Guides ·Experiences

Bree Street: the CBD's serious drinking street

Bree Street between Wale and Buitengracht is where Cape Town does its best cocktails and its most reliable evening. Cause | Effect Cocktail Kitchen leans hard into South African brandy and mixes an excellent Cape-style old fashioned for around R120. Openwine pours by-the-glass from smaller Swartland and Elgin producers from about R55 a glass, and its board changes weekly. Publik Wine Bar, a slot of a room with no pretension, is where sommeliers drink on their nights off. Add Mother's Ruin Gin Bar for a gin flight and you have a full night inside four blocks.

Expect craft beer around R45 to R60, a decent cocktail R110 to R160, and a shared plate R90 to R150. Most Bree Street bars fill from 18:30 and thin out by midnight on weeknights, later on Fridays and Saturdays. Parking is metered until 18:00 and then free but unsupervised, so use Uber or Bolt: a CBD-to-Sea Point ride is roughly R80 to R110. The street is well lit and busy, but the side streets running down to Strand are not, so walk on Bree itself and hail your ride from outside a lit venue.

Long Street: what still works and what to skip

Long Street is the strip everyone has heard of, and it is genuinely fun in a shambolic, 02:00, students-and-tourists way. The parts worth your time: Beerhouse for a wall of 99 bottled beers from around R45, The Waiting Room above Royale Eatery for a rooftop and DJs, and Neighbourhood upstairs for balcony seats over the chaos. Aces 'n Spades and Rafiki's on nearby Kloof Nek Road keep a rowdier, better-natured crowd. Cover charges are typically R50 to R150 after 22:00 on weekends, less midweek.

What to skip: the touts. Anyone standing on the pavement promising free entry, free shots or a better club upstairs is working a scam that ends with a padded bill and an intimidating settlement. Skip the strip clubs entirely, skip anywhere that will not show you a price list, and never leave a card behind a bar to run a tab. Long Street after 01:00 also draws pickpockets and phone-snatchers working the pavement crush. Carry one card and about R400 in cash, leave the rest at the hotel, and take a metered e-hail home rather than walking down to the Waterfront.

Live music and jazz

Cape Town's jazz history is deep and it still plays. The Crypt Jazz Restaurant, in the vaulted cellar beneath St George's Cathedral on Wale Street, runs live sets most nights from about 20:00 with a cover around R120 to R180 and a straightforward supper menu. Straight No Chaser on Buitenkant Street in the East City is smaller, more purist and often sells out — book ahead. For something between a listening room and a party, The Piano Bar in De Waterkant on Napier Street puts a trio on a small stage and serves tapas until late.

For bands rather than jazz, check the schedules at The Armchair Theatre on Lower Main Road in Observatory, at Trenchtown on Harrington Street for reggae and dub, and at Alma Café in Rosebank for acoustic sets. In summer, the Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset Concerts run on Sunday evenings from late November to early April, tickets around R220 to R280, gates from 16:00 — bring a blanket, a picnic and warm layers, because the garden cools fast once the sun drops behind the mountain.

Clubs and dancefloors

The East City around Harrington and Canterbury Streets is the current centre of gravity for people who actually want to dance. Modular on Harrington runs house and techno until dawn with entry around R100 to R200, and Trenchtown next door covers the other end of the spectrum. In De Waterkant, Crew Bar and Zer021 anchor the city's gay nightlife on Napier and Somerset Road, both busy from about 23:00 on weekends, both welcoming to everyone. District on Somerset Road runs bigger commercial nights with lines after midnight.

Two practical points. First, Cape Town clubs start late: arriving at 22:00 usually means an empty room, and 23:30 to 00:30 is the honest window. Second, drinks inside clubs are marked up — a beer R55 to R70, a spirit-and-mixer R80 to R120 — so most locals drink at a Bree Street or Kloof Street bar first. Cloakroom fees are around R20 to R30. Sunday nights are quiet almost everywhere except during peak December, when the city runs at full tilt seven nights a week.

Camps Bay, the Waterfront and the sundowner circuit

Victoria Road in Camps Bay is where the sunset drinks happen. Café Caprice has been the anchor for two decades, with a beach-facing terrace, a cocktail list around R130 to R170 and a scene that peaks between 17:00 and 20:00. The Bungalow and Chinchilla rooftop sit further along the same strip. It is beautiful, expensive and heavily touristed, and if you go, go for sundowners and leave before the mediocre late-night clubbing starts. A table on Victoria Road at sunset in December needs a booking days ahead.

The V&A Waterfront is the safest night-out area in the city and the least interesting. It works well for a first night, a family dinner or a drink at the Silo District's rooftop before an early flight, but the bars close early and the atmosphere is mall-adjacent. Skip the harbourside chain pubs with menus in four languages. Better: Grand Africa Café & Beach at the Granger Bay end, which puts loungers on imported sand and stays lively into the evening, or a short ride into the CBD once you have had your harbour photograph.

Observatory, Woodstock and the southern suburbs

Lower Main Road in Observatory is the student and creative end of Cape Town nightlife: cheap, scruffy, friendly and open very late. Beers here run R30 to R45, which is close to half CBD prices, and venues like The Armchair Theatre and the various pool-table pubs run until 02:00 or later. It is a walking neighbourhood in a way that most of Cape Town is not, but the surrounding streets get thin after midnight — stay on Lower Main and Station Road, and e-hail rather than walk to Salt River.

Woodstock and Salt River are more about beer and early evenings. Woodstock Brewery on Albert Road and Devil's Peak Taproom in Salt River both pour their own from around R40 a pint and serve solid pub food, and both wind down by about 22:00 or 23:00. Further south, Claremont's Main Road has big student clubs like Tiger Tiger that are worth it only if you are 21 and it is a Wednesday. Newlands and Rondebosch pubs fill on rugby nights at Newlands and DHL Stadium fixtures — arrive two hours before kick-off or forget about a table.

Costs, closing times and getting home

Budget roughly R450 to R700 per person for a full night out including a couple of cocktails, a club entry and rides both ways; a beer-and-Obs night can be done for R250. Most bars stop serving between 02:00 and 04:00 depending on their licence, and kitchens generally close at 22:00, so eat before you drink or plan on a late-night shawarma from Anatoli-style spots on Kloof Street or a Mariam's Kitchen gatsby in the CBD for around R70 to R100.

Never drive after drinking — South Africa's limit is low and roadblocks are common on weekend nights. Uber and Bolt both work well and are cheap: R60 to R120 for most inner-city hops, R150 to R200 out to Camps Bay or Observatory. Wait for your car inside the venue rather than on the pavement, check the plate, and share your trip. Do not walk between Long Street and the Waterfront at night, and keep your phone out of your hand on the street — snatching from pavements is the most common crime tourists experience here.

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