Voyager18819526026
April 1, 2024
We had a slight mistiming with our penultimate guest house and ended up with one extra night to "kill" in Cape Town before flying home, after 3 amazing weeks in South Africa. With a random search we landed The Clarendon. What a gift that extra night was! Beautiful rooms (we had 2), beautiful grounds, and lovely pools... and a great location in a safe neighborhood near lots of great things. Quite a bit is walkable, including the beach (go left at the ocean until you see the tidal pool... that's the best option)... but there's also Uber a few minutes away at all times to take you wherever you want. Another family did a jog to Camps Bay and back, and were over the moon about it. They do have secure parking which was helpful for our final pack up before the flight too. But the real difference was the level of service. The guys that greeted us on day one, named Gift and Daud, were just fantastic. It's a lost art, in many places, that feeling of true 5-star service. Being in the hospitality business, tangentially, I know how rare it is to really have that sense that people will do anything to make your visit as good as it can be, if there's any way they possibly can. This team did that... Gift, Daud, and others whose names I forget... and we had more than a few atypical asks. Everything was possible, and everything was done right, and at every moment we felt we were in really good hands. The only negative is that the grounds and pools and staff were so welcoming that we didn't bother to go explore... we just relaxed, kicked back and read a bit... soaked up a little sun before returning to cooler weather. We did go out to dinner on what was, in effect, a Friday night... thanks to "Gift" flexing his muscles we were able to get a last-minute reservation at a very popular restaurant, and had a delicious final supper at a great table. We will intentionally make the same "mistake" next year, and maybe add a few nights... just loved everything about our stay.