One&Only Cape Town

April 2009, the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. Sol Kerzner, who had built Sun City and the Palace of the Lost City before leaving South Africa in the 1990s, opened a hotel in the harbour of the city he had started out in. One&Only Cape Town was the first One&Only in Africa and the first urban hotel in a brand built on beach resorts. It stands at the western edge of the Waterfront, where the working harbour gives way to the marina, and the first thing its architects did was to turn every room towards Table Mountain.

History

Kerzner International had the Waterfront site for several years before the hotel opened, and the opening was timed for the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, when Cape Town's hotel stock was being rebuilt. The restaurant line-up at the opening made news on its own: Nobu Matsuhisa's first restaurant on the continent, and a second restaurant from the South African chef Reuben Riffel. Riffel's restaurant has since closed and been replaced, but Nobu has stayed. The hotel has been refurbished in stages since, including its island rooms and spa.

Architecture and design

The hotel is in two parts. Marina Rise is the main building, a seven-storey block with long balconies on every floor, built around a lobby of double height with a bar in its centre and glass walls facing the mountain. The second part is an island in the marina, linked to the main building by a bridge, on which the spa, the pool and a set of rooms and suites stand among gardens and a lap pool. The architecture is contemporary, with pale stone, dark timber and glass; the interiors mix African craft with the brand's usual scale.

Rooms and suites

The 131 rooms and suites divide between Marina Rise, where every room has a balcony with a view of Table Mountain across the harbour, and the Island Rooms and Suites, which are lower and quieter, opening onto the marina or the gardens with the spa a few steps away. Rooms are among the largest in Cape Town, with marble bathrooms, separate showers and dressing areas, and the suites on the top floors of Marina Rise add living rooms and corner views.

Dining

Nobu occupies a room on the ground floor of Marina Rise with its own entrance and the familiar menu of black cod and yellowtail jalapeño, cooked with Cape fish. Ochre is the hotel's all-day restaurant and breakfast room, serving South African produce and wines from the Western Cape. The Vista Bar in the lobby is the social centre, with a wine wall and a terrace facing the mountain and the marina, and the Isola bar serves the island pool.

Wellness

The One&Only Spa is on the island, with treatment rooms over the water, a hammam, a sauna and steam rooms, and a fitness centre. The main pool is on the island too, a heated outdoor pool with cabanas and a view back across the marina to the city. A second, smaller pool serves the island rooms.

Weddings and events

The hotel has a ballroom and a set of meeting rooms on the lower floors of Marina Rise, used for conferences, product launches and dinners, with the island gardens and the Vista Bar terrace for receptions. Weddings use the ballroom for receptions and the island lawn for ceremonies with the mountain behind. The Waterfront location and the airport's proximity make it one of the busier corporate hotels in the city.

Location

The V&A Waterfront is Cape Town's most visited district, with its shops, the Two Oceans Aquarium, the Zeitz MOCAA museum in the old grain silo and the ferry to Robben Island all within walking distance of the hotel. The city centre is ten minutes away by car, Camps Bay and Clifton beaches about fifteen, and the cable car station on Table Mountain about the same. Cape Town International Airport is roughly 25 minutes by road outside the rush hours. As a luxury hotel in Cape Town it has the Waterfront's advantage of walkable streets and security, and the particular advantage of a mountain view from every room.