Camps Bay
Palm-lined white sand under the Twelve Apostles, with the loudest sunset strip in Cape Town and prices to match.
White sand and palm trees at Camps Bay beach beneath the Twelve Apostles ridge
Why people stay in Camps Bay
Camps Bay is a kilometre of white sand and granite boulders with the Twelve Apostles ridge standing straight up behind it and a strip of restaurants across Victoria Road that has been the city's sunset ritual since the 1990s. It is beautiful, it is blue-flag, and it is expensive in a way that catches people out: a January double runs R3,000 to R7,000, a cocktail at Cafe Caprice is R140, and two people eating at Zenzero with a bottle of wine will not see change from R1,600. The beach itself, however, is free and enormous.
The water is 13 to 16 degrees and will genuinely take your breath away for the first thirty seconds. People go in, shriek, come out, and lie on the sand. Bring a windbreak: the south-easter funnels down the ravines from November to February and can blow the beach out entirely by 2pm, which is why locals go early or after 5pm. The four tidal pools at Maiden's Cove, five minutes north toward Clifton, are the answer with children, and they have grass, braai spots and shade.
At 9pm on a Friday in January the strip is at full noise. Caprice is deep in cocktails and house music until well past midnight, Bilboa and Paranga have every pavement table filled, the Roundhouse up Kloof Road is doing serious food in a Georgian hunting lodge, and there is nowhere on Victoria Road to park a car. By April it goes quiet enough that several kitchens close early on a Tuesday. The winter version of this suburb is a different, cheaper, mostly empty place.
Who it suits: honeymooners, sun people, anyone whose holiday is built around a beach day and a sundowner. Who should skip it: anyone without a car, anyone travelling in June and July, anyone on a budget, and anyone who wants to feel embedded in a city rather than parked at its most photogenic edge. The bus does run, but coming home from a City Bowl dinner without wheels is a R200 Uber every time.
The Victoria Road frontage is where the sea views and the R6,000 nights live, and also where the strip noise reaches you until 1am on summer weekends. One block back, the streets climbing the slope — Central Drive, Geneva Drive, The Fairways, Camps Bay Drive — hold guesthouses and villa apartments from around R2,500 to R4,000 with the same view and half the racket, at the cost of a steep three-minute walk down. Bakoven, at the southern end past Camps Bay Drive, is quieter and slightly cheaper with rocky coves instead of sand. Kloof Road, on the ridge toward Clifton, gives the best sunsets but you need a car. Avoid ground-floor units directly behind the Victoria Road restaurants, and check whether parking is included; in December a bay of your own is worth R200 a night on its own.
Things to do in Camps Bay
The sand runs about a kilometre from the volleyball nets at the northern end to the boulders at Bakoven. The lawn strip along Victoria Road has showers and free parking that fills by nine in January. Lifeguards are on duty in season and the rip currents at the northern corner are real, so swim between the flags.
Cafe Caprice, Bilboa, Paranga and Zenzero are shoulder to shoulder opposite the beach. Expect R120 to R150 cocktails, R60 beers and a queue for a table from 5.30pm December to February. No bookings at Caprice, bookings essential at Zenzero. The sun drops behind the sea around 8.15pm in January.
Just north on Victoria Road between Camps Bay and Clifton, four sheltered tidal pools with lawns, braai stands, toilets and free parking. Warmer and calmer than the open beach, and the best place in the area with small children. Get there before 11am on a weekend or the parking is finished.
Up Kloof Road, an 1802 hunting lodge once used by Lord Charles Somerset, with a lawn area called Rumbullion doing picnic baskets and drinks from noon and a fine-dining room inside. Booking essential. Come at 5pm for the picnic, stay for the light on the Twelve Apostles.
On Link Street just off Victoria Road, a 220-seat theatre running comedy, cabaret and drama year-round, with tickets usually R200 to R350. Shows typically start at 8pm with a 3pm matinee at weekends. It is the only reason most visitors turn inland here after dark, and it is a good one.
The Pipe Track trailhead is at the top of Kloof Nek Road where it meets Tafelberg Road, contouring for about 6 km beneath the Twelve Apostles with Camps Bay laid out below. Shade is minimal, so go before 9am, carry two litres of water, and turn back at Corridor Ravine unless you know the mountain.
What to see
Hotels near Camps Bay
No hotels are listed in Camps Bay yet. The nearest ones are on the region page.
Every hotel we cover in Camps Bay
- The Oracle 5★ · 5/5
- 17 Geneva Drive 4★ · 5/5
- 17 Geneva Middle 4★ · 5/5
- 42 on Strathmore 4★ · 5/5
- Berkley Place 4★ · 5/5
- Bayview Penthouses and Rooms 4★ · 4.9/5
- Bayview Studio 4★ · 4.9/5
- Le Thallo 4★ · 4.9/5
- Bakovenbay Luxury Suites 1★ · 4.9/5
- Crownebay 4★ · 4.8/5
- La Fleur 3★ · 4.8/5
- Linda Vista 3★ · 4.8/5
- Hely Horizon 4★ · 4.7/5
- Sea Five Boutique Hotel 4★ · 4.7/5
- Sea Star Rocks 4★ · 4.7/5
- Hamaya 3★ · 4.7/5
- 3 On Camps Bay 4★ · 4.6/5
- Retreat on Hove 4★ · 4.4/5
- Caprice Camps Bay 3★ · 4.4/5
- 205 Crystal 4★ · 4.3/5
- The Fairways on The Bay 3★ · 4.2/5
- 26OnFirst UPS Sea Views and Personalised Services 5★
- Atlantic House 5★
- Atlantic Suites Camps Bay 5★
Getting around Camps Bay
MyCiTi routes 107 and 108 connect Civic Centre in the CBD to Camps Bay along Kloof Nek Road or via Sea Point, roughly 25 to 35 minutes and about R21 with a myconnect card, running into the evening but thinning badly after 8pm. From the airport, Uber or Bolt costs R400 to R520 and takes 35 to 55 minutes. Driving from the City Bowl is 15 minutes over Kloof Nek, and from Hout Bay 15 minutes on Victoria Road past the Twelve Apostles. Parking is the daily problem: the Victoria Road bays fill by 9.30am from mid-December to mid-January, and car guards on the beachfront expect R10 to R20 on leaving.
Questions about Camps Bay
No, not by most visitors' definition. The Atlantic here runs 13 to 16 degrees in summer and colder when the south-easter drives upwelling. People swim in short bursts and it is genuinely invigorating rather than pleasant. For warmer water use the Maiden's Cove tidal pools, or drive 40 minutes to the False Bay side at Muizenberg where the sea is often 19 to 21 degrees.
Arrive before 9.30am or accept a walk. The free bays along Victoria Road and Queens Beach fill first, then the side streets up Central Drive and The Fairways. There is paid parking near the restaurant strip in high season. Never leave bags, cables or sunglasses visible in the car; smash-and-grabs on this stretch are common, and the car guards cannot stop them.
If sun and sand are the trip, stay. If you want the city too, visit for an afternoon and evening and sleep in Sea Point or the City Bowl for half the price. Camps Bay in January costs R3,000 to R7,000 a night and requires a car or a lot of Ubers, and the strip is the only nightlife within fifteen minutes of your door.
It empties. Rates fall to around R1,200 to R2,500, several restaurants shorten their hours or close on weekdays, and the north-westerly storms come straight into the bay. What you get in exchange is huge surf, dramatic light on the Twelve Apostles, and a beach you can have to yourself. Bring proper rain gear and do not expect swimming weather.
