Spier Hotel, Stellenbosch > Reviews > A Mini town in itself

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Good
Quality of Rooms	Average
Standard of Service	Good
Cleanliness	Average
Quality of Facilities	Excellent

Advantages:	Everything you need all under one 'roof'
Disadvantages:	Not as personal as some of the smaller boutique hotels

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I have updated this review to provide more detail:

I stayed at the Spier Hotel (or 'The Village at Spier' which it's also referred to) for 2 nights in December 2006 as part of my Honeymoon. We did a self drive along the Garden Route and this was one of our stops, we chose this hotel as we thought it would be a good base for our wine tasting adventures in and around Stellenbosch. The Hotel was easy to find (about 10 minute drive from Stellenbosch town centre) and upon arrival check in was easy and the staff were friendly (although not a great deal of information was given to us about the facilities). As the Hotel is so big we were transported with our luggage to our room via a 'Golf Cart' driving to our room seemed to take quite a while however later we discovered the walk was quicker??!

Accomodation consists of 2 storey blocks and the whole place looks like a pretty little village instead of a hotel. The room itself was big, high ceilings, stone floors and lots of space - only a couple of bits of furniture including a fridge and tv. The room was a little dark, but that was mainly due to shutters on the windows. The bathroom had a walk in shower and a bath big enough for 2 (just) and whilst simple was well presented and did the job. Whenever I stay in hotel rooms the first thing I check out is the bed - the bed was big, comfortable and best of all had a quilt and not blankets! A door led outside to a little garden area which consisted of a mini pool and sun loungers and was shared with a couple of neighbours, we didn't actually use this at all, mainly due to the fact that there were so many other things to do and if we were going to sunbathe we would have used the main pool at the spa area which looked fine.

There are 3 restaurants on site and the menus all looked good but following some reccomendations we opted to eat at 'Moyo' which we had pree booked before we left the uk - this may seem a little mad but we were glad we did as the waiting list is long and if you're only staying a couple of nights there is no guarantee you'll get i otherwise. 'Moyo' is not just a restaurant it is an experience, and a great one at that. It is an outdoor restaurant with some overhead tent coverings, all around are wood fires, all the staff are dressed in authentic costumes, the tables have candles and also blankets in case you get cold later on - it really is very ambient. Our waiter was lovely - really friendly and knowledgable, as this a buffet style restaurant he took us to all the various stands and explained what everything was (which regions speciality it was) and then told us to help ourselves and go back up as many times as we liked! ...and we did...and we were very full - there was every sort of meat, salad, curry, tagine that you could imagine. On top of the food and the setting the entertainment was great - it was intermittant and involved drums and rythmn! Oh I forgot to mention the face painting and the duck and her duckings quacking around our feet - most amusing!

For the first night we asked about the travel clerk for a recommendation in Stellenbosch, he gave us one, booked a table and then chaffeured us back and forth (this was about £10) - very efficient and the restaurant was perfect (but that's another review!)

As far as our daytime activities, as I said we originally booked the hotel as a base for wine tasting, which was perfect - there are so many in the near vicinity, we also did wine tasting at teh hotel, this was on a much smaller scale than some of the other vineyards and cost a couple of pounds to do but it was 20 minute exercise, attached to the wine tasting is the shop which is stocked full of wine (surprisingly!) p.s. a lot of the restaurants in south africa are byo (although not generally advertised) so we took full advantage of this.

As well as wine tasting we also visited the Cheetah Park on site (about 50p entry), they breed here and so you get to see the Cheetah cubs, it's a bit like a tiny zoo but there is a landing platform that's good for viewing. If you're anything like me and like to touch then pay the extra fee (about £5) to get into their cage. I spent about 5 -10 minutes with them (stroking them) whilst learning their history and the plans for their future, I have got some great photos and would definately reccommend it.

Right next door to the Cheetah Park is the Bird of Prey Centre, to be honest we only went in here because if was free, however, it was fantastic and we ended up spending over an hour and a half talking to the volunteers, learning about the various birds and why they are there and watching the displays. The handler's are so passionate and really draw you in, the displays teach you and show you various birds, flying around, feeding etc. we even held a little baby owl!

The only thing we didn't do which we saw lots of people doing was....having a picnic, you can order this through one of the restauarnts for you to take into the grounds, sit by the lake and just relax and enjoy - it looked fab but it needed to be ordered the day before and as I said at the beginning we weren't really given much information upon check in.

In summary, the hotel was not just a hotel it was an experience - a very good one, the rooms are comfortable (not that we spent much room in ours!) and there are some great facilities on site, it is a beautiful setting and at night very ambient. I would recommend a stay of a couple of days - but you probably don't need much more.