Die Tuishuise & Victoria Manor, Cradock

An afternoon spent in one of the Tuishuise cottages that line Cradock’s Market Street transports you back to the frontier elegance of the Victorian era.

It’s like you’ve jumped into the rabbit hole of time and emerged with the 1820 Settlers as you stoke the wood-embers in the fireplace and sip a sherry in the presence of groups of serious, formally-dressed people in sepia family photographs hanging on the walls.

Owner Sandra Antrobus began this remarkable task in Cradock with the restoration of Olive Schreiner’s house around the corner.

Then she gradually bought up the houses and hotel along Market Street and each became an individual labour of love, an homage to silver service, wide streets, oxwagons, adventurers and newly-settled families with high hopes for a future in this wild country.

From the farms in the district and antique shops all over the Eastern Cape, she painstakingly purchased the thousands of décor items that capture the 1800s so perfectly.

“We will always remain what we are”, she says in her letter of welcome to guests, “an old street in a small Karoo town with country folk only too happy to serve you, our special guest. So please relax and enjoy your stay with us, because we will enjoy meeting you…”

Features:

• Dinner, breakfast and lunch are served in the various dining areas of the Victoria Manor;
• Die Tuishuise & Victoria Manor is a child-friendly and pet-friendly establishment;
• The hotel is a popular conference venue;