POD Camps Bay — Cape Town, South Africa

A sleek, modern boutique hotel steps from Cape Town’s “Malibu” beach — our one splurge of the whole trip, and the one we’d book again. (They’ll even bring popcorn to your room.)

The short version

• A five-star design hotel about fifty metres from Camps Bay beach — Cape Town’s “Malibu.”
• Sea views, supremely comfortable beds, and warm, attentive service that’s the thing people remember.
• Movie night in: pick a film and they send up popcorn, sweets, and hot chocolate.

What is it?

POD Camps Bay is a sleek, modern five-star boutique hotel about fifty metres from the Camps Bay beachfront, surrounded by some of the city’s best restaurants and sunset bars. It’s all clean lines and sea views, with a calm, design-forward feel. A genuine splurge — though still a notch under the eye-watering names a few doors up the beach.

Why stay here?

The service, first — it’s the warmest, most genuinely attentive team we’ve stayed with in Cape Town, and it’s why we keep posting about this place. Add seriously comfortable beds, sea views from the rooms, and that signature cosy touch: on the nights you’d rather stay in, you pick a film from their menu and they send up popcorn, sweets, and hot chocolate. Luxury that knows when to slow down.

Good to know

• Where: about 50 m from Camps Bay beach, Cape Town.
• Rooms: ask for a sea view — the front-facing rooms are worth it.
• Don’t miss: the in-room movie night (popcorn, sweets, hot chocolate).
• Price: a splurge, not a bargain — we paid about $684 a night in peak season, easily the biggest line of the trip and the one splurge we chose to make. For a pool hanging over the Atlantic, we’d pay it again.