PLAN YOUR TRIP
GETTING THERE
CemAir offers flights to/from Cape Town (75 minutes) on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Daily flights to/from Johannesburg (2.5 hours). See flycemair.co.za
THE PLETTENBERG:
This five-star member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World offers 35 beautifully appointed rooms and two family-style villas. It has direct beach access and views of the ocean and mountains, plus two swimming pools, a restaurant, bar, spa and luxury boutique. See theplettenberghotel.com
RATES:
From R4,000 per room per night for two people sharing (including breakfast).
Special offer: Book three nights and get a fourth night free (valid May 1 to August 31).
For more information on Plettenberg Bay, see pletttourism.com
• De Villiers was a guest of The Plettenberg and CemAir.
Join the Plett Set: How to enjoy all the spoils of this prosperous seaside town
The Plettenberg hotel is the perfect base from which to explore the myriad treasures of this prosperous seaside town
Image: The Plettenberg
Plettenberg Bay is a seaside locale synonymous with prosperity. It has vast expanses of untainted beach, an abundance of indigenous fauna and flora and is a famed annual host to recently matriculated youths making the most of their nascent adulthood.
This coastal town on the Western Cape’s Garden Route is but a two-and-half hour flight from OR Tambo International Airport. And for those who loathe tightly confined airplanes, rejoice! CemAir the only airline that transports holiday-goers to Plett’s intimate airport, has a capacity limit of less than 100 people.
Our home base for the trip was The Plettenberg, a classy, five-star sanctuary that is part of the exclusive Liz McGrath Collection (along with The Cellars-Hohenort in Cape Town and The Marine in Hermanus).
Image: The Plettenberg
Excellent service and wonderful staff aside, the spacious rooms offer sweeping ocean views, with amenities that include high-definition TV, air conditioning, a mini-fridge and delightfully reliable Wi-Fi. The en-suite bathroom also deserves a special mention. That bath! That shower! The heated towel rails! The fluffy bathrobes and Molton Brown bathroom amenities! You name it, The Plettenberg’s bathroom has it.
Culinary aficionados won’t be disappointed by the smorgasbord of expertly curated nosh on the menu at The Restaurant. Here, executive chef Kyle Macaskill and his team take much inspiration from the ocean, with inventive, sustainable seafood dishes (try the beer-battered, hand-caught hake or the fisherman’s seafood platter) together with a wide selection of choices for meat and vegetable lovers.
Thought vineyards and wine tastings were limited to the Western Cape’s Boland region? Not so. Plett has its very own wine route featuring a fine variety of blends unique to the region. (Bubbly as well, for the fizz-fans.) Luka Vineyards is a must. No wonder the landlocked, vineyard-deprived denizens of Gauteng so enjoy frequenting Plett over the December holidays.
Fun fact: lockdown and the advent of work-from-anywhere technology saw an influx of Joburgers (specifically) semigrating to the coastal town, the promise of seaside strolls proving irresistible to many who wished to escape the confines of city living.
Locals and members of Plett Tourism also tell me of a Friday afternoon tradition: a siren announcing it’s officially G&T time. What’s not to love?
For those who prefer a healthy dose of nature over a tipple, the swell (pardon the pun) waves make for gnarly surfing conditions and the favourable temperatures of the Indian Ocean can mean hours of frolicking in the waves.
The Robberg Peninsula offers amazingly scenic hiking routes of varying degrees of difficulty. If you’re lucky you might spot an orca or dolphin from one of its many vantage points. Even if you don’t make it as far as the Cape fur seal colony, which numbers around 6,000 of the creatures, you’ll definitely catch a whiff of these playful marine mammals.
Robberg is managed by Cape Nature and if what you crave is a deeper understanding of the indigenous fauna and flora this immaculate stretch of biodiversity has to offer, simply organise a tour with one of the many knowledgeable guides. For those who prefer solo-traversing, the interpretive signage along the hiking routes is well maintained and frequently updated to keep nature lovers enlightened.
Image: meseberg / 123rf.com
Image: Old Nick Village
Another must is a ferry trip on the Keurbooms River under the expert steer of guide Russell Katzenberg. From leopard sightings to tales of rescuing drowning blue duikers, fish eagles to prawns, locusts to thicket, geomorphology to half-collared kingfishers — Katzenberg knows and sees all. Be sure to pack your binocs and a windbreaker.
During our trip, an unexpected deluge with a knot-heavy wind (hey, it’s the Western Cape) saw our planned boat trip with Ocean Blue Adventures not materialise. (According to one of Katzenberg’s deckhands, a young dude raised in Plett, the tumultuous waves would not for pleasant boating make. But if you do happen to brave the mighty Indian Ocean he recommends chewing a Stimorol to prevent seasickness. Insider knowledge 101!)
If you’d rather have your feet on terra firma and snap up some souvenirs to take home, a visit to the Old Nick Village is a prerequisite: with coffee shops, a nursery, chocolatier and a pottery studio, this charming shopping destination caters for all tastes and ages.
Image: Old Nick Village
Our media tour group was treated to a guided tour of Mungo Mill, a hive of weaving, textile activity.
From the original, Industrial Revolution-era power looms on display to a perusal of contemporary methods of weaving (those machines are loud, but not to worry — you’ll be given a pair of funky, noise-repelling headphones), to storage rooms where the ingeniously crafted woven products wait to be shipped out, Mungo Mill truly is an empirical experience of the history of textile-making.
If all of the above has left you figuratively salivating, just wait until your taste buds are literally satiated: within short driving — or walking, for those who’d like to get their 10,000 steps — distance from The Plettenberg, the gorgeous Nguni Restaurant will assuage your appetite.
A Plett institution in its own right, this cosy restaurant is on the site of a dairy dating back over 100 years. It offers authentically South African dishes — and vegetarians be assured: they cater for herbivores too.
Sjoe! With its luxury accommodation, aquatic activities, wine-tasting, walking and weaving, Plett is vet pret!
Image: Stuart McHattie
PLAN YOUR TRIP
GETTING THERE
CemAir offers flights to/from Cape Town (75 minutes) on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Daily flights to/from Johannesburg (2.5 hours). See flycemair.co.za
THE PLETTENBERG:
This five-star member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World offers 35 beautifully appointed rooms and two family-style villas. It has direct beach access and views of the ocean and mountains, plus two swimming pools, a restaurant, bar, spa and luxury boutique. See theplettenberghotel.com
RATES:
From R4,000 per room per night for two people sharing (including breakfast).
Special offer: Book three nights and get a fourth night free (valid May 1 to August 31).
For more information on Plettenberg Bay, see pletttourism.com
• De Villiers was a guest of The Plettenberg and CemAir.
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