Cape Town

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At a Glance

This Belmond property is Cape Town’s uncontested grande dame, with an oh-so-British setting and beautiful grounds.

Indagare Loves

• The beautifully manicured grounds, which include a serene pool area and on-property tennis courts
• Teatime with scones and finger sandwiches served on the lounge or around the garden fountain
• The beautiful garden cottage suites
• Boutique intimacy of rooms and suites located in the hotel’s satellite buildings

Mount Nelson, A Belmond Hotel Review

The Belmond Mount Nelson is walking distance from some of the city’s most popular neighborhoods, but while on property, you’d never know it. This peach-colored hotel, painted to celebrate the end of WWII, sits on nine acres on the edge of the city center. It opened its doors in 1899 and is still the grande dame of Cape Town hotels. A member of the Belmond group, it often lands on the world’s-best hotel lists. It’s plush, elegant and fresh—they continuously update their product with recently refurbished rooms and suites to ensure that guests have all the modern comforts of home, without losing the historical feel. The hotel has gone back to its roots and reopened the award-winning Lord Nelson Restaurant, where the service is white glove and formal and a stay feels like a step back in time. Rooms are spread across seven wings of the hotel plus eight garden cottages located across from a small adults-only pool each with their own white picket fence.

Travelers staying elsewhere shouldn’t miss The Mount Nelson’s famous afternoon tea and scones (like something out of a 19th-century novel) and a colonial charm that seems mostly to have disappeared from Cape Town.

Who Should Stay

Couples and families looking for a more resort-like experience in one of Cape Town’s most beautiful and venerable settings.