Elegant Escapes: Top luxury cabins across South Africa
Discover the ultimate in luxury and nature with South Africa's top cabin retreats. From Nima Lodge’s chic, nature-inspired cabins to the ethereal Woud Blokhuis in the forest, these exquisite hideaways offer a perfect blend of modern elegance and serene surroundings. Each retreat promises a unique escape into comfort and style, providing a sanctuary that harmonizes beautifully with its natural environment.
Nima Lodge - elegant cabins in Wilderness
Nima Lodge’s Luna Cabin in Wilderness is the epitome of modern cabin culture, with floor to ceiling windows, warm wooden floors and lots of natural hues.
Currently under renovation, come mid-August it will also boast a sauna and more. The Lodge also offers other cabin options, with the Sand Cabins - which feature impressive architecture and interiors - still open to the public.
Designed by Stretch Architects, these cabins lure you into nature with their curvy wooden features, offering pure luxury in the heart of the Garden Route. With a variety of cosy textures and a fireplace that draws you indoors, this Western Cape wonder is the ultimate hideaway.
Woud Blokhuis - a luxury timber cabin in the woods
The Mpumalanga town of Dullstroom’s pine forests transport one to an ethereal world. In fact, so does Airbnb’s Woud Blokhuis, designed by Juan Cloete. The luxury timber cabin is nestled in a forest, with large windows allowing for beautiful vistas and natural light delicately dancing on dark wooden floors.
The Pavilion - elegant simplicity in the Cradle
Based in the Cradle of Humankind in the North West province, the Pavilion - a glass and steel structure - speaks to elegance and simplicity, while also allowing its inhabitants to submerge themselves in their natural surroundings. Hibernate downstairs in the White Box, which is where you can enjoy a glass of red in front of the fire.
Phinda - nothing between you and nature
Twenty-odd years ago, Phinda Forest Lodge in KwaZulu-Natal was one of the first eco-lodges in the country, and also one of the first to move away stylistically from the typical thatched safari cottage. Newly refurbished, their minimalist glass cabins - located in Africa’s last remaining dry sand forest - allow you to experience nature, up close and personal, from interior spaces that blend in well with the environment.
Kliphuis - a novel hideaway beneath the Sneeuberg
True to the spirit of the Great Karoo, Kliphuis - located in the one-of-a-kind Sneeuberg Nature Reserve, between Graaff-Reinet and Nieu-Bethesda in the Eastern Cape - has been kitted out with fluffy white sheepskin rugs, a big fireplace and three wood-burning stoves. Here, under reeded ceilings, the old barn-turned-cottage will soothe and inspire.
Text by Renate Engelbrecht
Photography Supplied by David Ross, Lia Kriel, Isabel Hayn, Greg Cox