Cape Grace

There are now 112 striking bedrooms and suites at Cape Grace. I was lucky enough to have a room with a view across to Table Mountain and down to a private, boat-filled harbour. I enjoyed seeing the same seal sunning itself on the deck below, whether I was sipping my morning coffee or kicking back on the balcony before dinner downstairs. The room’s chicly minimalist furniture and décor is brought to life with further fabulous artwork, terracotta cushions and boldly geometric rugs. A marble bathroom with deep bath is accented by lovely Le Labo products, and there are more of those wonderful floral arrangements to bring the outdoors in.

New for 2025 is The Cape Grace Suite, an extraordinary 270 sq m two-bedroom residence with sweeping 360° views. As part of the hotel’s year-long transformation, the suite was pulled together by South African art and design consultant Lezanne van Heerden. She has chosen a collection of outstanding works by South African creatives that reflect the country’s diverse heritage. Highlights include the intricate printmaking and tapestry of Benjamin Stanwix, Cathy Abraham’s evocative oil and copper leaf paintings, and Chantell Lungiswa Joe’s striking stoneware clay sculptures. Each piece enhances the suite’s modern, refined aesthetic, while bringing the country’s natural surroundings into the space.

The hotel is now working with renowned Cape Town chef Gregory Czarnecki. A judge on MasterChef SA, the French-born chef is known for delivering one of South Africa’s best fine-dining experiences at Restaurant at Waterkloof. His prowess is on full display at Heirloom, Cape Grace’s signature restaurant. Here, dishes are served family style, showcasing South African ingredients and techniques at their best. Our dinner featured fried seabass collars – enormous, and like the best bits of a baja fish taco – served with tamarind sauce and coleslaw; line fish Kokoda (a riff on ceviche); ostrich tartar with lavash; and a whopping piece of roasted line fish with green goddess sauce. For pudding, there were three hits dispensed down the table: banana pecan cake with tonka bean anglaise; lemon posset with raspberries; and a stunning chocolate coffee tart with coffee brown sugar caramel. Would you hold it against us if we told you that, among all the above, our highlight was the still-warm bread and three types of butter that kicked the whole thing off? We still think about the charcoal iteration.

Whatever you do, make sure you bookend your meal with a drink at downstairs bar Bascule. Whether you opt for a negroni in its dark, atmospheric drinking den or take a table on its terrace for spritzes and sundowners, you’ll learn this is a bar that knows its cocktails.

Is there anything the Cape Grace team can’t organise? The hotel has its own yacht, the 56ft Spirit of the Cape, available for the exclusive use of up to 12 hotel guests. We had a splendid sunset cruise, sampling plenty of local cap classique (SA’s take on champagne). The hotel is also close to Cape Town’s helicopter base, from where you can take off for a sky-high view of the city, its beaches, Table Mountain and Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was detained. But perhaps our favourite way to see the city was in a sidecar. Cape Sidecar Adventures can rock up to the hotel and hand over goggles, leather jackets and windproof balaclavas ready for guests to saddle up behind the driver or slip into the sidecar of a motorbike. The tour takes you along the coast, up through colourful, art-filled Bo-Kaap before climbing past Lion’s Head to the top of Signal Hill for views to Table Mountain and down to the sea. The hotel team can arrange for snacks, biltong and mimosas to arrive in time to toast your ascent. They also made sure we left with a copy of Mandela’s Long Walk To Freedom in our hand luggage, which brought the flight over Robben Island full circle.