Llandudno

Llandudno is a small residential suburb built around a single beach, tucked into a cove on the far side of Camps Bay where the Twelve Apostles drop almost to the sand. It is one of the most secluded places on the Atlantic Seaboard: hemmed in by mountain, reached by a winding road off the main route, and completely residential. There are no shops, no restaurants and famously no streetlights, just houses on the slopes and the sea below.

The beach is the whole point. A crescent of white sand is framed by giant granite boulders, and because the suburb faces west it catches the full sunset, which draws a quiet crowd down to the sand most clear evenings. It is a beautiful, dramatic spot, and like the rest of this coast the water is cold Atlantic, so it is a place for lying on the sand and watching the light more than for long swims.

Just over the rocks to the south lies Sandy Bay, one of the city’s most secluded beaches, reached only on foot along a path through the fynbos. That walk, and the coastal paths around the suburb, are part of what people come for. Llandudno is small and quiet by design; the pleasures here are the beach, the boulders, the mountain behind and the sense of being tucked well away from the city.

Being so private has one trade: there is nothing commercial in Llandudno itself, so you drive out for supplies and dinner. Camps Bay, with its restaurant strip and shops, is about ten minutes back around the coast, Hout Bay and its harbour a similar distance the other way, and the city and the V&A Waterfront around twenty minutes over the pass. For many people the drive is a fair price for how still and beautiful it is to come home to.

The homes match the setting. Llandudno is a suburb of large, architect-designed houses built into the slope, most turned to face the beach and the sunset, with pools and glass and terraces made for the view. It suits people who want privacy, drama and quiet above being in the middle of things, and who like the idea of a beach that feels almost private at the end of the road.

Havenluxe does not currently manage a home in Llandudno itself. The nearest villas sit a short drive away along the Atlantic Seaboard, and the closest are below.