Camps Bay

Camps Bay runs along the foot of the Twelve Apostles, the long wall of rock that peels off the back of Table Mountain and gives the suburb its backdrop. In front is the beach: a wide crescent of white sand that fills up on a summer afternoon and spills into a row of restaurants and bars the moment the sun starts to drop. Everything faces west, so the sunset is the fixed point each day is built around.

This is the busy, sociable end of the Atlantic Seaboard. The beachfront strip along Victoria Road is where the city comes to eat, drink and watch the light go, and in high summer it hums well into the evening. Staying here puts the beach, a sundowner and dinner all within a short walk of the front door, which is the whole point. If you would rather be in the middle of it than looking on from a quiet slope, Camps Bay is the address.

It helps to know what the beach actually is. The sand is superb and the setting is hard to beat, but this is the Atlantic, and the water is cold enough to take your breath even in January. People come for the sand, the scene and the view more than for long swims. There is a tidal pool at Maiden’s Cove just south for a gentler dip, and Glen Beach at the northern end picks up the surf. The beach is patrolled and family-friendly, and the grassy verges above it are made for a picnic at golden hour.

Camps Bay is close to everything. The drive over Kloof Nek reaches the city and the Table Mountain cableway in about fifteen minutes, the V&A Waterfront is a short hop, and the coast road north runs straight past Clifton’s beaches and on towards Sea Point. You can spend the day in town and still be back with your feet in the sand before sunset.

The homes climb the slopes behind the beach, and the higher they sit the wider the view, most of them angled across the bay and out to sea. Luxury villa rentals in Camps Bay tend to be large, open houses with pools and big terraces, the kind of place a group takes when they want space and want the beach and the restaurants on the doorstep at the same time. They suit a particular sort of holiday: swim, eat and go out without ever getting in a car, then come home to the view.

It works for families and groups of friends who want the walkable, lively side of Cape Town and do not mind a busy street below them in season. Anyone after silence will be happier a suburb or two along. But for a stay where the beach, the sunset and dinner are all a few steps apart, Camps Bay is the one most people picture. Every Camps Bay home in the Havenluxe collection is run and looked after in-house, so the house is ready when you walk in and there is always someone local to call.