Where to stay in Cape Town: the best areas

This is the Cape Town of postcards: the Twelve Apostles dropping to white sand, sundowners facing the sea, and the promenade at Sea Point for a morning run. Camps Bay has the busiest beach and a strip of restaurants; Bakoven, just south, is quieter, with boulders and small coves. The water is cold, fed by the Benguela current, so most people come for the beaches and the light rather than the swimming.

Choose it for a beach holiday, sunsets and walkable restaurants. The trade-off is price and summer traffic on the coastal road.

Gardens, Tamboerskloof, Oranjezicht and Vredehoek sit on the slopes under Table Mountain, a short walk or drive from Kloof Street’s restaurants, the Company’s Garden and the lower cable station. De Waterkant, with its cobbled lanes and painted cottages beside Bo-Kaap, and the V&A Waterfront put you at the harbour and the Robben Island ferries.

Choose it for a first visit, a short stay or a trip without a car. It is the most central base, and the beaches are fifteen to twenty minutes away.

On the green, eastern side of the mountain, the southern suburbs trade sea views for oak trees, gardens and the oldest wine route in the country. Constantia’s estates are minutes from the house, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is next door, and the weather is often kinder than on the Atlantic side when the summer wind blows.

Choose it for wine, gardens, a quieter stay and easy access to both coasts.

Simon’s Town is a naval village of Victorian main-street buildings, and a short walk from Boulders Beach, where an African penguin colony nests among the granite boulders inside Table Mountain National Park. The False Bay water is warmer than the Atlantic side, and Glencairn and Fish Hoek have sheltered swimming beaches. Across the peninsula, Noordhoek has a long, empty beach for walking and horse riding, and Chapman’s Peak Drive to the north.

Choose it for families, swimming, the penguins and Cape Point. It is about forty-five minutes from the city centre.