Where to stay

Choosing where to stay in South Africa starts with matching the kind of trip you want to the kind of place you want to wake up in. Cape Town and its neighbours along the Atlantic, from Sea Point and Green Point through Camps Bay and Clifton to Hout Bay, put beaches and mountain views within reach of the City Bowl's 45 hotels, while Constantia and Newlands trade sand for vineyards, gardens and leafy streets. Further out, Stellenbosch, Paarl, Hermanus and the Garden Route towns of Knysna, George, Mossel Bay and Plettenberg Bay suit wine estates, whale watching and coastal drives.

Inland, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Midrand and Centurion carry the business and city stays, with Pretoria's 37 hotels and Johannesburg's 45 hotels covering most tastes. Durban and Ballito cover the KwaZulu-Natal coast, Nelspruit and Hoedspruit open the way to the lowveld, and Bloemfontein, Rustenburg and Port Elizabeth anchor the interior and the eastern cape. Wherever you land, decide first whether you want beach, city or winelands, then look at how many 5-star, 4-star and 3-star hotels each place offers, how many have parking and how many work for families.

Across this region the three tiers sit at very different volumes. Five-star hotels cluster in Cape Town, Camps Bay, Constantia, the City Bowl, Clifton and Johannesburg, each with 15 or close to it, while the same places hold roughly 40 to 45 hotels in total. If you want the widest choice of 4- and 5-star rooms, those are the names to start with, along with Durban (8 five-star) and Stellenbosch (13). The 3-star tier is widest in the big Cape Town neighbourhoods and in Sea Point, Newlands, Woodstock, Observatory and Rondebosch, each with 30 hotels. Choose 3-star for a simpler base with parking (Sea Point 22, Newlands 29) or 4- and 5-star where you want the full range of facilities.