Away Nights

Its eight floors are higher than any of the dockside buildings around so you can see it from afar, its lemon mousse-color walls outlined in white, its dark green rooftop. It was opened in 1997 intentionally to provide such visibility.

The car pulls into a neat turning circle and young men, immaculately groomed in black and white and most of them, it seems, aspiring marathoners (one, Macdonald, has already completed several), run to open the door, help you out, escort you along a 100-yard inner conservatory-like walkway to the immense lobby. You look over gleaming marble floors to, beyond, the lounge and, even further away, through glass walls to the busy inner harbor.

A charming mature Irishman (was he an ambassador in a former life?) welcomes us, escorts us up to 739, a one-room suite with one of the two balconies in the 329-room hotel (the other, for the record, is 726). Out on 739's balcony, you can see across to Robben Island, now one of the must-sees for first-time tourists to beautiful Cape Town. Back in the suite, there are pale orange and green carpets, dark gold and green furnishings. The big bathroom has two sinks and Crabtree & Evelyn Jojoba toiletries.

As after any flight, I immediately go for a spell of exercise, in this case a power-walk along the seafront (the hotel does of course have a gym, and a pool which I recommend early in the morning before it is besieged, at holiday times, by hordes of kids). Many would go straight, however, to the Victoria & Albert Mall, which you can reach internally from the hotel: the mall has 27 million visitors a year and you can see why, the shopping is great, the prices even greater value. Later we