Ubers are plentiful/cheap/safe if we wanted to venture a bit further out.

No experience with Constantia, and the southern suburbs, but we did rent a car for a day, and drove down the Cape to Boulders beach to see the pinguins, beautiful drive through Chapmans peak.

[cabal of rabid baboons]

We stayed at Cape Grace & Mount Nelson and were underwhelmed, id be off to Franschoek next time without any hesitation

[lesscleverandrew]

I’d recommend staying in kalk bay or constantia if you want to be in and around cape town itself – easy access to great beaches on the southern peninsula, cape point nature reserve, constantia wine route and so on.

Franschoek is nice but pricey. As usual it depends. Plenty of lovely places further out of cape town itself.