Dunkeld East Hotel

We had the most incredible time, the rooms are beautiful, the food is great and the views are out of this world. We loved the new addition of the boat house. The rowboat experience is too beautiful. We recommend the picnic in the forest - an experience like no other and the set-ups are stunning!

My husband and I haven’t had any breaks in 2024, so we decided to spoil ourselves with luxury breakaway at ‘luxury’ accommodation in Dullstroom for a romantic long weekend. We booked out a day earlier - need I say more? The pin on Google maps took us on a very dodgy, dark road that didn’t even lead to the accommodation, but rather deep into the woods. If we weren’t in a 4x4 there would have been severe damage to the tyres and shocks. When we arrived at the premises, the gate was locked (this was around 7pm), with a handwritten note on a wet paper saying ‘please call me’ and an illegible number. Eventually the guard came to the gate to open up after being away from his post for who knows why. The staff were uninterested in serving us and the general manager was on leave over a busy long weekend. The cleaning lady asked us to leave our room key with her to clean during the day while we were out in town (leaving all out valuables and personal items in our room). In effect this meant that we had a dirty room for 4 days, as we refused to leave our key with staff. The general dining area is aesthetically beautiful, but the staff played loud (non-tranquil) music during dinner and breakfast, spoiling the serene atmosphere one would hope for in an establishment like this. All in all, our experience was far below the expectation created by a 4-star boutique hotel and we decided to go home earlier, as it was cleaner, more pleasant and more comfortable than Dunkeld East Hotel.

Beautiful place but no toilet privacy Beautiful surroundings and very friendly and helpful staff. Restaurant setting was good with lovely fireplace, but food was average for its price and no wine menu to speak of, just house red or white, no sherry/ports or dom pedros. Breakfast was lovely. Some firewood was provided free of charge, but not enough to keep the room warm all night, so had to pay R35 for extra firewood. One nice feature of the rooms was electric blankets on both sides of the bed, but the modern shower and toilet set up were terrible. The half glass shower pane provided no privacy and let the cold air in, and the worst was the toilet with also a half glass pane - no door, no curtain for privacy and no air freshener.