HOT TIMES IN COLD CLIMES EXPLORE
Snow patrol
If you’re lusting for a ‘real’ winter and have missed out on the wondrous white-out days everywhere else, head to Tiffendell in the Southern Drakensberg. Between June and August every year, families head to the country’s only ski resort for endless fun on the slopes. Snowboarding, skiing, tobogganing, après-ski glühwein… they have it all. tiffindell.co.za
Pictures: Leo Moko for Unsplash, Supplied
Warm your soul in the Winelands
In Stellenbosch, Lanzerac is a winter visit geared to banish the cold – whether touring and tasting your way through wine cellars as you learn Pinotage’s history, or feasting at the Taphuis, a cosy English pub-style restaurant with fire blazing. There are fireplaces in the suites, too, plus hot tubs on verandahs and underfloor heating. Their winter special gets you three nights for the price of two. lanzerac.co.za
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Steam clean
Not cheap, but far more affordable than flying to Istanbul, Babylonstoren, near Paarl, offers the passport-free equivalent of Turkey’s ultimate spa-like deepcleanse experience: a full-scale hammam ritual. Difference is, in Istanbul, you’ll likely get a substandard tourist treatment in some overpriced bathhouse. Here in the Winelands, though, it’s the real deal, a traditional treatment perfected over centuries and guaranteed to restore practically every cell on your body. When your eyes do adapt to the thick wave of steam in the sıcaklık (‘hot room’), it’s floorto-ceiling marble and curved roof, tiled with tiny turquoise squares. Your natir gives you soap and a metal bowl with which to perform a preliminary cleanse and rinse before you lie on a marble slab.
Nellie’s (not) just desserts Exfoliating is first. Just when your think your skin is too sensitive for the rough scrubbing, it’s countered with soothing warm water poured in waves, first gently, then vigorously. Then body butter, massaged into your skin, before a thorough external cleanse. Hair and scalp, too. All the while, buckets of soft water wash over you, sloshing onto the floor, a relaxing mist filling the rain-forest room. Limbs are stretched, pressed, rinsed; dry skin smoothed and rejuvenated. The package includes lunch and fresh juice, plus hot tea. As you soak up the post-treatment bliss, you’ll feel a kind of inner and outer glow like nothing you’ve ever experienced. babylonstoren.com
At weekends, Cape Town’s iconic Mount Nelson has a ‘Winter Warmer’ menu brimming with heartand tummy-warming treats to savour either in the hotel’s lounge, its conservatory, or next to the fire in Planet Bar (pictured above). On the menu are Chef Rudi’s legendary three-cheese fondue, a chicken curry served with samosas, flaky rotis and basmati rice, and beer-cooked Saldanha mussels with hints of spice and spekboom, served with toasted sourdough and shoestring fries. Finish with warm caramelised apple pudding and rumand-raisin ice cream or lemon pudding with lemon curd and ricotta ice cream. There’s also a ‘Cognac and Chocolate’ indulgence on offer, and for most of 2021, South Africans get discounted room rates – R3 100 per couple, including breakfast. To book any of these, call 021 483 1000. belmond.com J U LY - S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
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