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.