I’m Finally Sharing My Favorite Hotel in the World
By Isaac French
A couple months ago, our family went to South Africa. We have an affiliated church community there that we wanted to visit, and we attended a friends’ wedding while there.
I knew I couldn’t miss the opportunity to finally visit the hotel I’ve revered from a distance more than any other. (Now that I’ve experienced it firsthand, it’s hard to call it a hotel—it might be more accurate to call it another little world which includes accommodations.)
This property and its people took my breath away. I haven’t shared about this yet, mainly because even after 3 months, I’m still processing the experience.
It was the most immersive, mind-blowing hospitality experience I’ve ever encountered. And I’m not exaggerating.
The property is called Babylonstoren. Yes, it’s a funny name. It’s a 17th century Cape Dutch working farm, and its original owners named it this after the small mountain in the center of the property which they thought resembled the biblical Tower of Babel.
The property was purchased in 2007 by Koos Bekker, a South African businessman and his wife Karen Roos, an interior designer and decorator.
This couple had a breathtaking vision for what the place could be, and pulled out all the stops in the path of realizing that vision. After a multi-year development project, they opened the doors to the garden retreat in 2010.
Since then, they’ve continued to build out the dream. In addition to the most beautiful garden I’ve ever seen—laced with cool water streams and pools, and vine-covered pergolas, fruit and flowers glinting from every hedge, tree and bed, the property features an award-winning winery, balsamic vinegar making shop, olive oil and essential oil production, coffee shop, butchery, creamery, 3 world-class restaurants, garden and gift shops, herds and flocks of water buffalo, sheep, ducks, chickens, and 40 accommodations units sprinkled among all of it.
It is best in class for experiential agri-tourism, and in my opinion at the pinnacle of experiential hospitality I’ve encountered. Yes, those are extremely strong words.
The hotel itself employees around 40 folks full time. The property as a whole employees up to 700 people during peak harvest time! That’s a lot of people. I talked to scores of them, from gardeners to guest managers, cooks to cleaners.
We stayed two nights, and I’m serious when I say this—the staff was outrageously good. By day 2, I genuinely felt like I’d made lifelong friends of countless staff members there. It was the kind of warmth and friendliness that money can’t pay for. It was a genuine reflection of the passion which possessed each and every person there. They were working somewhere very special, and they knew it. Most of them had been there since the very beginning — I'd guess at least 80%.
I think this speaks volumes to the heart and soul of the ownership. I would love to meet this couple someday, but by all accounts from the staff members I asked, they are doing this for all the right reasons, and treat their hundreds of employees there as their own family.
The architecture throughout the property is as exquisite as the gardens. Traditional white stucco Cape Dutch with plenty of glass to bring the heavenly outdoors inside. And the attention to detail everywhere is next level. The parking, for instance, is carefully laid out under grape vines, with hedges all the way around (and no, the Defender is not mine:).
The morning we left, I interviewed Lionel, guest experience manager, and he took 2 hours of his time to show me around the property and give me the run down. Any question I threw at him and answered it graciously. The people truly were the best part of the whole thing, and that is saying a LOT.
Here’s a tiny peek into the hospitality ethic and attention to detail which permeates every moment of a guest’s experience on the property:
The second day we were there, it was hot. Really hot, actually. In the afternoon, we loaded up in some custom-made open-air Land Cruisers and headed up the nearby mountain for a tour of the upper vineyards. Every mile of the windy road leading up the mountain was carefully paved, with a beautiful stone curb (this was just a service road to access the vineyards—but the attention to detail was remarkable).
We got to the top, unloaded and began a short trek up a wooden boardwalk staircase which hovered over the thick and aromatic Fynbos, a shrub common to the Western Cape region. After about 5 minutes, we arrived at the top, a small platform with outrageously good views. We were a little out of breath, and very thirsty all the sudden. It was HOT out there in the sun.
Our guides Kobus and Warren quickly hoisted 2 large umbrellas and scrambled back down the steep stairs, promising us they’d be right back. A few minutes later they reappeared, huffing and puffing and sweat-drenched, this time lugging 2 huge picnic baskets. They opened them up, and lo and behold the most impressive picnic spread I’ve ever seen magically materialized. Fresh fruit, cheeses, meats, bread, and juices and drinks bottled right there—every bit of it was from the farm (like every bit of the food found in the restaurants down below).
The small group of us just dropped our jaws. It really was magical. We made quick work of the snacks and emptied the ice cold drinks. These guides were truly incredible. They made us laugh and feel so cared for at the same time. I can’t go on enough about how good they were. Humble, gifted, serving, personable, funny, kind…
It was deeply inspiring.
I could write until far past you were tired of reading, so I’ll stop here.
Two weeks later, on our way back to the States, we stopped through Europe and visited the sister property to Babylonstoren called The Newt in Somerset. It was developed a couple years ago by the same couple and you know what? It somehow surpassed Babylonstoren if that’s possible!
But I can’t get into that now, so I’ll write about it in the future, if you want to hear more. I believe Karen and Koos are the best hoteliers in the world. That’s the real takeaway here. If they read this, just please know I would LOVE the opportunity to meet you in person. What you have created is breathtaking.
And the rest of you guys need to add one or both of these properties to your must-experience bucket lists.
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Wishing you a fantastic week!
—Isaac