Johannesburg, South Africa

The Peech Hotel

Price per night from$153.94

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (ZAR2,920.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

African fusion

Setting

Central seclusion

Set in a peaceful garden in the heart of energetic Johannesburg, this boutique hotel is a relaxing city-centre retreat. The mature garden is home to a quiet pool, and inside The Peech Hotel you'll find cottage-esque rooms, decorated with rich African tones.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A 375ml bottle of Cap Classique sparkling wine in your room on arrival

Facilities

Photos The Peech Hotel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

32, including two suites and a two-bedroom villa.

Check–Out

11am, but flexible. Earliest check-in, 2pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £140.50 (ZAR3,358), including tax at 15 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional government tax of 1% per room per night on check-in.

More details

Rates exclude breakfast (from R110).

Also

Craving a kick of endorphins? Peech guests have private access to the Planet Fitness next door (for R110 a session), including its large heated indoor pool, indoor running track and full rota of fitness classes (yoga, Pilates, cycling, kick-boxing and more).

At the hotel

Gardens, WiFi, library lounge. In rooms: air-conditioning, flat-screen TV with DSTV, minibar, Nespresso coffee machine, tea-making kit, all-natural Kalahari bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Rooms on the first floor in the building away from the main house offer an extra degree of privacy.

Poolside

There are two: a larger outdoor lap pool (heated via solar panels in the winter months) and a smaller family-friendly swimming pool. Both are flanked by poolside sunloungers (topped with over-sized Mungo towels) and sun-shading umbrellas.

Also

In-room massages can be arranged on request.

Children

All ages welcome. An extra bed (suitable for children aged three to 12) can be added to any room type for ZAR950 a night (includes breakfast). Children two and under can stay in a cot for free. Cots and extra beds should be requested when booking.

Food and Drink

Photos The Peech Hotel food and drink

Top Table

Snag a table outside on the shaded patio on warm summer evenings; when it’s cooler out, make a beeline for the table closest to the indoor fireplace.

Dress Code

Relaxed style.

Hotel restaurant

The Peech boasts serious culinary credentials in its two restaurants. The open-plan Garden Restaurant serves light and fresh fare throughout the day. Bookings are essential at Basalt, the hotel’s fine dining restaurant, where chef James Diack uses ingredients from his family farm in Magaliesburg to cook up creative and contemporary dishes.

Hotel bar

The intimate cocktail bar has the broadest range of Veuve Cliquot in the country and is open until the last guest leaves.

Last orders

The Garden Restaurant is open daily for breakfast (6.30am to 10am), lunch (noon to 2.30pm) and dinner (6.30pm to 10.30pm). Dinner is served at Basalt, Thursday to Saturday, from 6.30pm.

Room service

The restaurant menu is available until 9.30pm and a limited snack menu at other times.

Location

Photos The Peech Hotel location
Address
The Peech Hotel
61 North Street, Melrose
Johannesburg
2196
South Africa

Planes

The closest airport is Johannesburg’s Tambo International, roughly 45 minutes away by car. There's an airport shuttle (the Gautrain) to Sandton that departs every 12 minutes between 5.30am and 8.30pm. To reach this stop takes 15 minutes, then it’s a short cab ride to the hotel. Private airport transfers can be arranged for R1,200 each way (up to three guests).

Trains

Park Station, Johannesburg’s main railway hub and the largest train station in Africa, is a 20-minute drive from the hotel. Premier Classe (www.premierclasse.co.za) runs trains to Cape Town, Durban and Hoedspruit.

Automobiles

The hotel is located in Melrose, a suburb between the Sandton, Rosebank and Melrose Arch. There’s free secure parking at the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

Local restaurants

Moyo on Melrose Square serves delicious and authentic African recipes from across the continent; including excellent tagines and fish curries. The atmosphere among the Berber tents and intimate alcoves is just as special, with live music and storytellers. Book a table on the terrace; a reservation is essential.

Reviews

Photos The Peech Hotel reviews

Anonymous review

We pull up at our destination in the leafy Johannesburg suburb of Melrose, and the elegant but robust steel gates glide open. The grey gravel driveway, framed by an avenue of mature trees, leads us through the lush gardens of the Peech Hotel into a pocket of peace in a famously frantic city.

A sense of restfulness isn’t always easy to find in Jo’burg. Here, the open-plan reception has a welcoming, unhurried vibe, with impressive efficiency behind it – the complete opposite of what so often awaits the weary traveller. We’re led through the manicured garden, where a sleek, dark-tiled pool, a neat row of sunloungers and a gently swaying hanging-basket chair tempt me to take some time with a good book and a leisurely cocktail. The Peech is aptly named, with peachy colours everywhere; it’s sweet (but not kitsch), and as stress-free as you could hope for. By the time we reach our room, we’ve already lost any sense that we’re in the middle of a big city.

Our upstairs room comes as a surprise – in a pleasing way – with a warm, cottagey feel to the decor, big bed, open-plan closet and bay window framed by wooden blinds. The walls are covered with African artefacts, each bearing a little label explaining what it is and the tradition behind it (plus price-tags, for any guests wishing to take some home with them). The bathroom is just as charming, with a shower, bath and stylish oversized washbasin, all tiled in rich-blue mosaic.

Now we’re here, it is tempting to stay within the intimate confines of the hotel; like many visitors we're only in the city for a short while before heading on to one of South Africa's famous safari lodges. We determined however not to miss out on Johannesburg’s celebrated restaurant scene. (A list of top local eateries has been thoughtfully left in our room.) We drive through the lush northern districts under a purple haze of jacaranda trees in full bloom. In October, Johannesburg is a city covered in a technicolour blanket of foliage; if you saw it from the air, you would never imagine that millions of people are bustling beneath.

A short drive from the hotel is the Melrose Arch complex, a hip and happening ‘island’ in the suburbs. We’re spoilt for choice, with restaurants ranging from the famous Moyo’s, which offers a theatrical African dining experience (when you can get in), to the Meat Company with its melt-in-the-mouth steaks. Mrs Smith and I decided on one of the pavement tables at Giovanni’s, an Italian on Melrose Square. Eating out is joyously affordable in South Africa: we relax with a bottle of champagne and a pizza and watch a square full of people, all apparently trying to choose where to dine. We ended our evening in the peaceful seclusion of the Peech, which has its own wonderful menu – and wine list.

Many of the more affluent suburbs contain shopping malls that feel more like self-contained mini-cities; Rosewood, on the other hand, contains a two-storey African market. We spend an entire morning watching the stallholders making the next hand-crafted item with wonderful delicacy and confidence. It’s a great place for a wander; it’s a good idea to wear your negotiating cap, since all the artisans are up for the challenge of beating the prices on the next stall. Rosebank also features plenty of Paris-style boutiques to occupy browsers, so it was past aperitif time when we make it over to Melrose Arch (an essential reservation having been made) for dinner at Moyo’s. Tonight, there’s a local band playing on the roof of one of the adjacent buildings. Their songs fill the evening air with melody; the square itself is filled with fire cauldrons to lift the evening chill.

Strange as it may seem, face painting is a must at Moyo’s. It’s just sufficient to make you feel both silly and at ease, and the night-long live music creates such an infectious atmosphere that even the most self-conscious diner is bound to get into the spirit of things. From the extensive menu, offering delicious dishes from all over Africa, to the jovial and attentive service, Moyo is a real highlight in Jo’burg and definitely deserving of the recommendation from the hotel.

We’re welcomed back at the Peech with a smile; one look at the face paint tells our hosts exactly where we’d been. Over a late-night cocktail in the garden, we reflect on the hotel’s mix of classic style with a hint of urban, with a core of the most important element: genuine service. We collapse into our freshly made bed and sleep regally – a deep sleep, far removed from the cares of the city, our souls well and truly rested.

This boutique hotel was reviewed by Oliver Richter

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Price per night from $153.94