Travel reviews by Ms & Mr T from London

"Our first stop, we enjoyed it greatly although felt that we had stayed just the right number of days. Food and hospitality were really good and it is definitely a very good place to begin an African holiday. Other guests were congenial and it made for a very happy Christmas.

Would have been wonderful indeed if they had mobile coverage although their land line phone charges were very reasonable. We wanted to talk to daughter, elderly father etc on Christmas Day.

Very beautiful, we enjoyed the walks and the rock paintings.

Had a good massage and the toiletries in the room were superb (I am fussy but was very impressed)"

"Very different after Bushmans Kloof, as a townie I enjoyed it a lot. Our room was good, the pool was quite a good size and we were well looked after.

We had a meal at The Tasting Room and weren't much impressed, too gimicky, a kind of S African style Heston Blumenthal which made us laugh a great deal. However, it was an excellent way to taste S African wines as we were given a taste with each course.
but we got fed up with interminable small courses of highly processed food - not really our style. It was packed out though.

Give me Bushman Kloof's food anyday."

"Our arrival was badly handled in contrast to the efficient warm welcome that we'd enjoyed at our previous stops.

No one bothered with us much, only one intern and another girl who seemed rather hostile were on duty and they didn't take any notice of us for a while. Finally we were shown our room, there was a fuss over lost keys and we found that a group of German tourists were using our room as a way to their car! We had to chuck them out and establish ownership! having done that, we were fine.

We enjoyed the walks and the beach, got up early and had lots of exercise. We are quite happy on our own but this is probably not the place for people who want more guidance. No one suggested anything, we just followed their map. Food was adequate and quite hearty but they obviously had a problem with fresh fruit and veg.

I would caution anyone going to take masses of sunscreen and a hat as De Hoop is VERY exposed at this time of the year. We were well equipped but you could get badly burned as the light is very bright and the Vlei and beach super exposed. In all we enjoyed De Hoop but were glad that we had some luxury worked into our trip too!"

"A different style again and a very lengthy reception. The lady in charge is a bit of a star, you do things her way which is fine but after a dusty drive, you'd like to have your room and a shower.

Once we got to the room, it was very pretty and nicely designed, getting a bit worn in places in the bathroom though.

Dinner was a scream as peoples food got mixed up but it sorted in the end. We slept well, breakfast was brilliant and we felt revived and really to push on."

"Lovely place, delightful people. We went once with them to Addo and were shown Meercts which we'd never have noticed on our own. We are better at elephants. Went again on our own which was fun.

We did a walk with Saul our guide. interesting, he looked after us well and was a mine of info. Meals were fine and we felt like colonial settlers, prices were ever so reasonable

Things we noticed - their upkeep/maintenance is poor. The swimming pool is falling to bits on the outside, our loo door didn't shut and could easily have been fixed and the worst is the "unfiltered" water. No drinking water, the bath/shower/basin water us really DARK brown and very unpleasant to bathe in let alone wash light coloured clothes. A bath is literally dark brown and opaque.

They say this is unfiltered well water but aesthetically it is not nice. The electricity is turned off during the day so the pool water is full of debris as the skimmers cant work without power. So lovely place, but needs more £££ spent on it."

"Sublime
Super
We loved it
We'll be going back
We were so impressed by the detail and the care they took"

"Again, we liked it. They were extremely kind to us and gave us a late check out which made our day.

One evening we eat there and the food was nothing special but it was brilliant for breakfast. We were in walking distance of many delights, so we quite often ditched the car and walked the city instead.

The room was great and spacious"