southern africa – A Styled Life

If you are based in South Africa, Mauritius is the ideal island get-away for young families, with all the ease that comes with an extremely tourist friendly destination, the beautifully appointed hotels right on the beach, and an easy 3.5 hours flight hop. I love Mozambique, but if you have a baby or a young toddler and want something easy, then I would recommend Mauritius. Similarly, if you are in Europe, Mauritius is an easy choice: despite the long flight, the time difference is minimal, even for babies who are on sleeping routines, and the weather is pretty fabulous all year round, making Mauritius a great escape when the weather gets a little too miserable. With the recent border closures and the disastrous oil spill on the Mauritian shores, one can only hope that the local tourism will be able to bounce back and thrive once again.

Although we had been to Mauritius before, we only discovered Lux* Belle Mare about four years ago… With two little munchkins in tow we wanted to find a hotel with great service, a pristine beach and possibly a children club, so we decided to stay at the Lux*, and we’ve never looked back. It’s easy and convenient and we stay here every time we come to Mauritius.

From the airport pick-up until it’s time to leave, staying here feels like an interlude in paradise: the resort is quite large, yet arranged amongst the coconut trees and lush tropical gardens in such a way that it never feels crowded, not even on the beach or around the pool. Service is impeccable: between the reception team who is always keen to help out, the beach boys who are never too far away with a fresh and plush towel and a delicious cocktail, and the restaurant staff who learned our names and preferred breakfast options from day two, this is a place we come to to be spoiled. (When I compare with the haphazard service quality of Lux* Saint-Gilles in La Réunion, I’m lost for words as to how they can belong to the same hotel group…)

Like the gardens, the family suites are beautiful, modern and big enough to accommodate our little family of four. When Little Madame came as a baby, she had a baby cot, and now she shares the pull-out bed with her brother: the super attentive housekeeping team quickly learned that our littles go to bed by 8pm every night, so the bed gets pulled out whilst we are out at dinner, and ready for their early bedtime whilst we can enjoy one last drink on the terrace which leads on to the gardens and the beach (the view in the morning is spectacular). The bathroom is super roomy, with a bathtub perfect our two little munchkins to bathe together, and there is even a little walk-in closet, meaning nothing stays in the way.

We spend our days here mostly on the beach, because neither Hubby Dearest nor I understand the appeal of flying half way across the world only to lounge around a swimming pool (you can do that at the Harbour Club …) And what a beautiful beach this is: white sand, plush loungers, coconuts and parasols providing well-needed shade from the tropical sun, clear blue warm water where you can just bobble for hours on end.

There are four restaurants, including one Indian and one Chinese, but the beach one was our favourite for lunch. The main restaurant is great, with buffet for breakfast and dinner, and options for all the family. The chefs didn’t mind making vegetable purees for Little Madame when she was a baby, she has since graduated to helping herself from the great buffets. For snacks, there is a food truck on the beach, serving American junk food (there is no nicer way to describe it but it is delicious!) and fabulous ceviches, although in the afternoon the little ice cream parlour by the pool is quite popular, when children and adults flock for a taste of the tropical sorbet lollipops. My favourite? Coconut milk.

Children have a grand time at the Lux* Belle Mare, with the kids club fully equipped for children from 0 to 12 years old, and for teenagers there is a hang-out club with a ping-pong table and games by the tennis courts. We don’t really take our children on holidays only to have other people take care of them full time, but this is definitely an option Lux* give you, if you want… The kids club has a busy schedule which starts at 9AM, and children can even have dinner with the kids club team instead of their parents, if that’s your cup of chai… Whilst we don’t make use of these options full time, it is lovely for our children to spend time with others, go on beach themed adventures with a very dedicated team, and when she was a baby Little Madame had a nanny looking after her each day during her lunchtime nap and the hottest hours of the early afternoon (also meaning I was able to fit in a one-hour workout everyday whilst in the resort, including some pilates reformer work!)

If it’s your first time in Mauritius and you want to explore a little, I highly recommend a morning out at Port-Louis’ market, the fruit and veggie displays are quite unique and you can shop for local arts and crafts on the second floor. I also love the Pamplemousse botanical gardens. There are dozens of fantastic things to visit and explore on the island, but after five stays we just like to come here for the R&R…

With love, S.

As a family, we love travelling, but Africa has always had a very special place in my heart: there is so much to see and learn, so much contrast, you could spend a lifetime on this continent and still not have seen half of what it holds. Since moving to South Africa, we’ve managed to visit so many of the places on our bucket list, and I am so looking forward to sharing these with you. Starting with the week we spent in the extreme contrasts of the Namib Naukluft with our children and four of our darling friends…

First things first: if you know me, you know I like to research things thoroughly. Of course I love nothing as much as a comfortable luxury travel experience, but it turns out, if you want to really enjoy the Namib desert, you need to mix it up a bit, get out of your comfort zone and consider camping (yes, camping, not glamping). We flew into Walvis Bay, where we rented two cars with rooftop tents, built-in fridges and all the paraphernalia you need to cook in the wild. Word of caution: a car with two little tents on the roof was perfect for us and the two minis (the tents are relatively easy to unfold in the evening and back down in the morning), but the four big guys did struggle a little during the nights we slept in the tents…

Disclaimer: I had never camped in my life before this but self-driving let us follow our own rhythm, visit some of the most special sites, and most importantly sleep inside the Sossusvlei Nature Park within easy access to the gorgeous red sand dunes (whereas staying in the nearby lodges means you have to be out of the park between sundown and sunrise, missing the most beautiful light over the desert). Also the kids adored the experience and are begging for another go. Before you start thinking how impressive and how much I have adapted, let me put you right: we interspersed the nights of camping with nights in some of the most eco-luxe lodges in the region, just to keep the balance.

Day One and Two – Walvis Bay and Naukluft Camp

Our first day was an epic reminder of what a bunch of camping rookies we all were! Thanks to a slight delay in departing Walvis Bay (between a late flight and six coddled adults trying to buy groceries in a harbor town for five days in the desert, time can become a flexible measure), we arrived at our first base, Naukluft Camp, in the blackest of nights. And we had to find and set up our campsite, prepare dinner, shower in cold water because by then most of the other, cleverer, better prepared campers had all showered, and settle the kids to sleep, all pretty much in the dark. Doing all this with a couple of solar lamps that we didn’t really charge properly was, diplomatically put, a challenge. Cue big loss of sense of humour for me; thankfully we had a lot of wine from the grocery hunt, and we downed three bottles between six adults that first night. Nevermind, our reward was awaiting the next morning when we got to enjoy strong coffee and a cooked breakfast (by meal two you become a gas canister chef), before going on a 16km hike up the mountain, past some of fabulous rock structures, ancient trees and the most enticing natural pools, perfect for a refreshing swim.

Day Three and Four – Wolvedans Dune Lodge

After our big hike and a quick lunch, we took up towards our next stop, Wolvedans Dune Lodge… Driving through the Namib desert is an experience unlike any other. You drive hundreds of kilometres on dust tracks only to see the odd oryx or zebra on the side of the road, or a sign indicating a farm. Eventually we arrived at Wolvedans; evidently as we were still learning this travelling in the sand business, we followed the coordinates and arrived straight at the Dune Lodge, on top of the most glorious landscape of red sand, when the lodge protocol demands you drive to the reception lodge, where the air strip is, and be driven from there in one of the lodge’s Defenders… Anyways, that small mistake was soon forgiven, and we were shown to our wooden houses that sat on stilts on top of the dune; ours was the last one of the row, giving us an impression of total isolation that was incredible. Proper other-wordly.

The experience at Wolvedans is one that I would recommend to anyone who travels to the Namib; eco-luxury structures with a Star Wars feel that perfectly fit with the surroundings Martian, with all the amazing trappings of old-school African travel. I fell head over heels in love with the decor, the drives up and down the dunes to see chameleons and ostriches, and of course sundowners in the middle of the red sand, what’s not to love. The team stops at nothing to spoil you rotten, it’s a truly fantastic place.

Day Five and Six – Sossusvlei

After a couple of nights here we moved on to our next stop, and the piece de resistance of our trip as far as sights and magic: Sossusvlei. Back to camping, but this time we were almost experts. We stocked up for any additional goodies in the small gas station just outside the park, close to Sesriem Camp where we had booked to stay. Our site had a beautiful tree, we settled the two cars down on each side of it, and started putting out our dining chairs, and got to cooking a memorable braai to the tune of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (#travellingwithguncles) whilst I saw people eat out of plastic boxes, so yes we might have been camping but we were no savages… We spent two nights here and between the amazing starry sky, the beauty of sunrise over the desert, and the utter magic of Deadvlei, this is where I felt the most breathtaken.

After waking up in the middle of one night we scrambled through the camp to find the exit of the park (I may or may not have fallen flat on my face, tripped by one of the low level wires that protect the camp’s plants from being trampled on by tourists… but it was dark so I don’t remember) and go up in a hot air balloon with the lovely team of Namib Sky to see the desert wake up slowly. Watching herds of oryx pass by unaware, wondering about fairy circles, and then landing to a champagne breakfast is a once in a lifetime experience I highly recommend, and my only regret is Little Madame was too small to join us so I made her and her brother stay with the nanny on the ground as breakfast was being set… I hear they were bribed into patience with scones and muffins.

If you do only three things in Sossusvlei, it has to be: climb up a dune (we did Dune 45, which stands at 170m high and looks easy enough, it’s not, in fact it’s a nasty workout, but the view from the top is magical), go walk in Deadvlei and wonder at the centennial acacias that have calcified on the salt pan, and finally do take that balloon ride, nothing gets quite close.

Day 7 and 8 – Pelican Point and Sandwich Harbor

As far as contrasts go, the last part of our trip was so different from the first few days it seemed we were on a different continent. We drove back through the desert again, and back to Walvis Bay, where we left our friends and drove all the way through the laguna to spend two nights at Pelican Point Lodge, a cinema set worthy building sat by the side of a hundred-year-old lighthouse, on a slim strip of sand that is the home of a seal colony, a few jackal families, as well as flocks of flamingos and pelicans. Staying here feels very much like being on a boat in the middle of the sea, especially during foggy evenings, and the rooms are modern and lovely. By now it felt amazing to take a long hot shower to try and wash off the tons of red sand that seemed to have found its way into my hair, ears, and even eyes; that fully made up for the less than warm service from the hostess on duty, who is single-handedly responsible for the only poor service we had during the whole trip…

Nevertheless, we had an amazing day out on Sandwich Harbor, which is also part of the natural park, driving up and down the white sand dunes, admiring the pink salt pans and enjoying glorious seafood by the yacht club in Walvis Bay. As if we hadn’t had our fill of sand for a week, we reunited with the guncles who were staying nearby and spent the last afternoon of our trip sandboarding down some pretty impressive dunes (you have to use your legs to go back up for another ride down, no ski lifts here!).

We soon had to get back to Johannesburg and our day to day lives but with our eyes full of stars and our heads filled with memories of fantastic landscapes, amazing moments shared with friends and family, and the hunger to do it all again very soon.

Before I go, let me give you my top three tips about this trip: 1) pack light but ensure you have enough layers to dress comfortably through the day, the temperature amplitude and the wind are no jokes here, 2) opt for self-driving for at least part of the trip, you will see more and the kids will love sleeping on the rooftop tents but don’t forget quickdry camping and the headlights for reading in the tent, 3) do splurge with the balloon ride and Wolvedans, the experience in both cases was worth every penny. Also, if you want a day by day account of our trip go on to my Instagram, all our travels are in my story highlights, trip by trip.

With love, S.

Tag: southern africa

My Mauritius home away from home: Lux* Belle Mare

An epic trip in the Namib

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