Arabella Hotel, Golf & Spa is a five-star property. Soon to celebrate its 25-year anniversary, the hotel is now owned and managed by Southern Sun and is as pristine and impressive as ever.

With 145 rooms and suites, this self-sustaining property manages its own water through a recycling plant. The effluent water is treated and mixed with fresh water to irrigate the golf course.

Former golfing professional Peter Matkovich designed the 18-hole championship golf course. Now rated among the top five in South Africa, it has improved by four positions since Southern Sun took over in 2020.

The 72-par course is especially famous for its eighth hole, considered one of the country’s most beautiful par-fives, while the 18th is considered a standout finishing hole.

Arabella is located in the Kogelberg Biosphere, which has a rich and complex biodiversity and is home to more than 1 880 plant species. Of these, 77 are found at Arabella and nowhere else. More than 3 500 marine species occur only here and birdlife on the estate is also considered special.

A plan for every market

General manager Michael Phillipson was once the food and beverage manager here when the hotel was operated by another hotel group. Today, after a long career in the UK, South Africa and East Africa, he is back at Arabella.

With the hotel, spa and golf course under his purview, he has strategies in place to engage and delight Arabella’s various markets: leisure, conferencing, incentive, corporate and golf, as well as to better build engagement with the estate’s homeowners, many of whom are permanent residents.

“We have marketed our Arabella membership, which delivers access to the spa facilities and gym as well as preferable rates on food and beverages. We have upskilled our team in passionate and genuine hospitality rather than robotic service, which means we can confidently offer the full five-star experience,” he says.

Although the hotel complex is a glass and steel structure, the use of timber and stonework throughout makes it look and feel organic.

When entering the secure Arabella complex, the beautiful landscaping is immediately noticeable, and driving up to its impressive porte cochère feels like a special arrival. Once inside, what strikes one is the vastness of the views through an almost all-glass, multi-volume space.

Entering the hotel on its fifth floor and looking into its public areas, the eye can see five storeys down to the putting greens and tee box on first golf hole. The sense of space and natural light are impressive.

Suites are especially luxurious as they have gas fireplaces in the sitting room, a bedroom with private balcony access as well as a well-lit and spacious dressing room. The very generous bathroom has a deep tub from which one can almost imagine spilling out through the fully opening sliding windows, onto the private balcony and the golf course beyond.

If the views are not sufficiently diverting, there is a TV visible from the bath that is protected behind glass, while the standalone shower has top- and side-facing jets. The bathroom has a separate loo with a bidet. Having an espresso machine in the room is a treat.

Jumani restaurant serves a sumptuous buffet breakfast while lunch and dinner are à la carte. Notable dishes included the surf ‘n’ turf Burger, a towering plate of crispy prawns, battered onion rings and a delicious beef burger on a brioche bun.

An excellent mushroom sauce and home-made tartar sauce all get thumbs up. The butter chicken curry pizza is also a winner, topped with shards of crispy poppadom and a yoghurt and cucumber raita.

The cheese platter is recommended and is served with a stellar onion marmalade and delicious pitted olives.

From Laguna Lounge’s snack menu, the Korean-style battered cauliflower ‘wings’ deliver eight or nine delicious gochujang-sauced bites sprinkled with sesame seeds.

The menu, as it should be, is entirely unpretentious and wines by the glass from neighbouring wine estates vary between R65 and R95.

The landscaping is superb with fantasy-type rock waterfalls cascading into vast swimming pools. During summer the outside areas and family-friendly beach-style pool, which has a gentle access gradient suitable for all ages, are popular.

Spa experience

The hotel also has a vast spa complex that includes large hydro wet areas with body-temperature swimming pools and in-pool reclining areas with spa bubbles. There are gender-neutral sauna and steam rooms, too.

Floor-to-ceiling windows welcome in plenty of natural light as well as views of the gardens and outside pools.

Use of the hydro areas is included in the guest stay, but there are many other spa experiences that come with an additional cost that can also be enjoyed. I much enjoyed the African Rainforest Experience on a previous visit and can highly recommend it.

This is a 13-step programme that you will be pleased to keep repeating, which includes scrubs, special scents, light therapy, varying water temperatures and massage.

While the spa is open daily between 8am and 8pm, the well-provisioned gym is available 24/7.

The hydro spa is reserved for guests aged 16 and up.

Hospitality advice to farmers

Phillipson has decades-long five-star management experience, so Farmer’s Weekly asked him to recommend three things for farmers with accommodations, or those planning on offering accommodation.

“Be there personally and welcome your guests when they arrive,” he says. “Don’t cut the important corners, especially when it comes to food.

“Provide what you say you will and more. Understand your guests’ preferences. If you know why people are staying with you, it makes it easier to surprise and delight them.”

Phone 028 284 0000 or visit www.southernsun.com.