PH Travel | Hotlist 2024

Hotlist hideaways

Stone House,

Hermanus, Overberg

Is there a hideaway in the world where you open your eyes and with a small adjustment of your down pillows, watch whales breaching from the cocooned warmth of your bed? Lie quite still and count the seconds between the giant swells of Walker Bay pushed by a strong north-easter. The seven-meter waves undulating over Great Whites and Southern Rights ‘demand respect’ say the locals who surf them. So do the creators of the extraordinary Stone House Hermanus that is so sensitively rooted to the land. Their choice was to ‘grow’ the house organically on the cliffs of Hermanus with rock in muted earth shades of pink and ochre, quarried and set painstakingly down over three years. From the ocean, it is at one with the skyline of clinging fynbos and the cliff face.

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Bobbejaanskloof,

Plettenberg Bay, Garden Route

On the edge of Plettenberg Bay on the Garden Route, hidden amongst the foothills of the Tsitsikamma Mountains, Bobbejaanskloof is a magnificent property at the heart of a dramatic private wilderness featuring indigenous fynbos, old forests and sweeping plains. And yet, just a twenty-minute drive away, Plettenberg Bay offers everything you’d expect from one of South Africa’s most sophisticated, and popular holiday spots. Everything about Bobbejaanskloof makes sense in the South African context. As the focus of the property, the four-bedroom, three-bathroom farmhouse is everything you’d expect of a homestead designed in the local vernacular style and built to give the impression that it’s always been there. Across the courtyard the recently added family suite sensitively blends in with the older structure and feels just as time-worn.

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Buffelsdrift,

Ladismith, Karoo

Along one of those gravel roads within the Buffelsdrift conservancy, a cluster of farmhouses, barns and outhouses scatter themselves along the roadside. Overlooking the olive groves and the rugged Karoo terrain – all the way out to the Rooiberg mountains – Buffelsdrift settles itself into the abiding land it occupies and opens its 1850’s doors to a timeless and tailored space. Comprising of a main house, two separate barns and the pink wine store, this hideaway accommodates as many as 10 guests. Most of its original building components and signature features have been lovingly restored and brought back to life thanks to the architect-owner’s compassion for the build, its heritage and its integrity. So much so that the Italian Ferrara University awarded Buffelsdrift the gold medal for the Domus International Prize for Restoration and Conservation. The Santa Maria di Nazareth Church in Venice shared the medal with this hideaway.

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Frailann,

Langebaan, West Coast Within the West Coast National Park rests the lagoon’s beautiful body of blue where the flamingos flock to the shallows, the sandpipers skip along the sandbanks and the other 250 species of birds sweep the skies. One of the oldest fishing villages in the Western Cape, Langebaan stretches along the lagoon’s shoreline where families have been gathering – decade after decade – living an idyllic beach life upon the tepid, turquoise waters. Named after the owner’s grandfather’s French fishing vessel and what was once a sixties Sardinian-inspired boathouse, Frailann has been lovingly revived to reveal a contemporary beach house hovering above the high-water mark of the lagoon. It’s as if you’re aboard your own yacht, with the crystal-clear waters lapping beneath your feet. Set on three levels of considered spaces that optimise on the magnificent lagoon views, this hideaway retains its familial heritage and old Langebaan charm yet boldly makes a statement of sophistication in its refined style.

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God’s Window,

Swellendam, Overberg

Staunchly standing at the foot of the Langeberg Mountains, within the Leeurivier Valley of Swellendam, God’s Window discreetly reveals itself with dignity. In honour of the curvaceous hills in front of it, this property refrains from making any spectacle, or from being too loud. Just like a true gentleman, it gently tilts its cap to the powers unfolding around it, and lets the nature do the talking. Set on over a hundred hectares of fynbos farm and forest land, where voluptuous valleys meet the majestic mountains, this hideaway hums to the hymns of the Marloth Nature Reserve. As you drive the dirt road, passing the neighbouring berry farms and their thatched cottages, a great sense of serenity and solitude engulfs you – regardless of how many people are in the car. It’s clear from the moment you arrive, that the destination you have reached is already making it hard for you to leave.

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Hout Huisie,

Churchhaven, West Coast Of all our hideaways in the West Coast National Park, this is the closest to the beach and has the most intimate relationship with the lagoon. Hout Huisie is enviably positioned all on its own near the tip of a little peninsula in Schrywershoek and backed by a marshy wetland. With no shops or restaurants to distract you, this is a place to unwind and let your days be governed by the moods of Langebaan Lagoon and the gentle rhythms of life in this West Coast hamlet. Centerpiece of the community is a small Anglican church and a picturesque graveyard where one gravestone inscription reads, ‘Sakkie Pieterse, a man who would give his last fish.’ There are three clusters of whitewashed, chalkstone cottages strung along a bluff overlooking lagoon beaches where boats are drawn up on the sand.

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Tree House @ Las Faldas,

Constantia, Cape Town

Climbing the ladder into a tree house is one of those wistful memories we have of our childhood. Gleefully frolicking through enchanted forests, curiously exploring the marvels of nature, we’d scale each rung and scramble along the branches.

Something about settling upon your little timber hideout and looking out over the canopy of leaves that harnesses a tangible tale of retreat. Where it was just us, and the breathing, beating pulse of the woods. A treehouse was where treasures were kept, secrets were shared and the stories we read, mystically jumped from the pages of their books into life. Arriving at The Tree House @ Las Faldas is like revisiting a far, far away place of a time long, long ago. Our younger selves are tickled with nostalgia as our current stride glides through the space with finesse.

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Schrywershoek Beach House,

Churchhaven, West Coast

Situated just south of Churchhaven a tiny hamlet, where you’ll find Schrywershoek Beach House, an unexpectedly luxurious West Coast cottage set in an isolated spot on a postcard-perfect lagoon. Originally built in the vernacular style – like many fisherman’s cottages here – long, low-slung and whitewashed with small shuttered windows to keep cool in summer, it occupies the most enviable spot on this little-known treasure lagoon. But it’s only when you stand at the water’s edge and look back at this seemingly humble ‘langhuisie’ or ‘long house’ that you realise it is anything but traditional. A corner glass window, stackback shutters enclosing a deep outdoor stoep and fresh thatch suggest a contemporary makeover and modern-day comforts, a first clue of the transformation by none other than interior designer Clinton Savage who describes it as a ‘harmonious blend of nature and architecture while staying true to the roots of the structure’.

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St. Austel,

Ladismith, Karoo Along one of those gravel roads within the Buffelsdrift conservancy, a cluster of farmhouses, barns and outhouses scatter themselves along the roadside. Overlooking the olive groves and the rugged Karoo terrain – all the way out to the Rooiberg mountains – Buffelsdrift settles itself into the abiding land it occupies and opens its 1850’s doors to a timeless and tailored space. Comprising of a main house, two separate barns and the pink wine store, this hideaway accommodates as many as 10 guests. Most of its original building components and signature features have been lovingly restored and brought back to life thanks to the architect-owner’s compassion for the build, its heritage and its integrity. So much so that the Italian Ferrara University awarded Buffelsdrift the gold medal for the Domus International Prize for Restoration and Conservation. The Santa Maria di Nazareth Church in Venice shared the medal with this hideaway.

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The Pavilion,

Ladismith, Karoo

Along one of those gravel roads within the Buffelsdrift conservancy, a cluster of farmhouses, barns and outhouses scatter themselves along the roadside. Overlooking the olive groves and the rugged Karoo terrain – all the way out to the Rooiberg mountains – Buffelsdrift settles itself into the abiding land it occupies and opens its 1850’s doors to a timeless and tailored space. Comprising of a main house, two separate barns and the pink wine store, this hideaway accommodates as many as 10 guests. Most of its original building components and signature features have been lovingly restored and brought back to life thanks to the architect-owner’s compassion for the build, its heritage and its integrity. So much so that the Italian Ferrara University awarded Buffelsdrift the gold medal for the Domus International Prize for Restoration and Conservation. The Santa Maria di Nazareth Church in Venice shared the medal with this hideaway.

Click here for more info

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