TRYING OUT NEW THINGS
OUR usual family mode of travel is self-catering, or camping or staying with friends or family.
So, the chance of a trip up the West Coast, with an overnight stay in a hotel in the fishing town of St Helena Bay had me all excited.
BON Hotels and its PR agency organised a road trip up the R27 – with stops along the way. A meander from Bloubergstrand eventually deposited a gaggle of journalists and bloggers at the front door of the hotel chain’s Shelley Point venue mid-afternoon of a sunny winter Thursday.
Blue cocktails were offered, pizza was consumed, and then we were given a tour of various hotel facilities: the nine-hole golf course (green and gorgeous), the six-rink bowling green and the kiddy entertainment facilities (secure and wellappointed, with an outdoor play area and an indoor room too).
At last, we got to put our bags in our rooms, and my phone call home reported that I was staying in a room with two floors.
We had been given rooms in the luxury suites. There are 51 of these loft-style suites with a lounge and patio area, and an upstairs bedroom complete with queen size bed and en-suite bathroom.
I could learn to like such luxury, though it did feel a little sinful to be there all by myself.
On to dinner. The hotel has two restaurants, and we ate in São Antonio, alongside the pool deck - a surfand-turf set menu filled the corners adequately. A fairly standard buffetstyle breakfast the next morning was upstairs in São Gabrielle, with a golf-course and sea view.
I had taken an early ten-minute morning walk to the beach, and a turn round a remarkably ugly statue of Vasco da Gama had me looking at the sun coming up over the sea (the peninsula positioning of the hotel means you can see it going down over the sea as well).
Well fed and well rested, we hit the road back to Cape Town.
With the family, luxury hotels are not usually on our list of destinations. Nevertheless I tentatively asked what a stay at Shelley Point would cost – and was tempted.
They’re running a “spring into summer” special: until November 30, you get breakfast, a hydrospa session, unlimited golf access from R549 per person sharing, per night (free for children under 12).
Local attractions
Our road trip up the R27 took in !Khwa ttu ( www.khwattu.org), a Khoisan cultural and educational centre, and the West Coast Fossil Park (www.fossilpark.org.za). Both are way more interesting than they sound, with the fossil park likely to be a favourite with children showcasing well-preserved faunal fossils dating back about 5.2 million years. A member of our party has had good breakfasts at !Khwa ttu, with lots of space for little ones.