Grande Roche Hotel

Less than an hour from Cape Town, in the Drakenstein valley in South Africa’s Cape Winelands, this eighteenth-century farm estate has been rebuilt in a reproduction Cape Dutch style and rehabilitated into a top-flight spa retreat. Though it’s just outside the town of Paarl, and within easy reach of Cape Town, make no mistake — Grande Roche is a rural escape, a self-contained hideaway.

Of course that doesn’t mean you’re roughing it. Rooms are cosmopolitan and contemporary rather than faux-rustic, and the views would be impossible in the city — most rooms have private terraces, and the vistas of the Winelands are spectacular indeed: manicured gardens, picturesque vineyards, and the imposing Drakenstein mountains. The restaurant, Bosman’s, is the equal of many a big-city fine-dining establishment, seating 80 in the smartly renovated space of the estate’s original manor house. It’s a favorite of wine connoisseurs, with an award-winning wine list including some three hundred vintage wines, and a cigar club run by a local expert.

Service throughout the restaurant and the hotel is urbane and professional, with hardly a trace of country laxity. All in all, it’s nothing shocking, nothing avant-garde: just a modern classic, all the best of old-world luxury hospitality, in a splendid, idyllic location.

How to get there:
Grande Roche Hotel is approximately a 40-minute drive from Cape Town International Airport.