Dutch Manor Antique Hotel, Cape Town

 

I had been on the road for a few days and was beginning to doubt whether yet another character stay was a good choice, especially since I was in Cape Town on business and needed convenience and maximal efficiency with the limited time I had available in the evenings. And driving into town to the 1812 Dutch Manor Antique Hotel I had a moment of panic that it would be stuffy, musty, dark and noisy in the middle of the city, and that the staff would disappear after I had arrived, leaving me nervous and alone.

All my imagined concerns were completely unwarranted – I find the Dutch Manor Antique Hotel spacious, light, fresh and friendly, with the most helpful and enthusiastic staff. The highest windows I have ever seen let the sun stream in, while original wooden shutters and heavy, lined curtains mute the city sounds. Solid antique Yellowwood and Mahogany furniture and enormous thick old doors grace every part of the hotel. Spacious modern bathrooms, only just renovated, with matching Charlotte Rhys bathroom products, are offset with traditional touches like toiletries which are presented in a white lace-trimmed purse. A 200 year old leather couch sits in prime position in the lounge, with views of the Cape streets below.

What I love about the Dutch Manor Antique Hotel:

• There is a genuine commitment to the historical theme throughout the hotel
• Antiques really are everywhere and create a feast for the senses and imagination
• Heavy local timber doors, windows and furniture lend gravitas to every room
• Individually decorated rooms have bold colours with traditional Cape Dutch themes
• The friendliest, most helpful staff are available at any time of day or night
• The hotel is in a convenient setting, in one of the oldest streets in Cape Town, with easy access to all the major tourist attractions
• Fine linen, freshly renovated bathrooms and beautiful bath products make this a luxurious stay

Accommodation Experience

My bed is so high it takes me a moment to strategise how to climb onto it. Once there, I admire the spectacular 4-metre high window with its original wooden shutters and thick, extra-length curtains. The bed is a four-poster, which feels solid and comforting, with its thick, chocolate brown posts. The curtained back and sides of the bed, with a ruffled frill around the top create a cosy canopy, in which it is easy to escape to the past.

I imagine travelling in 1812, under harsh and uncomfortable conditions, to arrive at this inviting, beautiful space, and the sense of relief and gladness people must have felt to settle into this lovely room. I sink back into the curtains behind the bed and enjoy a strong cup of coffee in a classically Dutch-shaped coffee cup. I run my hands along the fine thread-count white linen and sigh my own sigh of relief.

This feels like a character stay where people of this place revel in your delight of the antiques, and they seem to do everything possible to make your time here comfortable, convenient and interesting. There is no sense of withholding or tourist trickery here – only a sensational place for a weary traveller to rest and be inspired by the past and present of Africa and the spectacular Mother City of Cape Town.

Zensa Lodge, Scarborough, Western Cape

 

A Journey to the Edge

Each time I visit Cape Town, I make the Grand Tour – the scenic drive all the way from Mouille Point, through Camps Bay, stopping off to walk barefoot on the white sands of Llundudno. I drive on over the breath-stopping pass down to Noordhoek and the long way round to Simon’s Town. And somehow the little village of Scarborough, at one of the furthest points on this journey, has always caught my fancy. It seems the pinnacle of a privileged coastline reserved for a lucky few – a pristine beach with white sands and rock pools, and a village with picturesque coastal cottages , perched at the very edge of the world. And so when I discovered Zensa Lodge, offering stylish accommodation at this exclusive resort, I made my way there as soon as I could engineer my escape.

The Lodge is a successful experiment in pared down architecture, with smooth, white walls, plentiful verandas and patios face in different directions. The exterior is given a dramatic African twist with greying thatched roofs. There are two blue-grey pools surrounded by grey coastal-weathered decking.

I stayed in the new Ikhaya V, a three-dimensional artwork of design and decor. Looking around the suite I can see why it is said that what makes minimalism work is to have varied textures within the same space. Zensa Lodge achieves this effect brilliantly, with surprises at every corner. In my suite there are cool white floors, walls and ceilings, contrasted with dark wooden floors in the bathroom and a Zebra skin rug in the lounge. There is a leather couch opposite natural timber coffee tables, glossy and patterned with rings of variegated colour. A heavy, part-rough and part-smooth tree stump balances the furniture in the far corner of the bedroom. Some of the windows have hessian curtaining and others have plantation-style dark wooden window shutters. An arched glass partition cleverly separates the bathroom from the lounge. Finally, as one looks through the partition, one sees that one wall of the bathroom is made entirely of shiny silver corrugated iron.

What I love about Zensa Lodge:

• In the picturesque coastal hamlet of Scarborough, the Lodge is a one minute walk from a pretty beach with white sands and rock pools
• Zensa Lodge has unique local Cape Coastal architecture, with white walls, thatched roofs, verandas and patios facing every direction
• Creative and dramatic use of contrasting materials offer surprises at every corner
• The suites are decorated in a minimalist way, yet the look is a trendy African style without any tourist tackyness
• There are select pieces of excellent local art on the wall
• There are windows in every direction, double doors and private courtyards and patios
• The bathrooms are spacious and softly modern, with big white baths and enormous showers
• Beds have creative detailing, with inviting, clean white linen
• This suite has a fireplace, and there are two swimming pools on the property, as well as a sauna and outdoor showers - this would be a marvelously cool place to visit in summer and a cosy haven in winter
• There is a television and a CD player with a wonderful locally-produced selection of music

Accommodation experience

As a grubby little farm dweller, there is nothing that beats a glamorous stay in a crisp white space. A stay at Zensa Lodge is like entering into one of those white minimalist decor magazine articles that those of us with messy partners, kids or dogs pore over with homicidal intent.

I sit in my beautiful suite enjoying the warmth of a fire on a cool night, appreciating the artistic calm of the lodge. Someone is practising the saxophone next door, the soft notes making even repetitive scales sound beautiful. I feel like I am in a different world to my own, one that is remotely placed at the edge of the continent. I guess that is partly the point of character accommodation – to offer an experience of the antithesis of our usual lives. By engaging intensely in a different border landscape, in the typical architecture and style of a unique setting, we are taken to the edges of ourselves. This process brings with it a fresh clarity of insight which we can take back with us to our homes - an energy of something having shifted within and we can return gratefully to our own messy lives while enjoying the clean sweep of ongoing inner change.

Hawksmoor House, Stellenbosch

Entering into Slow Time

One of my favourite scenes by novelist Kurt Vonnegut[i] is where he describes the late night bonding between an insomniac war veteran and his faithful dog, where he writes “I let him know that I like him and he lets me know that he likes me.” This simple sentiment is what I wish to express about everything at Hawksmoor House, including their two easily likeable hounds. From the first email, to the reception at the hotel, to the tour of the grand Cape Dutch style homestead, one is made to feel warmly welcomed.

I run out of superlatives during the showing of the 300-year old homestead, with its original Aga stove and Oregon pine corner kitchen cupboard. The resplendent dining room is layered with priceless antiques, with enormous double doors and windows. The lounge has a cavernous fireplace and beautifully upholstered grand chairs. There is an elegant furnished verandah at the back of the building, overlooking a long Koi pond with thick purple lavender bushes back-lit by the setting sun.

I love a country estate with plenty of tumbling outbuildings, which abound here at Hawksmoor House. The accommodation has been expertly integrated into the outbuildings and the original manor house, such that no new additions have been built onto the property. It is hard to choose amongst the fabulously decorated suites, but finally I settle on a stay in the old Slave Quarters, in the grey room. The grey walls are so rich they almost look blue in the sunlight which streams into the room throughout the day. Even the elaborate French country-style dressing table, wardrobe, headboard and mirrors are painted in the same grey tones. The colour is enhanced by the white borders of the tall sash windows and double doors, and the cool, creamy limestone flagged floors. The room has views over the autumn-hued vineyards, across the valley to the mountains beyond. Indeed, I like this place very well.

What I love about Hawksmoor House:

• The lovely approach into the estate, towards the original Cape Dutch homestead, flanked by two equally gracious oak trees
• The celebration of the historical buildings, which have been sensitively restored to be light and spacious without losing any architectural integrity
• Staying on a working farm, without preciousness or sterile blandness, but full of texture and warm country hospitality
• Gentle pooches which elegantly decorate the Persian carpets in the impressive dining room
• Individually decorated suites with lavish style and bold use of modern colour
• Conveniently located just off the N1, with easy access to Stellenbosch, Paarl, Franschhoek and Cape Town, yet with a country feel which encourages a gentle slowing down of one’s usual frenetic pace of life

Accommodation Experience

If I stay here much longer I shall be a very clean prune – I find myself entering slow time and I have one of the lengthiest, loveliest baths ever. A deep Victoria and Albert bath is set up against a tall sash window, with views across the valley to the mountains beyond. I watch the setting sun turn the mountains and skies pink, enjoying the contrast of the cool breeze from the open window with the hot water. Some guinea fowl are outside the window making their musical tuck-tucking.

Single-tasking is the new buzz word on the spiritual and psychological block – the simple act of doing one thing at a time, with mindful attention and appreciation. An antidote to the stress and hectic pace of modern life, the idea is to be fully present to each activity, using this awareness to slow us down and become more awake to life. And what better place to try out this practice than at Hawksmoor House, in the beautiful Cape winelands.

We have so little time on this earth – do we really want to spend it living a kind of half-life – never slowing enough to feel the texture of fresh food, the grass under our feet or the sun on our skin? We lose hours, days, weeks to mindless rushing or dull drudgery. Instead we are invited to participate actively in the small everyday miracles of life – the full experience of simply tasting a cup of tea, not gulping it down while texting and planning when to fit in the shopping. I am having the privilege of entering into this slow time at this country retreat, where time is stretching before me in delicious, sacred moments. And I highly recommend it to you, wherever you find yourself now, in this moment of time.

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[i] In his novel Slaughterhouse 5

The Robertson Small Hotel, Robertson

Proudly South African

Wherever you are based, get thee to the Robertson Small Hotel. What could be better than packing a few of your favourite things into a stylish weekend bag and heading out into the country for a weekend of relaxation and pampering?

I had been so focused on the images I had seen of the beautiful interiors of the hotel that I forgot what a spectacularly scenic drive it is from Cape Town to Robertson, whichever route you take. I took what you might call the long way round, heading out on the N2 from Cape Town, turning off the freeway onto the breath-taking coastal route through Gordon’s Bay, Pringle Bay and up through the Bonnievale winelands through to Robertson. On the way back I followed the Paarl mountains, driving right alongside their intimidating height softened only at the base by pristine pink and yellow fynbos.

Arriving in Robertson, one approaches the quintessential South African small-town steepled chapel, at the end of Church Street. The hotel itself is situated in an old leafy suburb in an avenue lined with similarly quaint Victorian architectured houses. The pretty and classical exterior belies the trendy modern interiors, with creamy leather sofas, glass walls, skylights and soft chrome lighting.

I stay in the Stables Honeymoon Suite, a long, attic-style room with an open plan bedroom, lounge and bathroom. The care with which the suite has been designed cannot be sufficiently praised, from the clever layout to the elegant decor. Everything matches the plush cream and chocolate theme, from the silvery creamy couch, to the warm brown wood-grained beams and furniture, even down to the matching kettle, fridge and dustbin. No holds have been barred in the pursuit of finesse, luxury and perfection.

What I love about the Roberston Small Hotel:

• Somehow this elegant hotel balances the textured traditional architecture with the smooth modern fittings, combining glamorous style with friendly warmth and hospitality
• There is a clever configuration of rooms within the hotel grounds, with suites in different parts of the hotel and facing different directions for privacy and views of features like pools and courtyards
• Deep baths in glossy bathrooms with white ceramic wall tiles, grey stone floor tiles and characterful attic-style beams
• Thick wrap-around white towels
• Under-floor heating, air-conditioning and a faux fur throw
• A serious contender for SA’s best hotel linen award, with the softest, silkiest white bed-linen yet to be discovered
• iPod docking station, large flat screen TV and DVD player
• Discreet turndown service while one is at dinner, with a poem left on the bed alongside the pillow chocs
• Staff move silently and cheerfully about, putting cushions out on the pool chairs before we are awake and even making the bed, tidying the room and emptying the dustbins while one is at breakfast or dinner
• Complementary drinks in the room’s bar fridge
• One of the highlights is South African chef Rueben’s restaurant with wonderful flavour combinations and superb breakfast

Accommodation experience

Before going to the Robertson Small Hotel, I kept visiting the hotel’s website, scrutinising every page for potential flaws, with the main aim of lowering my very high expectations to avoid disappointment. I needn’t have been mistrustful as everything was exceptional, dare I even say, perfect. I finally believe the hype that the hotel has been causing.

As I sit in the restaurant I overhear some foreign guests “oohing” and “aahing” over their meal. “Zis is ten out of ten” says one enthusiastic German man to my right. An American woman seated behind me cannot believe how far her dollars can take her in terms of the quality of accommodation. I feel a great surge of pride at what South Africa has to offer such visitors – truly world class scenery, natural areas, wildlife, food, wine and accommodation. The Robertson Small Hotel feels like it represents a coming of age for South African hospitality. Set in a Victorian building, while expressing an almost Scandanavian modern-meets-traditional feel, with service and amenities set to the highest international standards, still there is nothing colonial about the hotel. It has a distinctly South African flavour and shows off some of our finest local talent. The Robertson Small Hotel showcases the best of what South Africa has to offer and is pioneering the way in cutting edge affordable luxury.