2 Best Hotels in Melrose and Illovo, Johannesburg

The luscious garden with its two adjoining swimming pools is the central feature of this award-winning, owner-run boutique hotel that is equidistant from Melrose Arch, Rosebank, and Sandton. The dense vegetation pays homage to Joburg’s man-made forest and every room has a private outdoor space, balcony, or patio that makes it easy to forget you’re in a city. The welcoming eco-chic rooms are tastefully decorated with subtle hints of African design and are equipped with iPod docking stations, USB, and universal plug points. Eco-conscious guests will appreciate the heat pump water heating system, gray-water reticulation, recycling initiatives, and on-site vegetable and herb garden used for its two restaurants. The on-site bistro serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner to guests. Basalt is its prix-fixe, fine-dining restaurant with optional wine pairing that is housed in the original 1940s heritage home and is also open to the public.

Primarily catering to business travelers, this ultramodern hotel is within the Melrose Arch shopping, dining, and residential enclave. The eclectic decor mixes modern and traditional African influences with high-tech, colored lighting throughout and sculptures, baskets, and furnishings all highlighting the African locale. Even the elevators reflect this mix, with one representing the African day and the other, almost completely dark, suggesting the night. Wi-Fi is free in both rooms and in the public areas, including the warm, mahogany-clad library bar. The rooms are well equipped, and each has a view of the pool and garden or overlooks a square. The pool area highlights the eccentric and modern taste that is echoed throughout the hotel, with trees planted in larger-than-life steel buckets, and tables and chairs set out in a few inches of water. Sip a cocktail here while soaking your feet in the heated pool, which has music piped underwater. African-inspired meals are offered at the stylish and modern restaurant, March.