The Twelve Apostles

In one of Cape Town’s best locations is one of the most idyllic hotels ever!

With the Twelve Apostles and the Table Mountain (if you don’t know what I’m talking about you’ll have to read the article about what to do in the city) as confidants, the hotel stole its name from the first one.

It’s part of the Red Carnation Group, of the Todman family since 2002, and it belongs to the Leading Hotels of the World.

First Impression
The Twelve Apostles causes an excellent first impression even before we arrive at the hotel when it decides to prepare our stay to detail even without knowing us.

We answered a q&a by email that assured the hotel complete knowledge about our preferences and about us.

The path to the hotel passes along the Atlantic and the views are breathtaking and the beautiful atmosphere of Cape Town intensifies when entering The Twelve Apostles.

We are welcomed by an entire team full of joy and smiles in their faces.

The hotel is overall white and is inserted between the mountain and the ocean! Perfect combo ain’t it?!

We easily notice the colonial style, and the most used colors are white and blue, from the staff uniforms to the entire decoration.

 

At the reception, we’re invited to sit down and relax a bit from the long trip. I notice immediately the staff’s sympathy, always caring for our needs. The lobby is small and agitated in an elegant way, without the bustle of a business hotel.

Decorated with flowers and art pieces inviting comfort but also a curiosity for those wishing to see more and more.

We are accompanied to our room and enjoying everything around us, the entire floor is carpeted, which gives immense comfort, but also must bring a lot of work to the staff! Each wall has a painting, some of them we really wish we could bring home, and what captivated my attention the most was the number of staff everywhere, always polite, but always ready to make ours the best stay ever.

Sleepy face??

Bedrooms
Of the same colonial line. A deluxe room where white and blue are kings. Comfortable and elegant.

The bathroom was small but perfectly functional and had a soap menu – that’s something I never saw in any other hotel!

The bed,  King Size, was extremely comfortable and had the most amazing pillow menu ever.

One of the ex-libris of the bedroom? The view over the mountain and the Ocean.

We had tea and coffee at our disposal and there was also wine and candy waiting for us.

The gowns were some of the most beautiful I’ve had, a white and blue kimono, so elegant I even went to the hotel shop and bought one to bring home with me.

The best of the bedrooms, moreover, of the Hotel, was the service. Every night we arrived at the bedroom and it was prepared to detail, with candles, chromotherapy and the gowns graciously left on top of our bed. A complete dream!

Restaurants
The hotel has three different restaurants.

The main one – Azure, is where breakfast is served, and let me tell you, The Twelve Apostles has one of the best and most varied breakfasts I ever had.

With oysters and sparkling, and a menu that assures options for every palate.

 And speaking about breakfasts with views…

This restaurant has a super cozy and elegant vibe, following the decor of the hotel. It has also a balcony with a privileged view over the ocean, assuring a very romantic atmosphere.

At dinner, there’s a Fine Dining ambiance, and we had a very interesting experience in one of our nights there.

 Bread and butter selection at Azure 

Known as one of the most famous restaurants of classic inspiration in cape town, our dinner started well with a good selection of bread, with highlight to the focaccia, and then had a degustation, going from abalone, pea pannacotta, mussels, an amazing springbok loin, a type of gazelle, and a nice steak with pumpkin and shiitake mushrooms.

 A delicious springbok loin served with beetroot, pickles and venison jus 

After several wines and dishes, we then proceeded to the sweet chapter with different textures of chocolate, cocoa, and cherries. Very good!!

 Chocolate, cocoa, and cherry 

Another restaurant available is The Café Grill – and here are served all the meals throughout the day, when, for example, we’re relaxing at the pool. And it seems like a real beach restaurant, you’ll see that looking at the pictures.

The Café Grill

It’s almost like inserted in the mountain and the surrounding nature, and one of the most beautiful places in the hotel, because it also has a pool of natural water that comes from the mountain (freezing, of course!), that transports us to other worlds with its sounds of nature!

And last, but not least, we have my favorite place in the hotel! Leopard Bar!

The Leopard Bar

What an amazing place! On the day of our arrival it was already late so we opted not to leave the hotel, also we were not in the mood for a complete meal, so we went to the bar to have a snack or two, but we didn’t know this bar is one of the meeting spots for locals in Cape Town. Super cosmopolitan, agitated and joyful, almost with a Londoner vibe!

The night was young and promising!

First with a breathtaking sunset, then live music (as usual every evening) and then a completely surprising Gin menu.

 

We snacked a bit because in between Gins, sparkling and cocktails things were not easy! But once again here, the human side was the most important, the barman accompanying our night was super nice and caring.

Amazing that’s always this human side that captivates me the most in every type of service.

Tasting of some surprising South African Gins 

Services
The Twelve Apostles, like any other luxury hotel, has all the usual services of its kind. Maybe the highlight is this human side I talk about so much, but I’ll talk about that later.

The hotel has an event room with a balcony, perfect for any type of celebration, with the ocean as a company. Here you can celebrate small dates, conferences, parties and even weddings, catered by the main restaurant.

Concerning leisure, it has two pools, one with natural water from the mountain, and the other with hot water in a very well located terrace in front of the ocean.

To the most active there’s a 24h/day gym.

And one of the spotlights of the hotel is its SPA.

It has 7 treatment rooms, a wellness area with aromatized waters and small snacks and water circuit every spa should have – three small pools, one with a therapeutic effect similar to the dead sea, another with hot water and the other freezing! The idea is to do the three in a total of 15min and then rest for 2h! It’s like a total relaxation therapy and the feeling we get is that after two hours we’re young and invigorated!

A perfect feeling of wellbeing!

Another different activity in the hotel is the cinema! With popcorn and coca cola as tradition dictates!

The hotel also assures some outdoor activities to its guests, all around town. Trips to V&A Waterfront, to a more distant beach, or even to the Table Mountain. These trips can be organized by the hotel or the staff can also just assure transportation to near places once it has a series of shuttles always available to transport all the guests.

 Highscore to this topic because once again the staff goes to all efforts to fulfill all our needs, assuring above all our safety.

In our case, we dined out in a few different restaurants and the hotel always assured we didn’t come back by taxi, but with one of their drivers.

The Concierge was tireless  – thank you for everything, Dane! 

Another activity the hotel provides is the organization of picnics in the most paradisiacal places in the city and trips to other regions or vineyards!

We chose to go to Bouchard Finlayson, that belong to the family that owns the hotel. Here we had the pleasure to know the charismatic Frank Woodvine, almost 90 years old, who showed us the entire property and gave us a biology lesson like we never got in our school years, he was one of the most energetic hosts ever, running through all the vegetation making me sweat just to keep up!

Acompanying Frank was one of the best and hardest moments of the entire trip 

The classic Cape Town Protea 

Bouchard Finlayson

After this nice surprise, it was time to relax for lunch with Peter Finlayson and taste his wines, probably the most famous Pinot Noir from South Africa, but João will talk about that.

Besides this farm and this region, the hotel also organizes trips to many other regions like Kostantia and Stellenbosch.

Service
Without wanting to repeat myself, I already told you the best of this hotel was the staff!!!

I think it must have been one of the best services we ever had in a hotel. The team was genuinely nice, constantly caring for us, from the shuttle drivers to the reception to the barman of Leopard Bar, to Dane, one of the concierges, who was wonderful with us and with whom we created such great empathy.

Even the employee at the hotel store, where I bought my robe, was sweet!

A flawless team!

I’m just left with talking about the Hotel Queen!! Ingwe, and who is she you ask? A very beautiful cat that walks around freely and basically runs the place! So much that her little plates of food and water are behind the reception! So don’t be surprised if you get to the hotel and Ingwe is resting at the reception desk or on the sofa!

See you soon The Twelve Apostles!

The Twelve Apostles
Bedrooms from 300€
Victoria Road, Camps Bay – Cape Town 
+27 21 4379 000
reservations1@12apostles.co.za

Versão Portuguesa

Photos: Flavors & Senses

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