Cape Town, South Africa · Five-Star · ★★★★★
One&Only Cape Town
The marina-front flagship of Sol Kerzner's One&Only group. Table Mountain framed at the end of every corridor.
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.
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.
The One&Only Spa occupies its own island and is, on paper, the largest hotel spa in Cape Town: twelve treatment rooms, two couples' suites, hammam, ice fountain, vitality pool, and a lap pool that runs along the marina edge with Table Mountain framed dead-centre. The signature treatment — a four-handed African Quartz Stone Massage — uses warm crystals from the Western Cape and runs ninety minutes; the spa's Africology product line is locally sourced. The KidsOnly children's club, on the islands, runs a programme of bread-baking, nature walks up Signal Hill, and beach trips to Camps Bay; the property is one of the few Cape Town five-stars that takes families seriously without losing its quiet.
Service is the chain's calling card and the Cape Town flagship is where it is best demonstrated. Marina Rise rooms come with a butler available on request; Island Suites come with one assigned. The concierge desk arranges Cape Point day trips, helicopter transfers to the winelands, sundowners on the boat at Clifton, table at La Colombe, and — for the right guests — private after-hours access to Zeitz MOCAA and the Norval Foundation. Cape Town's luxury hotel scene is unusually deep for a city of its size; One&Only is the property guests choose when they want resort polish without leaving the urban core, and arrival-to-departure handling that operates closer to a Maldivian island than a city hotel.
Cape Town honeymoons are usually paired with a Sabi Sand or Phinda safari extension, and One&Only is the city bookend most travel designers build the trip around. Book an Island One-Bedroom Suite with the private plunge pool, request the in-suite chef's table on the terrace, and let the concierge arrange a sunset helicopter circuit of the Cape Peninsula and a Franschhoek wine-tour day. The Marina Rise pool is heated year-round, and the spa's couples' island suite is the only proper couples-treatment room in the city.
For a milestone anniversary in Cape Town, the Island Marina-View Suite — a corner unit with the mountain to the left and the marina to the right — is the move. The hotel keeps detailed preference notes across stays; returning guests usually find the same butler, the same vintage on arrival, and a quiet upgrade if calendar permits. Book Reuben's chef's table for the anniversary night and arrange the cellar tour the following afternoon.
One&Only is the rare Cape Town five-star that handles families without compromising the adult experience. The KidsOnly programme runs full-day, the Marina rooms accommodate connecting setups, and the property's pools — main marina pool, lap pool on the spa island, kids' pool by the islands — split by use case. Beach access is two minutes by hotel car to Camps Bay or Clifton; the Two Oceans Aquarium is a five-minute walk across the V&A.
Rates checked May 2026. Price may vary by date.
One&Only is the city's resort answer — pre- or post-safari, milestone anniversaries, families that want quiet without sacrificing the V&A's restaurants. The benchmark.
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