Where to stay in Cape Town: Camps Bay vs Green Point (Beach vs Cost)

When people first come to Cape Town, one of the places they often choose to stay in, first of all, is Camps Bay, which is where we are today. But in today's video, I'm going to share with you some reasons why Camps Bay may not be the right place for you to stay and five alternative locations that you should look at. Now, one of the reasons why Camps Bay might not be the best place to stay, and you can probably hear it in the microphone, is because it is often super windy here. And look at the sea today and we are in mid November and as beautiful as the beach looks, look at the ocean. Not much chance that you're going to be swimming in the sea today. So I'm going to walk you through the five locations today and we'll start with Camp Spades.

Okay, let's start back at the beginning. So leaving my place in Bantry Bay, it's about a 10 to 15 minute drive, depending on traffic. It's a really pleasant drive, so make sure that you remember that the journey is as good as the destination. Driving down the coastal route. And then when you arrive in Camps Bay, look out for parking. It wasn't that busy on the day I was there, but you could see a parking guard directed me up the street. I'm not quite sure why because I ended up driving quite a long way up the street. Anyway, you'll get parking. It's free on the road or there are some paid car parks. So park your car and then let's go and explore Camps Bay.

So Camps Bay is kind of like the Miami of Cape Town with lots of beautiful hotels nestled amongst the mountains and right opposite a lovely sandy beach, which unfortunately, on a day like today, you are not going to be swimming in because it's so bloody windy. But if you want somewhere with lots of lovely hotels, lots of places, restaurants, somewhere you can catch the hop on, hop off bus and go and see the rest of the place, then Camps Bay may well be for you. It's certainly really pretty, but a couple of things to be aware of. First of all, it's not in the centre of town, so you've got about a 15 to 20 minute Uber ride or drive if you want to get into the centre of Cape Town or to the VA waterfront. And here we are in November and it is a super windy day. So if you're coming in sort of October, November, December time, then be prepared for the winds. The winds tend to start dying down around February time, so that's a great time to be here. Otherwise, if you Think you're booking Camps Bay because you're going to have a lovely beach holiday, then you're probably going to be disappointed because as you can see, whilst it's a lovely sandy beach, today is definitely a day for not sub bathing and swimming in sandblast, and definitely not swimming in an ocean that is going to be very dangerous to swim in. So if that's why you're coming here, then be really mindful about the time of year and the weather so that you're not disappointed.

So walk with me through Camps Bay. On my right, the Atlantic Ocean and on my left the Strip. You'll hear plates, icing glasses, people chatting and waves hitting the wall. Look up and the ridge that you'll see is the 12 apostles. Now here's a bit of quick history. So Camps Bay took its name from von kamps in the 1700s. Victoria Road, which is the main road, opened in the late 1800s and turned this coast into a day trip. By 1991, a tram brought crowds to the sand, the Rotunda hosted big dances, and the tidal pool made cold swims a summer habit. So back to today, there are brunch spots, gelato shops, restaurants and sundowner decks facing west. Plenty of great hotels and restaurants to choose from, but be aware that they can be quite pricey. As I've already mentioned, it's often really windy here, despite what the Instagram photos show you. Also, given that it's the Atlantic Ocean, the water is bloody freezing cold all year long, so you need to be braver than us if you want to take a dip. But it's a sandy beach and on less windy days it's often packed. As a couple, we feel safe and welcome here we come for sunsets, great food for the theatre on the bay and to people watch. Best sunset seats are at the tidal pool steps or the grassy edge above the sand. So let's wrap up this first location with three reasons that you should stay in Camps Bay and three reasons why other locations might be better suited. So first of all, you get amazing beachfront views and sunsets. With the 12 apartments hostels as a backdrop. It's a very walkable strip full of cafes, bars and the beaches all in one place, easy for a car free day. It also gives you fast access to the Atlantic Seaboard highlights like Clifton Beach, Lion's Head and the Table Mountain CableWay, all about 5 to 15 minutes by car if the traffic's behaving. But here are some reasons why you might pick somewhere else to stay in Cape Town first of all, as I mentioned, things can can be pricey. Rooms and mills are usually more expensive than Sea Point, Greenpoint or the City Bowl. And in the summer, crowds and traffic can be a real problem and parking is a bit of a challenge and things definitely get busy at the weekends. And thirdly, the wind, as I've already showed you, it is often super windy here unless you're coming in sort of February, March time. Also, finally, you'll need to drive or use Uber to get anywhere else because Camps Bay is not really in the centre of Cape Town like the other locations I'm going to share with you. Okay, let's move on to our second location which is Greenpoint. Now this is a really pleasant drive from where I'm staying near Sea Point and It's about a 10 minute drive and I chose to park near the lighthouse. As you can see, there is lots of free parking there, although of course at weekends it does get busy.

So we are starting at the Green Point Lighthouse. We're going to follow the ocean path and you can see that the sea is just on this side of me. We'll take a walk through the park and I'll show you some of the shops and the route that you take to the VA so you can see how a car free day would actually work. Greenpoint's been Cape Town's front yard for a century. The Dutch called this area de Platz. They grazed cattle here and early breakwater plans washed away in the winter storms. So the red and white Greenpoint Lighthouse is South Africa's oldest working lighthouse, first lit in 1824, commissioned by Sir Rufane Donking, designed by Herman Schutt, later raised and updated. A second lighthouse stood at Merle point, built in 1824 and demolished in 1908. However, its base still sits near Granger Bay, which is up in that direction. So from the lighthouse you can come down to the promenade that takes you by the sea. And it's quite a clear day today, although it's rather windy. You can see Robin island in the distance there. And if you walk down here, it will take you all the way down to Seapoint. This is such a lovely promenade. And of course this is another area that you might want to stay in when you come to visit here. That is slightly different part of Green Point. But again, if you're staying in an apartment, try and avoid staying overlooking the main road, otherwise it's going to potentially be quite noisy. So let's take a stroll through Green Point park, which is an absolute must Visit place if you are in the area. I actually stayed here for a few years and I didn't even realize this was here. But at the weekend this place is really buzzing with lots of families coming for picnics, people playing sports and people walking their dogs and just having a good time. It's a little bit quieter today because it's the middle of the week. So Green Point park was opened in 2010 as a World cup legacy. It's 12 and a half hectares of lawns, ponds and indigenous biodiversity gardens. And you can just see in the distance here Cape Town Stadium, which has also opened the same year on the old Green Point Stadium site. And today the park links the stadium, the promenade and the waterfront on foot. There's lots of lovely walks which are all laid out very clearly. Different pathways that you can take.

Here's the wetland walk.

And you can see that the park is surrounded by mountains. There's lion head in the distance. And look at all the beautiful biodiversity of plants that are here. We're just coming to the end of spring now, so a lot of the spring flowers have gone, but I imagine looks pretty spectacular here when all the plants are out in bloom. So I started at the west gate. I've walked directly through the park to the east gate and then we're going to cross over the road and head into the main part of Greenpoint Town itself. This is where you'll find lots of hotels and some of these are like backpacker hotels, some they're really good value and you're going to find lots of apartment blocks where you can get a good Airbnb. But the one warning I want to give you is that this road here is main road and as you can hear, it's pretty noisy. So if you are staying in an apartment overlooking main road, which is actually a pretty decent place to stay, just make sure that you get an apartment at the back of the block. You'll probably find that the front facing apartments are cheaper, but obviously they are going to be noisy. So you probably want to find an apartment at the back, which is what I've done. I'll show you where I stayed before, which is a really, really lovely apartment. So I definitely recommend this area because it's so central. You can walk to Sea Point that way, you can walk to Dewaterkan straight on, you can get to the V and A over there. And there are always lots of things happening. Once you walk a bit down the road, you'll find lots of restaurants. This is a really nice deli and shop. Hello, Hi. And sushi. Chinese food. Forests. Oh, yeah, and here's the deli. I was thinking of Giovanni's, which is a famous deli where you can buy lots of delicious foods and also.

A.

Coffee shop as well. It's a famous bakery here that does lovely things, although probably haven't got very much left now because it's only after afternoon. But this gets really busy in the mornings. And if you want to stay in a nice hotel, then the Cape Royal Hotel is both a hotel and it also has rooms that they sell, so you can get airbnbs in there as well. And there's some nice coffee shop here.

Also.

Use the entrance. And one thing you'll quickly realize about Cape Town is just how many coffee shops there are everywhere. And most of them are really good. You'll struggle to have a bad coffee here. So then we come to the kind of main little shopping area where there's a nice burger bar, gelato, coffee and bagels, which I think is new since I was last here, and Walworths, where you can stop on all of your foods. Just to give a bit of perspective, if you want to walk from here to the va, you cross over where these people are crossing and you just walk straight down that road for about half a mile and you end up at the VA waterfront. So again, another great reason to be based in Greenpoint, as well as lots of of lovely restaurants to eat at as well. So I just want to show a couple of places I stayed at. I've stayed at Chelsea on Main, which is just off the main high street and right next to a bootlegger coffee shop, which is one of the few chains coffee shops here. That's actually really good. That's good coffee. And then the other place I've stayed at is just next door to it called 35 on Main Street. And again, this is really nice apartment in here, but I had an apartment at the back facing away from the main road because I think you can hear this road is pretty much busy all the time, so you don't want to be disturbed by that noise. Now, as a point of reference, I've walked about 3km. So starting at the lighthouse, walking through the park, crossing the road, walking through Greenpoint town and then coming back again is about a three kilometer walk. Okay, so let's wrap this section of the video up talking about Greenpoint by talking about three reasons why you might want to stay here and three reasons why you might not. So first of all, you can walk everywhere. You can walk to the va, you can walk to Sea Point and the beautiful promenade there. And of course you can walk to the park and the stadium from Green Point as well. So it's a really centrally located place to stay. And next of all, because of that, daily life is really easy here. There's lots and lots of cafes, as I showed you, lots of great restaurants and also lots of really different priced accommodations for you to stay at. Whether you want to stay in a backpacker hostel or an expensive hotel, there's something for everyone and everything in between as well. So, three reasons why Green Point might not be right for you. So first of all, if a beach is really important, important to you. Well, Greenpoint isn't close to a beach, so you would better be better off staying somewhere like Camps Bay or Clifton, so you're close to the beaches there. Next of all, it's on a busy road, Somerset Road or Main Road. So as I showed you, if you're staying here, make sure you get an apartment that's not facing the road. And lastly, if you want lots of nightlife and museums, then again, Greenpoint doesn't really have that. You need to head over to Loop street and to the City bowl area where you'll find lots of nightlife, plus all the museums as well. But having said all of that, I would highly recommend Greenpoint as a place for you to consider staying. Mainly because of its location and also the diverse range of accommodation and cafes and restaurants. Okay, I think I'm going to leave things there. Otherwise this video is going to run really long. So in part two, next Sunday we are going to be exploring Sea Point de Vorticant, the V and A and one mystery location that might just be worth you looking into. That could also save you a lot of money. So make sure you tune in next Sunday. And of course, if you enjoyed today's video, please do give us a thumbs.

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Sam.