The Airstream Penthouse Trailer Park must be one of the coolest urban trailer parks in the world. Seven two-sleeper vintage caravans park off on the roof of the Grand Daddy Hotel in Long Street in Cape Town’s buzzing CBD. This is no trailer trash accommodation – the retro caravans are chic and luxurious, with air conditioning and DStv.
Cost: From R1250 a night for two.
Contact: Tel 021-424-7247, e-mail [email protected], web www.granddaddy.co.za.
Old Mac Daddy luxury trailer park is the Grand Daddy’s country trailer retreat. Escape Cape Town for the weekend and stay in a designer trailer on a beautiful farm in Elgin Valley.
Cost: From R675 a trailer (sleeps two).
Contact: Tel 021-447-8105, e-mail [email protected], web www.oldmacdaddy.co.za.
Rapunzel’s Tower in the Clarens district is a miniature three-tiered castle straight out of a fairytale. Indulge your inner romantic at this fantasy getaway, surrounded by the beautiful Maloti Mountains. Rapunzel’s Room, on the top storey, is romantic bliss with a four-poster bed, silk curtains and an exquisite en-suite bathroom. Draw yourself (and a partner) a bath in the tub, scatter the rose petals provided on the water and bathe with a view of a life you’ll be tempted to hold onto.
Cost: Self-catering costs from R400 a person a night on weekdays and R650 a person on weekends.
Contact: Tel 083-268-0497, e-mail [email protected], web www.castleinclarens.co.za.
Healing Holidays has four tipis just outside Montagu, an hour from Cape Town. Each tipi has a solar cooler, lanterns and mattresses on a wooden floor with built-in fire pits. It’s a good spot to get away from busy city life and relax, have one of the massages on offer and a Reiki session – or simply do nothing.
Cost: R350 for two in a family tipi; extra guests pa R100 each (four to five-sleeper). The honeymoon tipi is R450 a night.
Contact: Tel 023-614-2901, e-mail [email protected], web www.healingholidays.co.za.
Stay in a romantic treehouse, completed with sunken Jacuzzi, at the Sycamore Avenue Treehouse Lodge & Guesthouse, 50 km from Giants Castle in the Drakensberg. The lodge also has a Fantasy Treehouse, a three-storey work of art built into a cluster of trees. Relax in its “spa in the sky” at the top of a free standing turret connected to the treehouse.
Cost: R725 a person a night including dinner and breakfast.
Contact: Tel 033-263-2875, e-mail [email protected], web www.sycamore-ave.com.
Sleep in a cave at Kagga Kamma Private Game Reserve in the Cederberg Mountains. There are ten ‘cave suites’ built against the rock formations with private terraces and en suite bathrooms. Or sleep under the stars at the open-air Outcrop Camp in a comfortable bed complete with duvet and pillows.
Cost: From R660 a person a night, including all meals and activities.
Contact: Tel 021-872-4343, e-mail [email protected], web www.kaggakamma.co.za.
Go carbon neutral at Bulungula Lodge, one of the world’s first Fair Trade accredited lodges and winner of numerous ethical travel awards. Situated in Mthata in the Eastern Cape, the lodge runs on solar power and has odourless compost toilets and “rocket” paraffin-fuelled showers. There are 10 huts, each of which has been painted with a different theme by the resident artist. You can stay for free if you are willing to offer skills required by the local community.
Cost: Dorms are R110 a person, double, twin or single rooms are R280 a room, and camping is R60 a person.
Contact: Tel 047-577-8900, e-mail [email protected], web www.bulungula.com.
Go back in time by sleeping in 200-year old wagons at Witmoskloof Oxwagon Camp on Witmoskloof Farm in the Eastern Cape. The camp has eight restored wagons that sleep 16 guests in comfort with carpeted floors, mosquito nets, down duvets and imported linen.
Cost: R250 a person self-catering and DB&B costs R450 a person.
Contact: Tel 048-886-0630, e-mail [email protected], web www.oxwagoncamp.co.za.
Fairview Estate is a working farm nestled in a valley surrounded by the Maloti Mountains close to the Lesotho-Free State border. It offers some unusual accommodation in the form of the Twin Towers – a four-storey dwelling in a pair of converted grain silos. Inside the decor is a funky mix of African fabrics and spruced-up farm furnitute. The aptly named Damn Caravan is a converted trailer park home next to the farm’s dam. Inside, it’s like no park home you could imagine. Red velvet curtains adorn the bedroom windows, plush fake-fur throws cover the beds and a beautiful art-deco couch completes the luxurious finishes.
Cost: The Twin Towers is R225 a person a night (minimum of four people or R1000 a night). The Damn Caravan is R200 a person a night (mininum of three people or R600 a night).
Contact: Cell 082-377-5222, e-mail [email protected], web www.fairviewestates.co.za.
