First, Toni’s place is wonderful. Comfortable beds, lovely decor. Convenient location to everything you’d want to do in Cape Town, and Gardens is a fun neighborhood to wander during the daytime. Toni and Nick were responsive to every request and easy to communicate with.
But we had extremely bad luck with vehicles parked on the street. We were staying there because we were tour managing a group of American university students on a choral tour who stayed a block away in a boutique hotel. Our rental vans were too tall to park in the hotel’s underground space and had to stay overnight on the street. Over the course of four days all four vans were ‘van-dalized’ with a total of eight side-view mirrors knocked off and stolen (the vans were the same type as are used as taxis about town and in the townships; apparently their mirrors are a hot item). And on our own last night, the passenger window on our own rental car was smashed, even though we couldn’t think of anything that was taken. Altogether we were relieved to leave the area, feeling extremely violated. Maybe it was just a terrible streak of bad luck, but the neighborhood doesn’t feel as safe as it has in past visits. If you come with a car, be are you never leave anything in it that might interest a casual street thief. And do not under any circumstances park and leave a Toyota Quantum on these streets.