Where to stay in South Africa

Where to stay

• Cape Town: the City Bowl, Gardens, Green Point, Sea Point or Camps Bay. The City Bowl and Gardens put you under the mountain and in walking distance of the restaurants; Sea Point has the promenade; Camps Bay has the beach and the price.
• Cape Town's CBD is fine by day and quiet at night. Do not walk between the CBD and the suburbs after dark; take a car.
• Johannesburg: Sandton, Rosebank, Melville or Maboneng. Sandton is safe, corporate and where the Gautrain goes. Rosebank is more pleasant. Melville and Maboneng have the character.
• Johannesburg's old CBD is not a place to stay on a first visit.
• Durban: Umhlanga or the Berea, rather than the beachfront strip.

Lodges and guesthouses

• The guesthouse is the South African speciality: a large house, a handful of rooms, a pool, a full breakfast, often ZAR 1,200 to ZAR 2,500 a night for two.
• Safari lodges price per person per night, all inclusive, and range from about ZAR 3,000 to genuinely eye-watering. The rate normally covers all meals and two game drives.
• SANParks rest camps inside Kruger are far cheaper than the private lodges and are excellent. Book six months to a year ahead for school holidays.
• Backpackers hostels are a strong network along the Garden Route and are how a lot of people travel here.

Practical

• Check-in is usually 14:00, check-out 10:00 or 11:00.
• Ask about the security arrangements. In South Africa this is a normal question and a good host will answer it in detail.
• Most places have a generator or inverter left over from the load-shedding years, which is now largely insurance rather than necessity.
• Air conditioning is not universal even in expensive places on the coast. Check if you are travelling December to February.
• Book the December and January coastal season months out. The whole country holidays then and the Garden Route fills.