Gay Cape Town Cape Town City Guide

Curation by Yasmina Rodríguez, words by Casey Siemasko

Cape Town is, in a word, ravishing. Framed by the imperious silhouette of Table Mountain, lapped by two oceans, and shot through with an energy that crackles between colonial grandeur and bold contemporary creativity, the Mother City refuses to be anything other than extraordinary. It is a place where world-class restaurants apply Japanese technique to the finest South African produce, where a historic grain silo has become the most architecturally singular hotel on the continent, and where a neighbourhood of candy-coloured cottages remains the beating heart of one of Africa's most unapologetically queer scenes. Gay marriage has been legal in South Africa since 2006 — the only country on the continent to have enshrined it — and Cape Town's welcome is as warm as its famous Atlantic sunsets.

The best hotels in Cape Town

Few arrivals in the world compare to the approach along the palm-lined driveway of Mount Nelson, A Belmond Hotel — a stately, powder-pink institution presiding over the Gardens neighbourhood since 1899. Affectionately known as “The Nellie,” it occupies nine acres of manicured grounds at the foot of Table Mountain and was voted Best Hotel in Africa by the World’s 50 Best Hotels in 2024. Under Belmond stewardship, historic oil paintings have been replaced with works by emerging African artists, and the culinary programme elevated by a partnership with star chef Liam Tomlin, whose underground Pan-Asian restaurant The Red Room has become one of the city’s most coveted reservations. Two heated pools, a superb spa, and the legendary afternoon tea — considered the finest in Africa — round out a stay that perfectly balances old-world elegance with modern vivacity.

Perched above the V&A Waterfront, The Silo Hotel is a triumph of industrial reinvention. Occupying the grain elevator portion of a 1924 silo complex, its distinctive pillowed glass windows — conceived by Heatherwick Studio — glint like diamonds by day and transform the building into a glowing waterfront beacon after dark. Interior design is the domain of Liz Biden of The Royal Portfolio, who has brought her trademark maximalism to bear on 28 individually conceived rooms and suites, each a conversation between colourful African artworks and the building’s muscular industrial architecture. Rooms soar five metres to the ceiling through signature floor-to-ceiling windows. A rooftop pool, spa, and private basement art gallery complete one of the world’s great design hotels — which sits directly above the Zeitz MOCAA, making it, quite literally, the most cultured address in the city.

The Silo Hotel | Photo: Mark Williams

For boutique intimacy, Cape Cadogan occupies a National Monument building on the lower slopes of Table Mountain, steps from the lively Kloof Street neighbourhood. Meticulously restored in 2022, the nineteenth-century farmhouse now reveals a seductive interior of rich emerald greens, classic black and white, and touches of gold, centred on a sitting room anchored by a grand fireplace and crowned with a glittering chandelier. Twenty-nine individually designed rooms and suites sit alongside two pools, a spa, and Upper Union — the hotel’s acclaimed sharing-style restaurant that has become a neighbourhood institution in its own right. With Table Mountain rising directly behind and the city’s best restaurants at your feet, the vibe is laid-back splendour at its most refined.