Home away from home
The latest trend in tourist accommodation
offers apartments that provide an ‘own
home’ atmosphere plus the full service
of a hotel. The luxe More Quarters Hotel
off Kloof Street, Cape Town, transcends the
ordinary with an animated grace that is soft on
the senses.
Secret Cape Town is all around
us, snaking up labyrinthine cobbled
streets, holding the history of the town
in its vicelike grip, with its backspin of
mountain and sea reflecting a diorama of
changing light. Over the years many of
these streets have been finessed into svelte
areas with restaurants and shops. More
Quarters in Nicol Street, off Kloof Street,
has been expertly refurbished to reflect the
historical fabric of the environment and
to provide apartment living with the full
service and support of a hotel.
Robert More, owner of More Quarters,
says, “We have found that apartment
style accommodation is very popular,
especially with Europeans. Our guests are
looking for accommodations with larger
living areas, where they can relax after a
day out exploring the beautiful city and its
surrounds. The lounges, outside courtyards
and balconies, together with self-catering
kitchens, give guests the freedom to cater
to their own requirements, but still know
there is the full service of the hotel should
they require it.”
Little villas
These old slave cottages with their Cape
Georgian facades have been sculpted
into small villas where visitors can feel
independent and yet have access to all hotel
amenities. There are eight one-bedroom
and two two-bedroom apartments plus a
four-bedroom house. The coming months
will see other houses in the area take
on the same cohesive appearance, with
their contemporary design and ancient
appurtenances such as outside walls and
steps made from Table Mountain granite.
Having your own apartment
is the ultimate way to explore a new
environment and feel safe but retain an
adventurous spirit. The famous explorer
Bruce Chatwin once said, “All you need in
a new town is a place of your own, where
you can venture into unknown territory
with the knowledge that at nightfall you
can return to somewhere familiar.”
Although ‘I can sleep anywhere’ has
become a shibboleth of the modern
tourist, where you stay colours your
whole concept of a country. We are all
familiar with the B&B disguised as a hotel
with its bowl of unripe fruit, cheap bubbly
and letter from the management in gothic
script.
More Quarters provides a home away
from home with spacious rooms with lofty
ceilings and large mirrored bathrooms.
There is something about space that
animates the soul, a place where your
mood can be raised like a flag. Even in
the smart hotels in big cities of the world,
space is a scarce commodity. Staying in
Complete getaways
july 2010
one of London’s most expensive hotels,
a woman recently found herself climbing
over a table to get to her bed.
All aglow
More Quarters has cleverly mitred together
the old with the new, resulting in clean
new lines, lots of glass, lush greenery and
absorbing views of mountain and sea.
The whole place glows with the pale fire
of renovation, punctiliously executed with
a nod to its historical past with chandeliers,
custom designed furniture and expensive
fabrics, including linen sheets and soft
pillows (you can always tell a good hotel
by its pillows). The colours are lambent
gold, celadons, creams and buttercup
yellows, and luxury is in the detail, piles
of white towels, jeroboams of body lotions
and big white slabs of soap. Blond wood
furniture is highlighted with tobaccocoloured
Polish linen, soft gauzy curtains
and plush cushions in shades of silver.
It is a place where fame and glamour
fit so easily alongside ordinary life, and
only metres away is the fizz of Kloof
Street with its specialist food shops and
restaurants, the best continental butcher
in Cape Town and patisseries that make
melting chocolate gateaux and bread still
warm from the oven.
This brand new venture is an adjunct to
the Cape Cadogan Hotel with its majestic
demeanour and forms part of the More
Hotels management company. Four
years ago owner Robert More took the
desiccated shell of the Cape Cadogan, a
Rolls Royce without wheels, and turned
it into a majestic edifice with 13 bedrooms
that lights up at night like an ocean liner.
Robert is also co-owner of one of the most
desired private game reserves, Lion Sands
on the Sabie River, and together with More
Hotels are experts in the slippery and
complex phenomena of the hospitality
industry.
Expect the unexpected
More Quarters is a place where you
can break through the membrane of
mediocrity and experience an unexpected
Cape Town, a fugitive place, still
unknown to much of the world, where
each day brings forth something new
out of Africa. More Quarters combines
hotel living with 24-hour room service,
air conditioning, reading lights you can
actually read by (the beautiful Cécile
& Boyd’s lamps are famous) and ever
helpful but unobtrusive manager Andy
Paterson, who has researched a flexible
wine list with handpicked wines from all
over the country.
Each apartment becomes your own home
for your stay. Lapped by the beauty of
the town, it allows individual expression
where you can tango till dawn, work on
your novel, watch movies or let your mind
trawl through the imaginative landscape
of life and at the same time order up
running lattes, cold drinks trickling over
ice cubes and smoked salmon sandwiches
at midnight.
The management’s philosophy has
always been family-orientated and
children of all ages are welcome. Having
your own space, as any parent will know,
can turn what might be a fraught situation
into one of fun where ingenuity can keep
the demon boredom at bay. And the good
news is that the future holds More of the
same.
For more information:
Telephone - 011 484 9911
or visit - www.morehotels.co.za
How to get there:
Airlink offers direct flights from
Nelspruit, Kimberely, Upington and
George to Cape Town.
Book online at
www.flyairlink.com
or call +27 11-978 1111.
Lion Sands' River Lodge reclaims her beauty
It was in the late 1920s that Guy Aubrey Chalkley, an American of Irish descent, decided to explore his opportunities as a mining engineer in South Africa. A keen conservationist and photographer, who travelled extensively throughout Africa, he purchased the property in 1933 from the Transvaal Consolidated Mines. Guy’s passion for conservation and the protection of wilderness areas has been passed down through four generations to Robert and Nicholas More, brothers who now own and run Lion Sands Private Game Reserve on the original Kingstown property. The reserve is home to three unique lodges which includes River Lodge overlooking the perennial Sabie River.
Classic but modern
River Lodge has a classic contemporary
bush style. The bedroom suites are
spacious, comfortable and elegant.
Surrounding outdoor elements, such
as the natural fauna and flora, subtly
reveal themselves through the suites’
interior finishes and décor. The fabrics
are textured in weave and finish and vary
from hues of maize, burnt orange and
wheat to pale grass green and sky grey
blue. Carefully selected African objet
d’art and furniture pieces such as wooden
carved stools, woven natural cane, horn
bowls and carved etched artwork are
scattered throughout the lodge.
River Lodge now offers guests the
choice of 12 Luxury Suites and eight
Superior Luxury Suites. All suites have
been rebuilt and refurnished, which has
resulted in the suites expanding in size.
All suites have new en-suite bathrooms,
with the Superior Luxury Suites having
an additional outdoor shower; king
size beds with mosquito nets; ceiling
fans; air conditioners; mini bar pantry
with chocolates, sweets, cocktail menu,
etc; direct dial telephone; Africology
amenities (shampoo, body wash, etc);
and private deck. The Superior Luxury
Suites are larger in size, are individual
free-standing units and four of these
suites are interleading, so are ideal for
families (please just remember that we
welcome children aged 10 years and
older to Lion Sands River Lodge).
The public areas at River Lodge offers
guests the following: a private lounge
and bar with fireplace, two outdoor safari
lounges, two swimming pools, wooden
viewing decks, a secluded bird hide, a
magnificent River Island Deck built on
the river, a conference room, Lalamuka
Health Spa and gymnasium, curio shop
and both an indoor and open-air (Boma)
dining area.
Passionate people
Asked what he believes makes Lion
Sands most distinctive, and Robert
immediately says “our passion”.
Every top-notch African game lodge
must boast the Big Five, excellent food
and luxurious surroundings, he says.
“What people remark on the most are
our people. That’s where you create
the difference between excellent and
unforgettable. There is sincerity and
service and a real willingness to give
that once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
The Lion Sands Game Reserve is
private and exclusive to Lion Sands
guests only, which ensures the safari
experience is highly personalised,
allowing guests the time and flexibility
to savour the natural beauty which
abounds. Come to Lion Sands, spend
a little time with us, man and animal,
and you will experience a feeling
of belonging and at the same time
a sense of freedom that comes from
those who believe in sharing instead
of possessing.
For more information:
Telephone Reservations - 011 484 9911
Email - res@lionsands.com
or visit - www.lionsands.com
How to get there:
Airlink offers direct flights from
Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town to
Nelspruit Kruger.
Book online at
www.flyairlink.com
or call +27 11-978 1111.