Johannesburg - It’s a shopper’s dream: to walk out of your hotel and straight into Africa’s largest shopping centres.
No need to find parking or struggle through traffic to get home. And that’s exactly what we did during our recent one-night stay over at DaVinci Hotel and Suites, situated on Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton.
Sandton’s changed a lot since I first started haunting its corridors as a 12-year-old in the 1980s.
I’ve watched as it’s grown up as I have – morphing from a place of 1970s-era, brown-hued centre, expanding with the creation of Nelson Mandela Square which brought a welcome addition with its European-like piazza and its iconic statue of Mandela, and a range of restaurants, as well as the more recent improvements with shops such as Zara.
But it was always a home away from home. So staying over in central Sandton – its bustling busy heart a far cry from the 1980s – meant we indulged in clothes shopping and other fun things, especially as the sales were on and we had a list as long as our arms.
We took a leisurely drive from Pretoria, where I live now. Having lived in Joburg from the age of five, I’m now a visitor to the city, a surreal experience at times.
The DaVinci is an urban hotel, which is part of its charm. Checking in opposite Sandton City Mall, the lobby is all bling with a mirrored reception area and oversized Alice in Wonderland grey chairs.
This theme is echoed in the decor throughout the hotel – with grey and black and white palettes in the rooms. The hotel also has a spa and gym and an outdoor pool.
We had a luxurious suite with a kingsize bed and a sweet-sized lounge. The bathroom, open to the room, as so many are these days in hotels and lodges, is discretely closed off with both glass sliding doors and sheer curtaining for extra privacy.
And the view: surrounded by the high rises of Sandton, the city’s newest CBD, with the daytime traffic to match, and a large outdoor TV that blinked in the distance, it felt like we were far away from our own everyday reality.
I may have spent most of my life in the city – but it all felt delightfully foreign, just the thing to make you feel you’ve been away.
I loved the night lights and handshower – so many hotels, even five-star – don’t provide either. We had a bit of fun that night trying to find out how to switch off the main lights – they’re on the side of the bed – with me turning them on and off disco-style as my companion stood bewildered in the lounge looking for a switch and the source of the flashing lights. But that’s par for the course!
That afternoon, after a brief exploration of the hotel room, we hit the mall that Saturday with a vengeance. There’s easy access via a lift that opens straight into Sandton on the Square – which made life very easy for these shoppers.
We shopped till we drooped and then headed off for supper at the hotel’s signature restaurant Maximillien, which serves Mediterranean-inspired cuisine.
I loved both the quiet and the bistro atmosphere – from muted fin de siècle lighting, a pianist tinkling in the background, pressed ceilings, and candles on each table in the muted interior.
I rarely find myself raving about restaurant meals but this was perfectly sublime from the beginning to end.
We started our meal with a supremely fresh salad of tomato and mozzarella with warm rolls to accompany it. Next was a crayfish and avocado roulade – no longer on the menu, but created for us specially on the evening. It’s highly recommended and I’d go back for that dish alone.
Staying with the nautical theme I plumped for my favourite – grilled calamari, which were tasty and tender, not always a given with this dish. My companion tucked into a helping of king-size prawns, which fell off the shell, a sign of a well-made dish.
Chips and rice come with both dishes but you can choose your starch. The side accompaniment of vegetables included butternut fingers that were delicious – an ordinary dish hard to elevate to new levels, but the chef succeeded. The restaurant is well known for its meat dishes. There are also pasta dishes on the menu.
We barely had room for dessert, but managed to share a decadent Tiramisu that melted in the mouth – a truly memorable meal.
Breakfast the next morning was equally as scrumptious with a spread worthy of the name served in the restaurant again.
From perfectly made sunny side-up eggs, artisanal yoghurts on offer, to perfectly flaky croissants and a spread of the usual suspects, it got our vote.
I then connected to the hotel’s complimentary wi-fi to download books on my Kindle. The hotel offers an extremely generous 900MB of data a day.
After some more shopping we checked out, finally saying goodbye to the world of indulgence.
Contact details: Website: www.legacyhotels.co.za/en/hotels/davincihotel. Tel: 011-292-7000. Email: davinci@legacyhotels.com.
Arja Salafranca, Sunday Independent
* Salafranca was a guest of Da Vinci Hotel and Suites.