Hacklewood Hill Country House – Walmer Port Elizabeth

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The drive here was long and worth every km. We drove from East London and it was a comfortable 3 hour drive. Booking was made on booking.com ,Hacklewood Hill Country House, Port Elizabeth. I must admit, this was not my accomodation choice for this weekends “Trip & Explore Bag of Fun”. I love………..!!!! that I did not choose, we would have missed out on so much history, beauty and quality service.

First impression – First 3 words, that came to mind …. Old,antique,preserved. The Manor has an old victorian themed, antique and well preserved decor. The Manor was built in 1898 ( I love this bed, felt like we were in old Victoria) and has 9 ensuite rooms (Flamingo, Madiba, Sunbird, Lady Elizabeth ,Loerie, Hugenot, Fynbos, Court, Garden). It has a tennis court, pool and a lovely garden.

UnstaFavourites (Favorite pic/moments)

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Facilities – There is a fully fledged restaurant , fully carpeted rooms and bathrooms with bathtubs. Rooms come with a gown and slipper set, bottled water, tea/coffee, espresso machine, porter and room turn-down service (another fav). One thing about me, I love fully carpeted flooring, I love walking around a barefooted and comfortable . So in other words the only uncarpeted/uncovered space in the room, is the balcony & I love it !!

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Comments –

1. The decor is old and fragile, would have appreciated more coasters in the room, for the wine bottles,water etc.
2. The walls in the restaurant are not sound proof and if there’s guests having their food on the balcony, you might as well pull out a chair and order a plate !!!( if you are in the rooms above) I highly recommend taking note of this when booking, rooms close to the restaurant.
3. I love those “who are we booklets” I think these should be in every room, the manor looks like it has so much history to share, would have been lovely not to use google.

• Welcome Reception
  • I received a very warm welcome and the experience was very pleasant and accommodative. The room I was initially allocated to, (it was above the restaurant and the guests were interfering with my enjoyment) I requested to be moved and was moved with zero fuss with no stress caused.
• Service
  • Amazing, the staff are very kind and helpful
• Resturaunt
  • Ok, so in primary I went to a Roman Catholic School. We are old school baby and so is this establishment !! I swear they have the exact table cloths & cutlery we used for Home Economics, back in primary !!! Thank you, for the memories, best years of my life !!! I can not believe it. I hated these spoons, they are big and I always had to negotiate myself around a bite. Listen izolo (izilo = yesterday- in isiXhosa) I was negotiating with a huge grin on my face !!

• Parking
  • Off the road parking but the entrance and parking is narrow. Its definitely a parking space were driving skill and experience comes at an advantage.

• Location
  • The Manor is located in Walmer,Port Elizabeth – 152 Propect Road. It is a 5 minute drive to the Walmer Shopping Centre
• Facilities
  • Reception Line – Contact with reception is available (it works,2 rings you are attended to), the phone works and reception is well manned
  • The Booking.com app lists that there’s a radio in the room, we did not have one in our room and did not need, so we did not make a fuss about it.
  • The bathroom window blinds – The bathroom blinds were not working (Did not close, all the way down). We had to switch off the bathroom lights in the evening 😦 This was sorted in the morning)
• Ambiance
  • This place has a lot of character and room for creative expression. It truly transports you to “Old Victoria”

• Channel – Mzantsi HD – Sadly its a big 0 !!! (Qanda – egg – Xhosa)

• Rating
  • Booking.com – :):):):):)
  • Unstafavourites – :):):):)

I love how this establishment has maintained some of the accommodation luxuries some of us, have grown accustomed to, pre-COVID. Things like gowns in the room, pens (free marketing material, the last 3 establishments I visited, did not have them anymore), food ( fresh and well cooked food). These little things truly made spending the weekend here, truly memorable and fun.