Describe to me your ingredients for a perfect day. Here’s mine – a dip in the pool, a trip to the spa, endless days in a chaise, the whole world according to moi. Fabulous!
And yes that is a High School Musical 2 reference.
I had the privilege of celebrating my 23rd year around the sun at the beautiful Marly Hotel. It was a day started with freshly popped bubbly and a full body massage. As far as spas go it wasn’t the most zen of locations, perhaps mainly due to to the fact that the spa is situated in the mall below and not the hotel itself. The spa entrance is reminiscent more so of a fancy Sorbet with booze. And behind the hidden door – massage rooms, with lighting common to a TikTokker’s bedroom.
I can’t fault the massage itself because from the legs down I had already passed out on the bed. Was it the great sense of relaxation, the lighting or perhaps just maybe that single glass of champagne – we’ll never know.
One last thing to mention about the spa, when booking for a couple’s massage I personally love having it done in the same room as the person I am with. Alas not this time dear reader. So if that’s something important to you when on a couple’s massage I’d think twice.
Once woken from my slumber, we made our way to the pool.
Fun fact: With any treatment done at the spa comes complimentary access to the rooftop lounge and pool area. If you decide not to indulge in this option it will require a minimum spend of R500 from you and your party. Which if you plan to eat their is actually highly doable, our 2 person party managed to clear R500 easy and that is without even touching any of the highly priced cocktail options.
Above: Fish on a bed of broccolini with chips. Below: A happy Zo with her first meal of the day. 
Now let’s talk food – the menu is one of the simpler poolside menus I’ve seen. Personally speaking, you’re paying for the view more so than you are the food. For a 5-star boutique hotel I expected more from The Marly’s restaurant – The Baptiste. Unable to order a simple milkshake or serving of ice-cream, we asked for the dessert options. A chocolate brownie and “the caramel version of the brownie”. With so little options you’d think a waiter would be more well versed in describing what’s available. The gelatinous citric & caramel option did in no way resemble a brownie… at all.
When looking to the menu to see what he was attempting to describe we also noticed that the brownie, and only the brownie, in fact came with ice-cream. Something the waiter had failed to mention. Come on now.
Rant regarding the food now over. The Marly really is a beautiful little spot seemingly known mostly only to foreigners and the in-the-know influencers, who never actually entered the Baptiste. I had to laugh when with every bathroom run a new content creator and their photographer would be at the hotel’s entrance securing that content bag, pro bono. We are forced to stan.
One last tip: if you plan to spend the day at the Marly hotel be smarter than us and park on the street. This isn’t the airport, nobody needs to be paying R120 for parking.
Curating CT 