Dear Joseph,
Returned yesterday from another very nice trip in South Africa. We had a fantastic holiday, in beautiful accommodations. It was different from previous Africa trips, because besides safari there was a lot of room to do other things. But that was actually fun, and because of that we got to know a new, different part of South Africa.
A little more detail:
- In Cape Town someone was waiting for us and took us neatly to Sea Five. Good that this transport was arranged. It was getting late, and quite a drive to Sea Five, so good we didn't have to do this ourselves anymore.
- Sea Five is top spot. Beautiful rooms, great service, very personal. Moreover, you can walk to the boulevard of Camps Bay in a few minutes, where you will find excellent restaurants. We can especially recommend The Codfather, delicious fish and seafood, and good service. Have also eaten in Umi, Japanese, a little less (among other things because they tried to sell us the most expensive wines), but good.
- Car was delivered neatly at 8:00, Toyota RAV4 in perfect condition, nice car. We were surprised that we still had to pay for the fact that we returned the car in Port Elizabeth. Thought this was included in the rent.
- Babylonstoren is highly recommended. Fantastic cottage, top service, good restaurant Babel where we dined twice, and the Greenhouse is fine for lunch. We did the Garden Tour, which is a lot of fun, by a very enthusiastic lady, who talks about 'her' garden with passion and humor. We also did the Wine Cellar Tour, but I can't recommend it. Was rushed. We have not been able to test the Spa. Was packed, unfortunately we hadn't booked in advance.
- Blue Gum is also a nice place. Nice room, no air con, and therefore a bit warm. Also here good service and excellent food in the on-site restaurant. They have the policy here that families with smaller children must finish dinner by 19:00, so that later people without children can dine in peace. And of course we thought that was fine.
- La Plume is again highly recommended. Very nice atmosphere, nicely decorated with great attention to detail (the legs of the freestanding bath are ostrich feet!), delicious food and excellent service. We also did a tour of the farm, which was provided by the farmer himself, very nice to see how ostriches are reared, and what is involved. Oudtshoorn itself is also a nice town, with plenty of choice in nice restaurants and shops.
- Meerkat excursion is great fun. Up early (at 5:00 at the agreed place), but very nice, and also natural behavior of the meerkats. They are not fed, so they are not tame. We sat on folding chairs 10m from their den and waited for them to come out. Then they warm up in the sun, and play a bit. They don't care about the visitors, in fact in the same way that many animals in game parks normally react to a safari vehicle at a sufficient distance.
- I don't need to say anything more about Samara. Top. Just as good as 4 years ago, lovely service, felt like coming back to old friends again (although no one was working at all that we recognized from 4 years ago).
- Travel back via Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg went well.
It was great again, and everything perfectly arranged, for which thanks.
We are already thinking about plans for 2015. We will contact you shortly. We are not coming to the holiday fair, Jan has just returned from 2 weeks in China.
With best regards,
Jan and Tiny Frusch