Honeymoon suite at Plantation

It feels weird to be married for 15 years and then to say you're staying in the honeymoon suite.  That's what happened to us a little while ago when we spent an evening at the Plantation courtesy of a prize I won at the #ECMeetup bloggers event.  If you think the room looks cool you should have seen the picnic dinner we got.  

Riverside breakfast

Late last week I had a meeting at Dungbeetle River Lodge on the Sundays River in Colchester.  The owners always have lekker snacks and lunch lined up when we have a meeting there and this time was no different.  Best of all, the weather was perfect and we could have our meeting on the deck overlooking the river.  Yes, that's the deck in the back of the picture with the river just below. 

Boardwalk Hotel Luxury Suite

I don't think many of us will get the opportunity to stay at the Boardwalk Hotel very soon.  I for one can't afford 5 star hotel rates and will have to rely on an invitation by somebody for a complimentary stay if I want to do so. *Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, hint, hint*  I did have a peek into one of their Luxury Suites on a tour of the hotel the other night and here's sharing that peek with you.

Boardwalk Hotel pool deck

The new Boardwalk Hotel on the Port Elizabeth beachfront is an impressive landmark, to say the least.  I got to go on a tour of the hotel and conference centre late last week and afterwards is even more impressed.  The hotel truly is a huge asset for the city.  This is the pool deck on the hotel's first room level with views of Hobie Beach and Shark Rock Pier..

Humewood Hotel on Marine Drive

The three star Humewood Hotel on Marine Drive is one of the oldest hotels in the city and started its existence as the Humewood Mansions.  The same family that was responsible for the building of the hotel still owns it now, three generations later.  I dug around the internet a little and couldn't find a lot of information on the history of the hotel.  Little snippets did crop up from an interview with Dave Snuggs, the general manager of the hotel.

• “Originally only the central section of the hotel was built – as a double-story building – and the road that ran past the front of the hotel was a dirt road.”  There is no recorded date of this build as plans were required to be submitted!
•  “Circa1925 the two wings were added to the hotel that substantially increased the number of rooms and added an extra story to the building on the side wings. At that time the majority of rooms were serviced by communal ablution facilities, a challenge that was placed on management some years later to rectify!"
• “In 1985 an elevator was added and the challenge of providing en- suite bathrooms for every room was tackled.”

I got the quoted info from the Travel and Things blog

Marine Hotel view

A couple of months ago I won a two nights Protea Hotel voucher in a competition and the expiry date started to approach so we decided to not go out of town for it but rather enjoy a weekend "holidaying" in our own home town.  The KidZ stayed at their grandparents and the Damselfly and I just planned a weekend of relaxing and walking on the beachfront.  Believe it or not, it actually felt like we were somewhere else.  We didn't have the KidZ being hungry or thirsty or tired all the time and didn't have to rush because we had to get home.  We could have an afternoon nap or just sit and enjoy the view.  Walked all the way to the harbour wall and spent an hour watching a Nippers competition on Kings Beach.  And the weather played along beautifully.  It was pure bliss.  The cherry on top?  A sea view room on the sixth floor.  Nice! 

Thunzi swimming pool

The pool area at Thunzi Bush Lodge near Maitlands west of Port Elizabeth.  Just the place to spend a couple of lazy hours this summer.  Thunzi does the most amazing picnic lunches where you get a picnic basket full of goodies and can head down to the dam to relax on the lawns with a loved one.  I want to try it early in the new year and will give some feedback afterwards.

The Red Locations Lodge ladies

The Red Location (Backpacker) Lodge in New Brighton has a special story to it.  I don't know all the details so I will give you the short version of it.  The building that the Lodge is situated in used to be a beer hall back in the days.  Beer halls led to many men drinking away all their money and getting violent towards women and children and was also the source of a lot of crime in the townships.  The women had had enough and burned the beer hall down after which it stood as an burned out shell for many years.  A group of women, most who was involved in the burning of the beer hall, wanted to create a better future for themselves and approached the municipality for funding to turn the building into an useful place.  With the development of the Red Location Museum and surrounding precinct next door the municipality agreed and the women formed themselves into a co-op and started working.  At this stage the Lodge accommodates mostly school groups but they hope that in future they would become a popular spot for international backpacker travellers as well.

The new Boardwalk Hotel

The new Boardwalk Hotel, Spa and Conference Centre officially opens this weekend.  I was fortunate to get a sneak peak the other day and was suitably impressed.  In the picture is the hotel lobby lounge area.

Mark's Camp

Lalibela Game Reserve is situated about 85 kilometers east of Port Elizabeth. The reserve has three lodges (Lentaba Safari Lodge, Tree Tops Safari Lodge and Mark's Camp ) and I recently had the opportunity to stay at the latter. Mark's Camp is the reserve's family friendly camp and have facilities to cater for families with small children. One of our favorite parts of the lodge was the pool deck next to the waterhole at the bottom of a walkway from where the picture was taken.

Lodge lounge

Port Elizabeth is surrounded by a host of private game reserves, most of them with upmarket luxury lodges.  The interesting bit is that each one of them look different and visiting them I always look forward to what the lodge looks like if I haven't been to one before.  That was no different visiting Mark's Camp at Lalibela Game Reserve where they have a great big fireplace and a strong animal, wood and earth theme. 

Radisson on Marine Drive

Love it or hate it, the five star Radisson Hotel on the beachfront in Summerstrand has become a landmark on the South African skyline.

Bonsai at Addo Gateway Lodge

For a couple of years now I've had an interest in bonsai trees, but have never actually gotten to the point to start training (which is apparently what the bonsai folk call it when you grow a bonsai) one myself.  Not long ago I received an invitation from Maggie Mann and Les Kingma of Addo Gateway Lodge out in Colchester to attend a Bonsai Day at their guest house.  Les is an expert (although he's quite modest about it) in the art of bonsai and I marveled at some of the trees outside the reception area.  Just to add, with Les' help and input I'm now the proud owner (trainer?) of a Spekboom bonsai tree.

Whisky tasting at AHOY Boutique Hotel

The AHOY Boutique Hotel in Humewood is a very impressive wine cellar equipped with a boat shaped bar and stocked with an amazing variety of alcohol from all over the world.  I was invited to a whisky tasting there the other day and was really impressed with not just the wine cellar but also with the establishment itself.  Read more about my whisky tasting experience as posted in The Firefly Photo Files.

Humewood Hotel

The 3 star Humewood Hotel on the beachfront must truly be one of the most under rated hotels in Port Elizabeth.  When you ask anybody to name hotels in the city, you can bet that the Humewood won't be very high on the list.  Its probably because its one of the grand old ladies of the city's accommodation industry and doesn't look modern and fancy, but it doesn't have to be.  Over the last 10 years or so the SAGA Holidays group in Britain has voted the Humewood Hotel as one of the top 10 hotels it offers its guests.  Most of the other hotels are 5 star resorts in exotic destinations all over the world which just shows that nothing beats good ol' service and value. Its definitively a feather in the hat of GM Dave Snuggs and his team.

Courtyard Suites Hotel

The front view of the 4 star Courtyard Suites Hotel on the Port Elizabeth beachfront from its pool area.  The hotel is situated on a prime spot with fantastic views of Algoa Bay from all its rooms.  But I'm not here to market the hotel and I haven't stayed there so I can't do a review.  I just had to go meet somebody there and popped out to the pool to take a couple of pictures.

Another photo of the pool, but this time showing the view towards Algoa Bay

New Town Lodge Hotel

Another of the new developments going on along the Port Elizabeth beachfront is the new Town Lodge Hotel.  The hotel is being built right next door to the City Lodge while the Courtyard Suites Hotel and Road Lodge is just beyond that, making PE the first place in South Africa to have all four of the hotels in the group situated next to each other.  The 203 room, R133-million development is starting to near completion and will add much needed rooms to the hotel accommodation mix along the beachfront.

Lodge lounge

A week or so ago I posted a couple of game reserve lodge photos. I found this one which I still wanted to post when I posted those. This is the lounge area in the hotel on Kwantu Game Reserve outside Port Elizabeth. The hotel is laid out with spacious public areas which aren't overly decorated with unnecessary things. The reserve is also very unique in that it belongs to a Muslim family and thus don't allow any alcohol. All of these factors mean that the lodge and game reserve is very family friendly.

Bathroom with a view

Following on yesterday's post of the game lodge bedroom, I thought I'll show you what a bathroom in the lodge looks like. Talk about a batchroom with a view. Just make sure you don't have a peeping tom monkey or giraffe peeking in the window.

Game lodge bedroom

Port Elizabeth is situated in Big 5 country and is surrounded by luxurious game reserves. Most of these game reserves offer guests 5 star facilities with each lodge being different from the next one. This is the bedroom at one of the lodges at Pumba Game Reserve. The room opens up on the bush surrounding the lodge and a private plunge pool. Just check out the door before exiting to make sure there isn't an elephant drinking from your pool.