Grootbos Private Nature Reserve

"For a long time, lodges in South Africa tended to be geared toward the Big Five. Grootbos, on the fynbos slopes near Walker Bay..."

"This smoke-free lodge features 2 restaurants, 2 outdoor pools, and a restaurant. Free cooked-to-order breakfast, free WiFi in public areas, and free self parking are also provided. Other amenities include an outdoor pool, 2 bars/lounges, and a bar/lounge. All 27 individually decorated rooms feature free WiFi and DVD players. Guests can enjoy fireplaces, and other standard amenities include free minibar items, furnished balconies, and living rooms. Grootbos Nature Reserve offers 27 accommodations with fireplaces and DVD players. Rooms open to furnished balconies. These individually decorated accommodations have separate living rooms. Satellite television is provided. Guests can make use of the in-room coffee/tea makers and free minibar items. Bathrooms include complimentary toiletries and hair dryers. Guests can surf the web using the complimentary wireless Internet access. Business-friendly amenities include desks, safes, and phones. In-room massages and hypo-allergenic bedding can be requested. Housekeeping is provided daily."

"The equally lovely Garden and Forest lodges of Grootbos Private Nature Reserve overlook Indigenous flowering plant–clad hills, which roll down to a bay where southern right whales calve in season." - Jane Broughton

"Grootbos sits on a stretch of coast famed for its fynbos, an incredibly diverse natural shrubland. Guests may see one of 765 plant species while hiking the property’s trails. The ocean’s “big five” are the other draw: Boat trips from Walker Bay seek out seals, sharks, penguins, dolphins, and, from June through December, whales. Rooms are peaceful, set against ancient milkwood trees or fynbos gardens, and the restaurant is good enough that Cape Towners will drive two hours for a meal. Before you head home, plant a tree as part of the lodge’s Future Trees Project. You’ll get the GPS coordinates so you can find it on your next visit."

"For a long time, lodges in South Africa tended to be geared toward the Big Five. Grootbos, on the fynbos slopes near Walker Bay, south of Cape Town, is different. This 6,177-acre private reserve is about treasuring the smaller, finer things. With 889 plant species, seven of which are newly discovered, it is first and foremost a rare botanical treasure trove, in which owner Michael Lutzeyer has employed some of the Cape’s leading botanists and entomologists. The lodges are glassy and contemporary, but there’s a constant call outdoors—from the outside showers to tracking elusive aardvark and Cape leopard, or having lantern-lit dinners in a 1,000-year-old milkwood forest, all fairy-tale tangles. You can ride horses across the sands, past ancient sea caves; go on flower safaris, tree-planting expeditions, and whale-watching flights to see the calving Southern right whales that migrate inshore between July and December. Most of the food on the carbon-negative reserve is grown on site, and nothing comes from more than 30 miles away, with many of the staff graduates of the in-house hospitality academy. But the main takeaway of Grootbos is that just stopping and looking—at the interconnectedness and mad beauty of life—is the most mesmerizing thing of all." - CNT Editors