Enjoy the view from Mandela Rhodes Place Hotel

With a sexed-up Food Lovers Market in neighbouring Newspaper House and Deluxe coffee roastery on its door step you can get great coffee and a dose of hipster attitude and good value eats as well as provisions to prepare in your own suite nearby.

Combining the old with the new

How's that for a view to remember?

Mandela Rhodes Place was development by an Irish Consortium that amalgamated historic city properties with the latest building technologies to build a tower block of residential units, hotel suites, and commercial space while keeping the facades unspoilt. There's a lot to recommend staying on St George's Pedestrian Mall - not only do you have the exquisite Taj Hotel and its equally exquisite Bombay Brassiere restaurant across the way (guests at Mandela Rhodes Place Hotel can charge food and beverage from The Taj to their hotel account) but Mandela Rhodes Place has Doppio Zero, a quality, family eatery in its basement atrium where hotel guests enjoy breakfast. Very nearby are Bukhara (excellent Indian), Haiku (Pan Asian) and the lively Café Mozart.

You can still enjoy the view while enjoying a good meal.

What you won't find elsewhere - even at Deluxe coffee, is a cappuccino with feet created in the foam which is reason enough to visit this Doppio Zero. I was really impressed with the quality and service experience of the breakfast there which is served from 6.30am.

Suite views

Hotel suites are owned by individual investors and made available in the room allocation pool. We looked at a one-bedroomed apartment on the second floor in the Fairbairn-section of the building as a possible investment which has everything in it you might need during a short stay but looks out directly onto Newspaper House.

You won't run short of sights.

The T-1701 suite we stayed in was a 17th floor two-bedroomed penthouse corner unit with such majestic views of Table Mountain we took a million photographs if it. As a Capetonian from birth you will appreciate how spectacular the view must have been to illicit such a greedy response. Unfortunately it comes with an over R5m price tag to purchase but the great news is that you can rent in on a nightly basis right now for R3,200 for two people.

Harbour lights

It is wonderful being so high above everyone else as you don't need to close your bedroom curtains at night and just allow the flickering lights of the city and harbour to send you to sleep like a fading disco ball. Having floor-to-ceiling windows in the bedroom gives you the illusion of being master of the universe.

If you get tired of the views, you can always write home about them.

For the money, I can't think of a better inner-city location. While not graded five-stars you will have every comfort you could want, including a porter and the unit being serviced daily. It comes equipped with a dishwasher and there is a good-sized gym in the building but when we stayed the seventh-floor pool was being maintained and thus closed. There is a restaurant venue on the seventh floor which currently appears not to be in use and there is a privately operated spa in the building too.

Fancy a bite?

Wi-Fi is available via Always On but is limited to a free 100mb a day and annoyingly only one device can connect at a time. I also find that I can't ever seem to send emails from my computer when connecting to Always On connections.

A winner of the 2013 TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence this property is offering added-value rates from R1,195 per person sharing including bicycle rental or Hop-On Hop-Off bus tickets, a summer goodie bag and Doppio Zero meal vouchers.

For more information go to the Mandela Rhodes Place Hotel website.