Hotel, Self Catering or Bed and Breakfast? Choosing the Cape Town accommodation that is right for you.

If you are looking for accommodation in Cape Town one thing you will find is that you are spoilt for choice. Cape Town offers the full spectrum of accommodation from the most basic place to lay your head to the most opulent five star accommodations. While there are a large range of accommodation options in Cape Town, when looking to book accommodation travellers can generally narrow it down to three main categories: hotels, self catering accommodation or bed and breakfasts. Each of these options has their own pros and cons and choosing the right one for you will depend on your own particular needs and preferences. Here are some of the things you might want to consider when choosing your accommodation:

Type of rooms

The type of room you will get in Cape Town will vary greatly depending on the type of accommodation you are looking at as well as the price range you are looking in. Hotel rooms are usually done up in a uniform way they will offer all the necessary comforts but can often feel impersonal and sterile. Cape Town bed and breakfast rooms on the other hand are generally individually decorated, often with different themes in different rooms. These rooms can feel more intimate, cosy and personal. Self catering accommodation has the benefit of allowing you to rent out an entire flat or house which means you are not confined to a single room, the style and comfort of this type of accommodation in Cape Town however varies greatly and there is little consistency in what you can expect.

Food

One of the main advantages of hotels is that food is available to you at any time of the day or night. The downside of this is that food is generally not included in the price of the room and additional food costs can add up. Bed and breakfasts on the other hand generally only provide breakfast but this is normally built into the price of the room. Bed and breakfasts also have the advantage of only cooking for a few people so the food is often of a very high quality. Self catering accommodation means that you are in charge of organising your own meals. This can be good as you control when, where and what you eat but it also means you don’t escape your every day routine of cooking and cleaning.

Facilities

In terms of facilities bed and breakfasts and hotels in Cape Town generally offer similar things within the rooms such as a kettle, fridge, TV, etc. Where hotels have an advantage is that they often offer other facilities such as a gym, swimming pool, etc. Self catering accommodation is different in that it has a full kitchen and often laundry facilities.

Holiday accommodation in Cape Town

Choosing holiday accommodation in Cape Town should not be done solely based on budget. The attractions of Cape Town are not all focused in the city centre in fact many are to be found outside the city limits. As public transport cannot be relied upon it is imperative that you know in advance what you would like to see and then choose your holiday accommodation in Cape Town accordingly. Like all cities that are popular with tourists there are several major attractions that can distract potential visitors from the real beauty to be found not far from the busy centre.

Cape Town is often seen in terms of, Table Mountain, the V&A Waterfront, Cape Point and Camps Bay, and rightly so, they should be high on the list of things to see when visiting Cape Town they are not however the be all and end all of the tourist trail. There are many gems to be found not two hours outside of the city limits and when booking holiday accommodation in Cape Town it is important that you remember that getting to these places can be tricky and expensive, especially if it is just for a day trip. It’s worth considering your options for staying in these places for a couple of nights to give you the opportunity to explore them properly.

The wine routes around Cape Town offer a magical way to spend the day, if not two or three days. Whether it’s sampling the local plonk, exploring the countryside and indulging in some of the many award winning restaurants that litter the region your days will be full. The small towns in the region offer spectacular options for holiday accommodation. Cape Town will soon seem like a secondary thought on your itinerary after a few days spent in Stellenbosch or Franschhoek. The region a couple of hours North of Cape Town also provides you with an opportunity to explore an area and culture that many tourists don’t know exist. During spring the fields around the town of Darling are transformed into an impressionist’s canvas as flowers, many of which are unique to the region bloom, covering the ground in a carpet of colour. This once a year explosion of nature is not to be missed if you’re in Cape Town at the time and by carefully planning your holiday accommodation in Cape Town you can ensure that you are nearby when it happens.

Public transport through most of South Africa is unreliable at best, so reaching the hidden gems outside of Cape Town may require a rental car. One doesn’t however want to waste days of their holiday driving from place to place. Planning your holiday accommodation in Cape Town properly can ensure that you are close to the places you want to see. Even if the attractions seem close to your holiday accommodation, a place like the Cape Point could take the best part of a day to see if you’re staying in the CBD. While the drive is lovely and well worth it, if one has evening plans or small kids it would be worth finding holiday accommodation and Cape Town guest house on the southern end of the peninsula for a few days.

When planning your trip to Cape Town, holiday accommodation is obviously your primary concern with a little foresight and planning you can choose a place that will allow you to see the best of Cape Town.