City Bowl & Gardens

The City Bowl is the flat amphitheatre held between Table Mountain, Devil's Peak, Signal Hill and Table Bay, and it is the one part of Cape Town where a visitor can spend several days without a car. In everyday use it covers the central business district plus the residential slopes that ring it, meaning Gardens, Oranjezicht, Tamboerskloof and the Bo-Kaap. Accommodation follows that split. The centre itself holds hotels and apartment buildings within walking distance of Long Street, Bree Street, the Company's Garden and the Castle. The slopes above, particularly Gardens and Tamboerskloof, are quieter and more residential, with guesthouses and converted houses set back from the noise but still close enough to walk down into town.

Choosing between them comes down to how much walking you want and how much street activity you want outside the door. A central address keeps restaurants, museums and tour departure points within a few blocks and lets you leave a car parked for whole days, which matters here because parking in the centre is managed and paid and the one-way system is unforgiving. An address on the slopes trades a few minutes of walking for a calmer evening and, on the higher streets, a view back over the bowl. Both sit closer to the Table Mountain lower cableway than anywhere else in the city.