Kurland
 
KURLAND near Plettenberg Bay - Reviewed by recent clients, a family from Australia.
After traveling around the Cape with 3 children and the weather turning for the worse, we thought we found heaven when we arrived at Kurland, situated near Plettenberg Bay on the Garden Route. This place was suggested to us by ‘Southern Destinations’ who said that this hotel was part of the Relais and Chateaux group (at the time I had no idea who they were) well it certainly lived up to it’s name. If your horse enthusiast this hotel is set on an estate surrounded by horses and rolling green hills hence my children couldn’t have been more happier.
What we loved about Kurland was that they really looked after the children.
The estate has a rustic English country charm with hints of the Dutch architecture, with very well appointed rooms. We had a Rose Garden Luxury suite - which was situated between the rose garden and horse paddock. The suite itself had a loft so we were downstairs in a king sized bed, oversized chairs, roaring fire and heated ensuite floor and the children were upstairs with their four poster beds, the books, the toys and their own bath. I must say that the stairs are quite steep and the children must take care. There was no oversized TV (one small TV tucked away) in the room but there was a small library of books - approx 200 books for you to chose a novel from.
Oh I should probably add that they use bore water, so try not to wash your hair to often as by the end of your time there your hair does start to feel like cardboard! The girls (aged 6 and 9) went riding every morning which was inclusive in the rate and in the afternoon if they wished they could have polo lessons (we didn’t explore this). Other facilities that we didn’t explore was the professional tennis, swimming lessons, Pilates, yoga, and adult ballet tuition.
However there was a Kids Club with an attached tennis court, swimming pool (not heated), and playground. They would go on walks around the estate, biscuit decorating (they were only allowed to keep 2 and the others were given away to the staff which I felt was a good idea, no over dosing on sugar!), colouring in, tennis etc, it was all organised but was flexible to suit the ages within the group.
We were there at the end of the polo season so we were able to see a number of polo matches one from our room…our 2yr old loved it…especially waking up to the horses neighing in the front paddock. If you love horses you will love the stables as they are full of beautiful horses varying from Shetland ponies, to world class polo horses with Argentinean polo riders to be found near by!
We had breakfast and Supper as part of our package and they were provided in a lovely dining room heated by an open fire…children can dine with you in the relaxed though more formal surrounds of the dining room or at the ‘chefs table’ in the kitchen…a great idea that provided something a little more ‘child centric’ this was really well received by the kids as they were part of the kitchen action - I must admit Greg, the English chef, just said ‘what is your favourite dish’ to the children and he made it. All the children loved it in the kitchen, the atmosphere was great and for me a great opportunity to meet some of the other parents. Greg was rather personable and made your general chit chat important.
Also within estate we explored the grounds on quad bike, they supplied bikes if you wanted to go cycling around the estate, we walked up to the stables then onto the pavilion, jog along the jogging track (not that we did this) or go paddling on the lagoon (gave this a miss as it was cold). We mostly hung around the estate as the children didn’t want to leave. However we were able to convince them to go down to the beach (10 mins away) and the chef packed a very healthy picnic lunch and gave us towels and umbrella’s.
So to end this review we totally and thoroughly enjoyed this 5 star hotel and if you have children and you want to get away to a relaxed environment this is the place…our children certainly loved it!
