Birthday Getaway Review: Elephant Hide guest lodge
Knysna is my favorite small town in South Africa. Located on the East Coast of the Western Province. It has a beautiful lagoon, so stunning that nobody even bothers to go to the beach, which it has. There’s beautiful outdoors with wild animal and bird sanctuaries. But most importantly it has oysters!😊
So it is only fitting that I spend the week of my birthday there, since my India trip didn’t work out( still sulking about that😒).
The plan: it is me, my husband, and our 3 year-old son. We’re staying at Elephant Hide for 2 nights, Yellowood lodge for 3 nights, and then driving back, but spending 1 night in Swellendam.
We wake up in the wee hours of the morning to get to Knysna by lunchtime. It takes about 5 hrs from Cape Town to Knysna. The journey goes well, we find Elephant Hide quite easily. But as we turn before we get to the town and we drive further away from the lagoon, I get very worried. The best views are the lagoon views.
And when we pull up, first impressions are disappointing and I’m even tempted to turn around and go look for another accomodation. It looks primitive from the outside, almost like camping chalets and I don’t do camping. I’m a crispy white linen kind of girl when I’m on holiday.
But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. As we open the main door into the reception area/ dining area and I’m in awe. It looks so beautiful and serene, with amazing views of the lagoon from the mountain side and stunning crispy blue swimming pool overlooking the lagoon. So far from the first impressions.
We’ve reserved a family suite, and the pics on the website were amazing. I found the lodge via Groupon, and the owner was willing to give me the groupon discount price without going via groupon.
The family suite is stunning, it has 2 bedrooms. The main bedroom with a king sized bed, an en suite bathroom with a beautiful triangular spa bath with jets and finished with his and hers basins. There’s also a walk-in closet and mini bar. Did I tell you about the view of the lagoon from the comfort of the bed and our private patio with loungers?
Our son’s bedroom is also very nice with simple decor, 2 single beds(with the white linen as requested), cupboard, TV, DVD player and animated movies.
I’m in love with this place! Now I wish we’d spend our whole stay here. Obviously I spend some time lounging by the pool, with a nice cold drink, tanning 😜. And in the bath in the afternoon relaxing. I love it! I even spent my birthday evening in the bubble spa bath with my favorite things: my son, oysters and a G&T!😄👍💖
We didn’t do breakfast, as we’d planned on a late morning. But whatever we needed from the staff we got.
Oh and there’s free wifi!
Rating
Findability – 9/10. Good directions after you’ve turned off the N2, but we almost missed the crucial turn, because of the GPS.
Location– 10/10. Too stunning. Even the fact that it was a few minutes out of town gave it a sense of exclusivity.
Suite– 10/10. I really would not change anything or ask for any better, and I’m fussy!💛
Service– 9/10. Friendly, present, but not always buzzing around.
Affordability– good value for money. Our family suite cost us just under a R1000 per night, but out of season and was a discounted rate.
Overal rating = 9/10
Very recommended 👍
Great Post.
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