One&Only Cape Town ranks #50 on our 2026 list of the best anniversary hotels in the world. The case below explains why — the hotel itself, what it does specifically for milestone celebrations, and the alternatives we measured it against.
“On the V&A Waterfront — 131 rooms and pool villas with full Table Mountain views, the most polished urban luxury resort in Africa.”
The hotel itself
The marina-front flagship of Sol Kerzner's One&Only group. Table Mountain framed at the end of every corridor.
"The only Cape Town hotel where the mountain is on one side, the marina on the other, and the spa is on its own private island."
When Sol Kerzner opened the first One&Only in Cape Town in 2009, he chose a piece of land most hoteliers would have called impossible: a working marina at the western edge of the V&A Waterfront, hemmed in by water on three sides, with Table Mountain rising directly behind. The trick was to make the geometry work. Wing accommodation runs along the marina; two purpose-built private islands sit at the heart of the property — one for the spa, one for the Marina Rise suites — connected by walkways and reached, in part, by hotel boat. The result is a resort within a city, with a degree of seclusion that the conventional V&A hotels cannot match.
Why it works for an anniversary
Anniversary trips to great cities live or die on the dinner of the trip. The hotel must do the celebration without the city having to do the work — a private room in a Michelin restaurant inside the building, a bar where the right toast is poured, a turn-down service that knows tonight is the one. The cities that do this best — Paris, London, New York, Tokyo, Vienna — have grand-dame hotels measured in centuries, not decades.
One&Only is Sol Kerzner's late-career masterwork, the explicit beach-luxury brand. For anniversaries One&Only matters when the milestone is a beach trip — the butler programme on the sand, the in-villa dining setups, and the post-children-grown trips where the couple is finally back to themselves.
The 131 rooms split between Marina Rise (the main building, family-friendly, easiest access to the Waterfront) and the Island Suites (over the bridge, quieter, with full-length plunge pools). Standard Marina rooms are 80 square metres — among the most generous standard inventory in South Africa — finished in pale leather, dark hardwood, and the curved cabinetry that has become a One&Only signature. The Island One-Bedroom Suites are the property's quiet flex: 110 square metres, private heated pool, butler service, and a daybed that catches Table Mountain at sunset. The two Presidential Villas on the islands — vast, with kitchens — are where the property houses its visiting heads of state and tech founders.
Three restaurants anchor the dining. Reuben's, by South African chef Reuben Riffel, is the everyday flagship — Cape Malay-influenced fine dining with an open kitchen and a wine list curated around Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. Nobu, the only Nobu in sub-Saharan Africa, occupies the ground floor with a fifty-eight-seat sushi counter and the brand's famous black cod miso. The Vista Bar & Lounge, on the marina, is the property's drink-and-watch-the-sunset room. The wine list across all three outlets runs roughly 400 South African bottles, with library back-vintages from Kanonkop, Klein Constantia, and Vergelegen that few private collectors hold.
Where it ranks against rivals
For a 2026 milestone anniversary at this level, the most direct comparisons are Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Cotswolds (#49 on this list), Park Hyatt Sydney in Sydney (#48 on this list), The Ritz-Carlton, Vienna in Vienna (#47 on this list). One&Only Cape Town earns the higher rank for one or two specific reasons covered in the verdict above. The other properties are not lesser hotels — in some cases the answer for your particular celebration is the runner-up. The city-specific page below has the full local ranking.
Practical: getting in
Address: One&Only Cape Town, 0C Dock Rd, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa. Anniversary-suited categories — the upgraded suites, the rooms with the morning view — book six to twelve months ahead. The full review at the hotel page has current rates, the room categories worth paying up for, and the dining and spa programmes worth booking pre-arrival. Use our anniversary occasion page for the broader context, or the Cape Town city guide for what else to do while you’re there.