Smith reviews: 22, a cosy, colourful boutique hotel in Cape Town
Posted by Lucy on January 5th, 2009Every time we publish a new hotel write-up from one of our panel of independent reviewers on the Mr & Mrs Smith site, we’ll let you know here on the blog, so you can keep pace with our team of travel spies and style insiders on their global roams. We visit every hotel in our collection, and every one is anonymously reviewed to make sure it’s up to scratch (and stays that way).
Our only brief to these intrepid boutique-hotel voyagers is to go with their real-life partner (or partner in crime), check in anonymously for two nights, have a rip-roaring, chandelier-swinging, fireside-lounging, beach-strolling, bed-testing, bathroom-assessing time and then report back to us with the same candour you’d expect from a trusted friend. If they don’t like what they’ve seen, the place in question doesn’t stay in our hand-picked hotel collection. Simple as that.
Here’s a snippet from the latest Mr & Mrs Smith review, of four-room guesthouse 22 in Cape Town, South Africa. Where the weather’s great and the exchange rate is very enticing…
Staying in a guesthouse of this size is inevitably a very different experience to that of even a boutique hotel of 30 rooms, let alone a larger site, such as one of the Cape’s holy trinity of ageing beauties: the Cape Grace, Table Bay and Mount Nelson hotels. The idea of Mrs Smith managing an hour’s undisturbed kippage anywhere but inside her own room at one of those bigger hotels, for example, would be unthinkable: if an over-zealous Resident Manager’s cushion-fluffing didn’t get her, another guest’s stray ring tone would surely do the job.
And, yet, on that glorious Sunday afternoon, my sleeping beauty clocked up an impressive Z-count while curled up on a sofa by 22’s gardens. Whether Allan and Dominic had deliberately absented themselves that day or not, we cannot tell, but having the house to ourselves for a few hours was quite a treat…
You can read the full review now (and find out who the anonymous reviewer was) on the Mr & Mrs Smith website…
I have heard nothing but fantastic things about South Africa in the last few years. Not just about the very nice hotels but also the ever growing wine country surrounding Cape Town and the growing art scene there.
By Rantin
On January 5th, 2009
Always enjoy reading your reviews. Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever stayed in
By David
On May 18th, 2009