Tag Archives: Four Seasons

South Africa on top of the world on Telegraph Ultratravel 100 best holiday destination!

South Africa has made it to the top of the Telegraph Ultratravel 100, and its announcement fortunately contains a photograph of Cape Town, an unusual dramatic one of Table Mountain covered in a thick South-Easter cloud, with Vredehoek in the foreground.   Dubai made it into second place, followed by the Maldives, Australia, and Italy.   No motivation is presented for the choice, it being based on a Telegraph reader poll, and only the country’s website link to South African Tourism is provided.   This is the second tourism award that includes our city in a week, TripAdvisor having recently announced Cape Town as the number one world travel destination in the Travelers’ Choice Destination Awards.

South Africa also features in the Top Hotel in Africa list, the Cape Grace making it to the top of this list, and La Residence in Franschhoek making third place (right), the One&Only Cape Town is ranked fourth, and The Twelve Apostles is in fifth place.  Hemingway’s Resort in Mombasa is ranked second, and is the only non-South African top hotel on this list.

Other award winners were Cunard for best cruise company, Changi in Singapore for best airport, Emirates for best airline, Virgin Atlantic for best cabin staff, Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at Heathrow for Best Airport lounge, Hôtel de Crillon in Paris best city hotel, Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah in Oman is the best Beach/Resort hotel, the Four Seasons is the best luxury chain, The Carlyle in New York is the best hotel in the USA, Burj al Arab in Dubai is the best in the Middle East, and Le Touessrok the best in the Indian Ocean Islands.

It is a shame that the results have been announced at this time of the year, when the UK market is least likely to book for the coming summer, it being too far into the future, given their increasing last-minute booking pattern.

POSTSCRIPT 18/5: The Telegraph  followed up its award announcement article with the following motivation for South Africa having been voted in number one position.  Unfortunately Cape Town is not mentioned at all!:

“South Africa may be on the other side of the world from Britain, an 11-hour flight away at the southern tip of the African continent – and it may not be quite as enticingly cheap for Britons as it was (the pound now buys just 11 rand, and hotel prices are a good deal higher than they were before the Football World Cup). But the Rainbow Nation has still been voted by readers as their favourite destination – and for good reason. The country has landscapes of breathtaking beauty: raw, diverse and in the main unspoilt.

Along the coasts, some of the world’s largest sand dunes roll in from seas teeming with marine life (it is off KwaZulu Natal’s beaches that flocks of birds gather for their annual feast during the great sardine run, and whales migrate to give birth in sheltered coves). Mountain ranges thick with ancient trees are crisscrossed with waterfalls and rivers made for swimming. Game reserves as big as Wales – all baobabs, rolling grasslands and kopjies indented with rock caves decorated with ancient San art – protect the Plant Five, the Little Five and the Big Five. It’s not unknown to see lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and rhino in one day, alongside leopard orchids, buffalo weavers, elephant grass and rhino beetles.

And the country is not just for nature-lovers, either. From the winelands in the south to the deserts bordering Namibia, there is plenty of variety to keep most holidaymakers happy: child-friendly museums, cutting-edge hotels and 17th-century Cape Dutch b&b homesteads, gourmet restaurants, game lodges housing local art, and diversions ranging from shark diving and bungee-jumping to African herbal spas. Best thing of all? It is all reassuringly familiar, despite being on a different continent. The people of South Africa not only speak the same language as we do (in addition to 10 others) and drive on the same side of the road, but, after years of isolation during the era of apartheid, relish overseas visitors. In this relatively new tourist destination, even the passport officers welcome new arrivals with a smile.

As a finalist for this award, South Africa had plenty of competition: Dubai, with its five-star hotels; the Maldives, with its idyllic island life; Australia, with its open bush, wine and fine tucker; and Italy, with its historical and cultural allure. Having won, the Rainbow Nation should dust off its vuvuzelas. In spite of its troubles, it is now among the winners of an Ultra – an achievement that really is worth trumpeting about.”  

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com  Twitter:@WhaleCottage

Two Cape hotels on Telegraph Top 50 best hotel world list

Two local Cape hotels have made it onto The Telegraph “50 best hotels in the world” list, which the paper published on 31 December.  Writers of the Telegraph  Travel section selected the top 50 hotels, and divided them into three rates brackets.  The two Cape hotels both featured in the £150 – £300 per room per night price range, the mid price range.

La Residence  in Franschhoek is a very low key property locally, with little visible advertising.  Its business comes from international advertising and word of mouth.  Its biggest claim to fame is Elton John, the famous guest who comes to stay whenever he performs in Cape Town, and he always thanks the owners, Liz and Phil Biden, during his concerts.   When La Residence moved to its new site in Franschhoek, John was consulted as to what he wanted in terms of decor for “his” room.   Surprisingly, “his” room is not any larger than the other rooms that face the dam outside.  “His” room has an Indian decor style.   Every room is unique in its decor, created by interior decorator Ralph Krall.

The article describes La Residence as follows: “An 11-suite extravagance on the slope of Franschhoek, the Cape Village that is probably South Africa’s prettiest.  No expense has been spared.   Each of the suites has its own decor theme, from Buddhist retreat to French decadent, while the public areas are a riotous collection of Louis XIV furniture.   Persian carpets, plus objets, art and fabrics from India, Indo-China, France and Italy and everywhere else.  And it works thanks to the impeccable taste of Liz Biden, the proprietor”.

Grootbos  is located outside Hermanus, just beyond Stanford, before one gets to Gansbaai, and is known for its focus on conservation, not only of fynbos, but also of whales at De Kelders close by and other sealife, such as penguins, on Dyer Island.  The article writes as follows about Grootbos: “Found on one of the finest whale-watching coastlines, this five-star retreat offers unadulterated luxury without the guilt.  Every effort has been made to assimilate these fabulous private lodges – complete with all mod cons, state-of-the-art bathrooms, four-poster beds and unsurpassable views – into the environment.  And what an environment: a 1750-hectare reserve that is home to more than 740 different species of plants and the impossibly white sands of Walker Bay”.

Some of the other hotels that made the Telegraph Top 50 list include Mama Shelter in Paris, Mykonos Grace Hotel in Mykonos, Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Place in Budapest, Villa Marie in Saint Tropez, The Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai,  Four Seasons George V in Paris, Four Seasons New York, Four Seasons Istanbul, The Dorchester in London and The Carlyle in New York.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com   Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Stellenbosch University Sweet and Sevruga Sour Service Awards

The Sweet Service Award goes to the Conservatoire at the University of Stellenbosch, for organising the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival at the Endler Hall, from 3 – 12 July, bringing the best classical music talent from South Africa and overseas to Stellenbosch.   Every night a top class concert is offered.  The highlights so far have been the most thrilling marriage between the Four Seasons of Vivaldi and ‘The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires’ by Argentinian tango composer Astor Piazolla, under the inspirational leadership of Daniel Rowland, a dynamic violinist who performs in the UK, Holland, in Europe, Australia, the Far East and South Africa.   The launch of the ‘Seasons’ CD co-incided with the Rowland concert.  A further highlight was the narration of Prokovief’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’ by Nataniel, who was given free reign of the text, and turned the scary fable into an hilarious modern-day fable, consisting of the characters Peter, his wife and Mrs Ecksteen!   The Wolf becomes a weedeater, which Peter uses to mow his lawn and that of his neighbour.    The audience could barely contain its laughter, with the modern-day tale supported by the classical music of the children’s story.

The Sour Service Award goes to Sevruga in the V & A Waterfront, for the poor service and poor value-for-money at the Cape Times/Wordsworth launch lunch of Penny Vincenzi’s ‘The Best of Times’.   On arrival, the Sevruga manager seemed surprised to be requested to show the guest the table at which she was to be seated.   The welcome drink was not offered, and had to be requested.  The restaurant was taken over by the launch, and the restaurant kept it really simple by offering a choice of two options per course. There was no excuse for them to get it so badly wrong.   The waiter taking the order got every choice wrong when he read it back to the customer.   The duck consomme tasted like a very watered down tomato broth, without a taste of duck.   The waitress offered to “pepper grinder” the starters.  The “soup” spoon appeared to be inappropriate for the soup, but the customer was assured that it was a soup spoon.   The chicken breast was good, but was near to cold and was served with four chip “bricks”, hardly appropriate for a predominantly ladies’ lunch!  The dessert was good and well matched with the Boschendal Brut Rose served with it.  Interestingly, the same “soup” spoon did service as a dessert spoon as well! A cappuccino was ordered, and before it was brought to the table the General Manager made sure to tell the table that it would be for the guests’ own account.  It arrived close to cold, and a fellow attendee complained. The Manager offered to replace the coffees.  When the customers wanted to pay for the coffee, a waitress said that there had been a mistake, and that the coffees should not have been charged.   Sevruga clearly was unable to handle such a large group of Penny Vincenzi fans!

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.