Review of The Mount Nelson Hotel, by Daniel Scott

The first thing to strike you on arrival at this venerable 107 year old South African institution is the visual splendour of the place. Behind a grand multi-columned, arched main entrance, complete with pith-helmeted security guard, and down a palm-lined drive, lies Cape Town's very own "Pink Palace", all done up in dusky crimson. The backdrop is even more beguiling, with all three of the hills - Table Mountain, Lion's Head and Signal Hill - that help make this city one of the most topographically beautiful in the world, visible from the grounds. Then there are those grounds themselves, gardens blooming with what seems like a million white roses, with clipped green lawns and terraces bringing England to meet Africa, in a fusion of the temperate and the tropical.

In some good ways, the Mount Nelson has the feel of a diplomatic enclave about it. Not only does it enjoy a similarly prime location and the size of an out-to-impress Embassy, just on the edge of the city centre, but it also feels tucked away in its own sleepy cocoon at the foot of Table Mountain. Colonial resonances are inevitable, from those pith-helmets through the country-house style to breakfasting on the Oasis restaurant terrace and taking afternoon tea in the lounge.

Yet the Mount Nelson also manages to remain neither austere nor tired. The cheery staff - and in particular the dynamic concierge - bring both youth and energy to the property and these days the hotel even has one of Cape Town's slinkiest bars - the Planet - which is popular with the city's emerging young black female professionals. But in any case the hotel has all the functionality of a modern hotel, with a reliable business centre, decent gym and a busy Body care centre, offering reasonably-priced treatments.

The rooms

All 201 of the Mount Nelson's rooms are a good size and have a high degree of inter-connectivity, if you are travelling in a group. There are colonial-style prints and political sketches on the walls throughout the hotel, as well as memorabilia from the Union and Castle immigrant ships, which provided the hotel's first guests in 1899. Guest rooms have a warm, light and old-world comfort about them and look out on gardens, the pools or if you are lucky, Table Mountain itself. Universal features include en-suite bathrooms with toiletries, opening windows (so that you can smell those roses), writing desks, light-coloured cotton linen on beds and a nightly turndown service.

Over the years, the Mount Nelson has expanded from its Pink centre to encompass a number of other nearby historic buildings, and these have been carefully restored to provide some of the hotel's most desirable accommodation. Of these outbuildings, the white villa-style Green Park wing and the Victorian Sydnenham cottages, which overlook their own 'Adults Only' pool, are the most lovely. The cottages offer seclusion within seclusion, with their own gardens, large sitting-rooms and master bedrooms. A stay in room 908 here, with its zebra-skin rug, outsize black and white marble bathroom and foot-of-bed television disappearing electronically into an old packing case, is one you will never forget. Especially when you open the doors to your private balcony on a cloudless day to views of the brick-red Table Mountain and of the pointed Lion's Head and the rump of Signal Hill, overseeing Cape Town.