Originally Posted by
jphripjah
I usually like centrally located hotels so I stayed in the city center a few months ago at the holiday inn express.
I consider that a mistake. The city center of Cape Town is really dodgy and unsafe after dark. So you're within walking distance of the bars and restaurants on Long Street but you won't want to be walking back from there after that. Lots of aggressive panhandlers, one gently threatened me with a box cutter when I refused to give him money and explained that he didn't want to cut people.
Camps Bay was beautiful, lots of great restaurants. Uber works great in Cape Town and the big red hop on hop off double decker buses are also great to get around and have a stop at Camp's Bay. I would stay at Camp's Bay if I go back.
We stayed there at the end of July this year. I booked it as I have a ton of IHG points and it was free. We walked around a lot for three nights and I can see why people think of the area as dodgy.
We were never accosted but my wife and I have done a lot of international travel together and we both have a very heightened sense of that I call "situational awareness". If you walk around that area at night, you really have to keep your eyes open and be aware of what is going on around you.
I noticed that the Holiday Inn Express had a couple of security men in plain clothes out on St Georges Mall near the hotel. I would tell them when we left where we were going and when we expected to return and I always saw them waiting for us at the end of the block. We had fewer issues in the CBD of CPT than we had staying in the Rosebank Mall area of JNB. A lot less.
My opinion on it is you need to have experience in the inner city of major urban areas to stay there safely. I don't know if I would stay there again as sometimes when you are on vacation you just want to relax and not worry about some of that stuff. But I also didn't feel that I was in fear for my life.