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South Africa’s Hospitality Partners are Coming Together to Keep Up With Global Travel Trends by Launching Pet-Friendly Flights and Pet-Friendly Vacations.

South Africa's Hospitality Partners are Coming Together to Keep Up With Global Travel Trends by Launching Pet-Friendly Flights and Pet-Friendly Vacations.

Escape to the Drostdy Hotel in the heart of Graaff Reinet, where two centuries of history meet modern luxury. Originally built in 1804, the Drostdy has undergone meticulous refinement over the years, to become one of South Africa’s most beloved heritage hotels.

This magnificent 48 room boutique 5-star hotel offers opulent accommodation, outstanding Karoo cuisine, an Africology Spa, an art gallery and wine shop. Plus, the chance to explore South Africa’s fourth oldest town which has more than 200 heritage sites and monuments.

The Drostdy Hotel has recently partnered with Air du Cap which flies from the Cape to Graaff Reinet in under two hours. Based at Cape Winelands Airport, Air du Cap specializes in providing charter flights across the Western, Eastern, and Northern Cape in their flagship Beechcraft Baron 58.

Both Air du Cap and the Drostdy Hotel are pet-friendly. Small and medium dogs are welcome in specific pet-friendly rooms, and on arrival, will receive their own water bowl, food bowl and a comfortable dog bed.

“We are delighted to collaborate with Air du Cap to offer our guests an exceptional and seamless travel experience,” says Tarryn Farrell, Sales and Marketing Director for Africa at Valor Hospitality. “The convenience of a charter flight, combined with our pet-friendly accommodation, ensures that every traveler – human or fur baby – can enjoy a truly memorable stay.”

It has been a decade since the Rupert Family Foundation donated the hotel to the SA College for Tourism (SACT), and together they have become an inspiring model of five-star service, sustainable tourism, and warm Karoo hospitality.

The SA College for Tourism is a registered Non-Profit Organisation founded in 2001 by Dr Anton Rupert with the mission to provide capacity building and economic empowerment for marginalised, unemployed, rural, and peri-urban youth, with a focus on women, in the hospitality industry.

In 2012 the Rupert Family Foundation bought the Drostdy Hotel and reopened it two years later, after extensive renovations. The hotel was donated to SACT which provides hospitality training for young women from impoverished rural backgrounds.

“By nurturing local talent we’re ensuring a thriving future for the tourism industry,” says Tony Romer-Lee, Co-Founder and Managing Partner AMEA. In addition to hospitality training, SACT also has a Tracker Academy.

The Drostdy Hotel has a long and lively history. It was first built in 1805 during the second occupation of the Cape by the Dutch, by architect Louis Thibault as a residence for the landrost (a Boer magistrate prior to the establishment of British administration) and it hosted many important historical characters.

In 1878 the hotel was bought by Henry Kromm in 1878 and converted into a hotel that became known as Kromm’s Drostdy Hotel. After Kromm sold it in 1903 it continued as a hotel under various owners until its acquisition in 1975 by Historical Homes of South Africa when the building was again restored and became a national monument.

“We have honoured the heritage of this remarkable building”, says the director of the Drostdy Hotel, John Loftie-Eaton, “yet also elevated it to luxury accommodation. We remain dedicated to honouring the hotel’s past while ensuring it remains a vibrant part of the future of the Karoo. All of this is a true reflection of the incredible vision and support from the Rupert family.”

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About us

Actually, Home Food and Travel offers a lot more than just reviews of accommodation, restaurants, spas and adventure activities.  We also visit great destinations, receive advice from interior designers and stop to smell the roses and taste the coffee.

Our team of journalists are seasoned travels and love visiting the myriad of exciting places around South Africa.  Whether it is off the beaten track or in the heart of the top attractions of the country, we’ll be there,

Home Food and Travel advice on finding the right accommodation

So what is the right accommodation?  Well more often than not, it’s your travel budget that dictates the type of accommodation that you choose. 

Expensive is not always better.  Our team at Home Food and Travel will tell you that they have camped in areas with limited ablutions and had a wonderful holiday.  They have also spent a night in a five star hotel only to be disappointed because their expectations exceeded the experience.

The reason for your travels will also affect your choice.  A business trip requires different amenities to a beach holiday. 

Our articles, reviews and experiences can certainly help you make your decision.

Restaurants with a good mix of service, food and ambiance

To my mind a great restaurant offers three things – excellent service, great food and a wonderful ambiance.  Of these, service is the most important. 

No matter that the food is delicious and the setting delightful, poor service can ruin the occasion.  However, great service combined with mediocre meal and a plane jane restaurant can still be a pleasant night out.

We’ve eaten in restaurants that are really dirty but with incredible food and couldn’t help but give a rave review.  We’ve also hardly noticed what we ate because the setting was just amazing.

However, the best restaurants come with the best of service, food and ambiance.

Spas are the ultimate relaxation aid

How do you know when you have had a great spa experience?  The answer, of course, is when you doze off on the treatment table. 

Well that’s our theory anyway.  It also doesn’t take a grand location with enormous facilities for a spa to be really good

A small, personal spa that is owner run can result in the best massage you have ever experienced.  However, the grand spas in five star hotels offer unsurpassed facilities in an environment that just makes the stress in your shoulders and neck melt away before you even finish checking in.

Adventure!

You don’t have to be an adrenaline junky to enjoy an exciting experience.  In fact, what are commonly termed adventure activities usually have incredibly high safety standards and unblemished safety records.

Ziplining, bungy jumping and shark cage diving are all very safe.  It’s just that our mind tells us we are craaazzzzyyyy to be doing this.

On the road to great places of accommodation, restaurants, spas and adventure activities

If you’re driving, be safe and make use of all the wonderful farm stalls that populate South Africa’s open roads.

If you overhear somebody asking a lot of questions or see someone taking photos of empty bedrooms chances are it’s one of our Home Food and Travel team members.

We’re out looking or those great places of accommodation, restaurants, spas and adventure activities.

See you on the road!

 

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