Melrose North, Sandton

Melrose North, regarded as a suburb of Sandton, lies perfectly sandwiched between Rosebank and Sandton City, with easy access to the M1, the Corlett Drive onramp and within walking distance of Melrose Arch and the Wanderers Club, famous for its cricket stadium. You’re well placed if this is your chosen suburb. Melrose North is upmarket old-style Johannesburg. Homes here are sizeable and gardens leafy and cultivated, everything touched with a modern brush, the neighbourhood safe and contemporary.

Melrose Arch, just up the road, makes staying here something of an experience, if you don’t want to venture far. Intended as a harmonious amalgamation of work, play and home space, the rather monolithic structure is a combination of shops, restaurants, and office and play space. The trendy square is surrounded by restaurants with open-air sidewalk seating - an African take on the distinctly popular European eating style. The various apartments, lofts and penthouses above the square are touted as the height of fashionable living, whilst the offices are best viewed in a flyby on the M1 en route to central Johannesburg.

The garden suburb of Johannesburg, Norwood, just down the road, has a distinctly bohemian flavour with numerous small high street boutiques, cafés and coffee bars, set along tree-lined streets that invite relaxation. Distinctly different is a trip to Sandton City, more or less in the opposite direction from Norwood, where glitz and glamour turn shopping into an art form.