12-05-2025
A room with an Atlantic view: Inside Cape Town's first Radisson Collection hotel
Cape Town's first Radisson Collection rebrands a familiar hotel with subtle updates and a hard-to-beat waterfront setting.
Set unusually close to the ocean, it pairs sweeping Atlantic views with easy access to the city's major attractions.
Its greatest asset, though, is the setting itself — more Côte d'Azur than Africa's southern tip.
A room with an Atlantic view: inside Cape Town's first Radisson Collection hotel
Cape Town's first Radisson Collection rebrands a familiar hotel with subtle updates and a hard-to-beat waterfront setting.
Set unusually close to the ocean, it pairs sweeping Atlantic views with easy access to the city's major attractions.
Its greatest asset, though, is the setting itself — more Côte d'Azur than Africa's southern tip.
Cape Town's old Radisson Blu, near the V&A Waterfront, was long a locals' secret for slow brunches and sundowners — a little pocket of protected land with unobstructed views of Table Bay. Now, under the Radisson Collection banner — the first of this high-end brand in Southern Africa — it has repositioned itself as an unpretentious, luxurious coastal retreat.
The soft refurbishment means the property hasn't tampered with its greatest assets: those endless Atlantic views and the spillover pool that mirrors its hue — if not its temperature.
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The location is both central and secluded — from a cushioned deck chair beneath a wide umbrella, the city feels distant. Table Mountain, so often the city's dominant reference point, disappears behind you, and Robben Island is the only recognisable landmark. The sweep of Table Bay is almost scythe-like, beginning at your feet and curving out of sight in the distance.
Throughout the day, a steady procession animates the bay — starting, usually, with a parade of playful dolphins, which give way to kayakers, fishing boats, jet skis, container ships, and sun-seeking yachts. During cruise season, the odd hulking ship might float casually on past. The setting evokes the Côte d'Azur more than Africa's southern tip, where the trappings of a working port are layered over scenes of leisure.
Officially named the Radisson Collection Hotel Waterfront, the property isn't entirely new — nor does it pretend to be. The shift to this new standard is more a matter of careful realignment to earn a badge reserved for properties the group considers distinctive, often locally rooted.
There's no sweeping architectural reinvention here; in fact, the building would benefit from bolder interventions, such as a central staircase to the rooms or, more ambitiously, a rooftop bar to capitalise on its unbeatable location.
Instead, returning guests will notice a light refresh: a refurbed coffee shop meets patisserie wing, new bedroom furniture, fresh artwork on the walls, and small but welcome tweaks to the restaurant and bar, Tobago's, which leans confidently into seafood and local flavours best ordered from the large patio outside.
There are several room choices available that vary in size, view, and, depending on the combination you choose, price. Your choice will likely depend on budget and space — but if you splurge on anything, make it a sea-facing room, ideally on the first floor or higher. The ground-floor options have easy access to lawns and the pool area — a plus for families — but nothing quite beats the feeling of whipping open those curtains to see an expanse of blue.
Yet despite the updates, the real magic remains the site itself — and how unusually close you are to the water. While Cape Town offers no shortage of sea views, most hotels are divided from the ocean by roads, walkways or a buffer of public land. Only a handful of boutique properties bring you closer — and at a far steeper price. This is the only Cape Town hotel where you can sit poolside and feel the sea spray at high tide.
'Why would we travel anywhere else?' a Finnish man on an adjacent deck chair said to me, his skin already the same shade as the bottle of rosé chilling beside him. 'Right now in Helsinki, it's minus five.'
That was his base for the next two days, leaving only once the autumn sun had set dramatically to his left. And on a day when Table Mountain was whipped into a white-out, and Sea Point's promenade was devoid of activewear, the Fin's poolside deckchair remained entirely undisturbed.
Had he cared to leave (I asked; he didn't), the hotel's proximity to attractions would have been a quiet strength. The V&A Waterfront is a 15-minute walk away on a safe pavement that delivers visitors to its revolving door of restaurants, shops, markets, buskers and increasing attractions while staying just outside the thick of it.
The Oranjezicht City Market — a weekend fixture with its mix of farm stalls, artisanal goods and beautiful brunch crowds — so close you can almost hear its buzz from the hotel's entrance. It's also a great alternative to a simple hotel lunch.
And a fresh perspective of the hotel and the city from the water, either on yacht or kayak, departs only metres away.
For the more active-minded, the hotel offers complimentary bicycles for guests keen to explore the Atlantic Seaboard, but the real reward is a sunrise walk or run to the far edge of the promenade, a neat five kilometres away and the perfect excuse for an extra helping at the extravagant buffet breakfast.
But for all the hotel's proximity to urban life, it is the sense of escape that lingers. Even Capetonians often forget this corner of Mouille Point exists so neatly is it tucked away. The Radisson Collection's greatest trick may be its ability to deliver both sides of Cape Town at once: a lively, accessible hub and a rare slice of true waterside tranquillity.
- Andrew Thompson was a guest of Radisson.
