INDUSTRIAL CHIC
LOCATION
On Knysna’s Thesen Island, a former industrial zone and shipyard which has been cleverly re-imagined as a residential area linked by a network of canals, offering its inhabitants the chance to live as close to the water as they do in Venice.
STYLE
This marvellous boutique hotel was built in and around the old power station. The designers were blessed with lots of space to work with — it was a power station, after all, with a cavernous interior — and have created something quite astonishing. Much of the machinery has been preserved so there are turbines, a smokestack, control panels and other restored bits of electrical gear that are now enjoying their second life as works of art in the public areas as well as in the rooms.
ROOMS
The hotel has 17 standard rooms, six luxury rooms and a honeymoon suite as well as two suites next door. The standard rooms are spread among the hotels six wings — mine looked out over a sliver of the canals — and each has its own theme (mine was distinctly nautical) and each has a king-size bed to float you off to dreamland.
THE FACILITIES
There are two restaurants, a conference room and — at the heart of it all — The Turbine Spa, which offers a vast range of treatments and packages. I can think of no better place to end the day after a morning spent hiking and swimming down a canyon (see “5 Things to do in Knysna” on page 31). There is, of course, sweet, fast wifi.
THE EATING
The Island Café is the hotel’s main restaurant and is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Its glass sliding doors are usually wide open to the view across the canals to the Outeniqua Mountains beyond. It’s a pretty nice place to eat oysters and fresh fish and even springbok carpaccio, if that’s your thing.
Upstairs, in the Gastro Pub, you can loll in a comfy armchair while gazing in wonder at the pub’s centrepiece: a heavy lifting hook that still hangs from its chains.
THE ‘DO’ LIST
Boredom is not an option at The Turbine. The hotel can arrange kayaks and mountain bikes for self-guided trips on the canals or a gentle ride on quiet roads along the edge of the lagoon. The Garden Route is an adventure hot-spot, offering anything from beach walks to paragliding to swimming the icy, tea-coloured waters as you work your way down a remote canyon.
BEST TIME TO GO
Locals will tell you all about “Outeniqua Rust” — the slowdown that grips people in the winters — but I love those, cool, wet days when the rain lashes the canals and banks of mist drift on the lagoon. That’s not good adventure weather, though, so go in the spring or the autumn when the crowds have thinned and the Southern Cape weather is at its glorious best.
RATES
From R1,735 per person per night sharing in a standard room in low season (R2,110 high season).
BOOKING
Call 044-302-5746, e-mail reservations@turbinehotel.co.za or see turbinehotel.co.za.