Discover South Africa's Luxury Majesty: A Royal Portfolio Journey

Introduction

I’ve been lucky enough to have visited South Africa a couple of times and keep wanting to go back - we had such a phenomenal stay at La Residence in Franschhoek last time by The Royal Portfolio and also saw the utterly incredible Silo Hotel being finalised in Cape Town that we definitely had to go back. This time, as well as getting to stay at The Silo in Cape Town, we’re also staying at the equally fabulous (but very different) Belmond Mount Nelson. I’ve stayed at quite a few Belmond Hotels in South America and have always been very impressed. Also really looking forward to the experience of the final hotel in The Royal Portfolio, Birkenhead House at Hermanus.

There is such diversity in South Africa, within an hour’s drive of Cape Town and the city you can be in the winelands region of Franschhoek and Stellenbosch where many of the wineries offer the most incredible picnic lunches. Near to Cape Town there are beaches and so many activities and sites to see, not least all with the most spectacular backdrop of Table Mountain and the Victoria and Alfred (V&A) Waterfront, where The Silo is located. We always love to visit the National Botanic Gardens at Kirstenbosch and there is such a choice of great restaurants, spas and shops too.

On this trip, after an extended stay in Cape Town we first visit Hermanus before travelling onto the Eastern Cape with a two-night stop at Swellendam on the Garden Route at Schoone Oordt Country House, before we visit Tsala Treetop Lodge, somewhere I have also wanted to visit for a long time. We then finish off with a 5-day Safari (at Kwandwe Great Fish River Lodge) before flying back to Johannesburg for a quick two-day stop-off spa-break before flying home. For this, a long-awaited visit also to The Saxon.

If you want to read more about the whole trip, I’ve added the detailed itinerary below with all the stops and hotels. During and after our trip I will post hotel reviews of the eight properties we’re staying at (all very different and unique, which I love) but will also post travel diaries from different locations and of course I will write up about the complete Royal Portfolio experience once we’ve visited all four properties.

If there is anything you would particularly like me to focus on, or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Actual Detailed Itinerary:

Day 1 Travel with British Airways to Cape Town, via London Heathrow
- Like lots of things on this trip, being rescheduled multiple times due to Covid over a two year period, we’ve been booked on BA, Qatar and Virgin. Finally though, in this last (and actual) incarnation of the trip I booked the new BA Club Suite to Cape Town and then First on the return as both London return flights still only had the old 2-3-2 step over configuration.
Days 2 - 4 Cape Town (Belmond Mount Nelson)
- Overnight flight, arriving into Cape Town early hours of the following morning.
- Check into the Belmond Mount Nelson for 3 nights.
- Staying at the Mount Nelson is such a great location, central enough for anything in Cape Town itself but also easy to go out with too.
- Whenever I have been in Cape Town before, although having never stayed at the Mount Nelson before, I have always gone for afternoon tea on their terrace - what an incredible experience.
Day 5 Franschhoek (La Residence by The Royal Portfolio)
- Originally we hadn’t planned to go back here, and wanted to focus on the new (for us) Silo and Birkenhead House, but we couldn’t resist the opportunity to go back even for one night. Such a wonderful relaxing location and this trip we plan to visit The Babylonstoren Wine Estate, somewhere I would like to stay at another trip - the spa, wow!
Day 6 - 8 Cape Town (The Silo by The Royal Portfolio)
- Change location to The Royal Portfolio’s The Silo Hotel at the V&A Waterfront.
- The last time we were in Cape Town was following a Rovos Rail two night trip down from Pretoria. We stayed at the Cape Grace Hotel overlooking The Silo, at that stage it hadn’t yet opened but having a fantastic room overlooking the harbour The Silo was in full sight. I knew then that the next time we came back to Cape Town that would be the place to stay. We hadn’t yet stayed at a Royal Portfolio property, but later on that same trip we stayed at both La Residence in Franschhoek and Royal Malewane in Kruger National Park. Both were absolutely exceptional; so lucky this time to be completing the set by staying at both The Silo and then Birkenhead House.
Day 9 - 11 Hermanus (Birkenhead House by The Royal Portfolio)
- After having experienced what we count as being one of our favourite hotels ever, La Residence by The Royal Portfolio, Birkenhead House has been on the radar. I’ve travelled the Garden Route before but never stopped in Hermanus, so will be great to have a new perspective on a new location. I will write full reviews of each of the hotels of our stay, as well as a post on The Royal Portfolio overall experience.
Day 12-13 Drive from Hermanus to Swellendam, overnight at Schoone Oordt Country House for two nights now
- I’ve stayed at Swellendam before as a one-night stop-off driving the Garden Route, but then we stayed at De Kloof Luxury Estate. This was such a lovely place and Swellendam the town, though small, was a perfect location for a rest stop with lots of interesting heritage sites, most of them Cape Dutch architecture. As much as we loved De Kloof, this time we were looking for a different location and I soon homed in Schoone Oordt Country House. It’s a small luxury property with only 11 rooms (plus a family suite and Honeymoon suite), but the reviews are amazing and I’ve loved the interaction with the family ownership and their website details the work they have done to the property since ownership.
Day 14 - 15 Drive from Swellendam to near Plettenberg Bay, stay Tsala Treetop Lodge Western Cape for 2 nights
- I had actually been due to stay at Tsala many, many years ago but that trip had to be cancelled so I’m looking forward to actually staying here now.
- There are ten luxury hide-away suites tucked into the forest canopy; these incredible looking tree-house suites all have a private deck and each their own private infinity pool.

Day 16 - 19 Drive from Tsala to Port Elizabeth airport, transfer to Kwandwe Great Fish River Lodge
- After driving the Garden Route, we were looking for somewhere to relax at the end of the trip. I looked at few options, but decided on the best being an ‘away from it all’ luxury safari lodge and Kwandwe Private Game Reserve came highly recommended.
- At Kwandwe, there are a number of different options for accommodation from luxury lodges (Great Fish River Lodge and Ecca Lodge), Calpin Tented Camp and Private Villas (Uplands Homestead, Melton Manor & Forth House). We opted for Great Fish River Lodge because I believe this is only for children over the age of 12).
- One of the benefits of having this trip rescheduled so often was that a refurbishment on the Lodge was announced after I had already booked, so by the time we go that should all be complete. Looked great before, so can only imagine it will be even better now.
Day 20 - 21 Transfer back from Kwandwe to Port Elizabeth airport, direct flight to Johannesburg International Airport and overnight at Saxon Hotel, Villas and Spa
- It’s easy to fly back from Port Elizabeth, as well as South African’s Airlink service having a couple of flights a day there used to be also a great number with British Airways / Comair. However, within the space of rebooking the last version of the trip, Comair seems to have gone out of business and the flights cancelled. Kwandwe advised that their preference now would be the low cost airline Fly Safair. Though all economy only, I was able to add extras like additional luggage allowance, priority boarding and bags, front row seats and an empty middle seat, so effectively making this a Business Class fare.
- We’ve actually been due to stay at the Saxon twice before but both times flights changed and it meant we were unable to stay. Third time lucky as it looks an incredible property and conveniently located in the Sandhurt area of Johannesburg only about a 30 minute drive to the international airport.
Day 22 Relaxing day at the Saxon Spa then overnight British Airways flight direct from Johannesburg to London Heathrow
- One option would have been to fly back to Cape Town after the Garden Route to then use the new BA Club Suite, but really wanting to stay at The Saxon it made sense to fly direct from Johannesburg. There are two BA flights a day, one earlier in the evening being the Dreamliner and a later flight on the A380. Both just had the old-style Club so we opted for the newer First class fit on the later A380 flight, which will be good timing for a decent overnight sleep.
Day 23 Return to the UK, connecting domestic flight with British Airways