boutique hotel in Western Cape, South Africa

Stylish Accommodation in the Western Cape

As South Africa’s most happening cultural centre, Cape Town boasts a cutting-edge fashion scene, quirky boutiques, craft shops and independent galleries. The cultural energy of the provincial capital seeps out from the main metropolitan area and spreads into the surrounding region, where plenty of design-focused hotels, hostels and guesthouses are strewn along the coast, inland and in the Cape Winelands.

Design Hotels: From Budget to High-End

From cheap and cheerful to high-end luxury, the Western Cape’s design hotels come in many different guises. Choose a stylish boutique hotel in the centre of Cape Town for access to the city’s cultural attractions, or opt for a sleek beach resort along the Garden Route. Families might want to book spacious guest house-style lodgings in Oudtshoorn, a historic town touted as ‘the ostrich capital of the world’.

Creative Cape Town: The Perfect Place for a Design Hotel Stay

Venture into the city to discover Cape Town’s vibrant cultural scene. Study the old Dutch masters and contemporary artworks that hang at the South African National Gallery, survey the street art of the Woodstock neighbourhood and admire the Victorian-era architecture of Long Street and its Open House public artwork, which was designed during the city’s year as World Design Capital in 2014.

Discover Western Cape’s Natural Beauty

As any discerning aesthete will tell you, one of the best sources for visual inspiration is Mother Nature. The Western Cape has it in abundance. Leave your Western Cape hotel room and head for the arid open spaces of Little Karoo, where you can witness dramatic valley and mountain scenery, and find design studios occupying old farmsteads. Take a trip to one of the Western Cape’s wildlife reserves where you have a chance of glimpsing Africa’s famed Big Five animals – lions, elephants, buffalos, leopards and rhinos.

For water-based activities, or if you simply want to lounge on the sand, make a beeline for the superb beaches of the Western Cape coastline. Wildlife enthusiasts can see a range of unusual creatures ducking and diving around the ancient forests that stretch from Wilderness to Knysna.