About Gardens

Gardens, City Bowl

Lying sandwiched between Oranjezicht and Tamboerskloof, within a stone’s throw of the centre of Cape Town, Gardens is a very popular suburb and one of the oldest and most established parts of Cape Town.

You’re just outside of the hustle and bustle of the city here, and Table Mountain, at whose foot the suburb lies, looms like a welcome armchair. Houses here - those that haven’t been subdivided or rezoned into business residences - have an air of the colonial about them and some of them are authentic mansions. No surprise then that many of these are given over to guest houses or hotels, whose large rooms with high ceilings and wooden floors are much sought after.

Company Gardens, the oldest garden in South Africa and one of Jan van Riebeeck’s initial tasks upon coming ashore at Table Bay in 1652, is just down Government Walk and virtually synonymous with the suburb of Gardens. Initially a vegetable garden to support the European settlement, the gardens are today one of the most botanically interesting city parks in the country.

Vibrant and enticingly bohemian, trendy Long Street is full of restaurants, unconventional avenues worth exploring and coffee shops and bistros offering the full range of gastronomic delights, whilst trendy Kloof Street is also easily accessible from Gardens. Gardens is perfectly situated to quickly access the popular Atlantic beaches across Kloof Nek as well as the Table Mountain cableway and various other highlights like the V&A Waterfront, the Castle of Good Hope and Cape Town’s various museums and galleries.