Birkenhead House

Pure perfection. Like coming home. BH is my favourite hotel in the world. Stunning location above the beach. Spectacular views. Beautiful rooms with such comfortable beds. Amazing,knowledgable, kind and friendly staff. The furnishings throughout the house are next level. Not like a hotel but like being a house guest in the most exceptional home. Fabulous food and drinks. Everything is thought of down to chocolate and popcorn in bedroom and little nightlights so one can find one’s way around in the dark. Even had all my washing done after 2 weeks away. Everything is included in the room rate so no surprises. Our room(5) even has its own beautiful,clean,heated pool.
To Shane and his staff: Thank you for yet another fantastic stay. I leave a little piece of my heart here each time I’m here. I’ve run out of superlatives but it is all of the above and even more!

Only the views

Location

Let me start this review with a little spoiler: we had originally booked just one night, as a stopover on our road trip along the Garden Route. Well, barely 20 minutes after our arrival — after the tour of our room and the entire hotel, all the way to the terrace with that breathtaking view — we booked an extra night.
It was love at first sight with Birkenhead House! What a hotel!

How often do you still see that these days, by the way: people taking the time to show you not just your room, but the whole hotel? You can really feel how proud everyone here is — and rightly so!
Having all meals and drinks included in the rate is also an incredible asset. And rest assured, no crowded buffets here, but friendly and discreet table service for your meals, as well as in the lounges or out on the terrace for a drink. Top-notch!
Oh, and excellent beds too, featuring the best sleep aid in the world: the sound of the ocean!

It’s actually that unique blend of the true boutique hotel atmosphere (a term that’s often overused but absolutely fitting here), the in-cre-di-ble location perched on the cliffs with (literally!) views of breaching whales behind the surfers, the intimacy, the delicious food & drinks, the stunning views from almost every spot, and — above all! — the wonderful staff, that make this hotel so exceptional.

A huge thank you to the entire team for making our stay at Birkenhead House an absolute highlight of our trip!
(...and thank God our room was available for that extra night!) :-)

The grounds are beautiful, and each room is unique and meticulously prepared with heated flooring in the washroom, personalized notes each evening, snacks, drinks and cleaning twice daily. The hotel only accommodates ~20 people which enhances the exclusivity of the experience since it is not open for public consumption. You can’t beat the ocean view - which is not done justice by the photos online. The staff wait for you to go to your meal to turndown your rooms. Menu cards at dinner at personalized with your name. Food is amazing with many different options daily. The service is top tier with the staff genuinely caring about making your stay exceptional. The staff at this hotel exceed any other hotel we’ve stayed at and that’s saying a lot (special thank you to Gift, Simon, Mary, Jordan, Rita, Chris & Beezo). Overall, a 11/10 experience and worth every cent!

position, service, room.
fantastic restaurant.
Super employees: you feel like a king.

This is the second time we have visited Birkenhead house , and this hotel just gets better and better !

The service and the facilities are second to none and the location is fantastic to sit and watch the waves crash against the rocks whilst drinking Gin and Tonics, and watching the sun go down.

How can you not like that view of the food.

Birkenhead is one of those rare places which is so much more awesome in person than it looks in photos. I confess to having been only medium excited about the stop from looking online - I very nearly decided to skip Hermanus and I’m so glad I didn’t! The only downside to visiting in April is missing out on whale-watching season from June to November, which is what Hermanus is famous for.

The hotel has an amazing location and great vibe to it. It’s a 1 hour brisk walk along the cliff path to the main town, and behind the hotel there’s also an hour hike up to a viewpoint which I’d highly recommend making the effort for.

BY FAR my favourite thing about the hotel is the jacuzzi overlooking the sea. There are big, beautiful, crashing waves at all time of day here, and just spacing out, and looking out at the horizon while listening to that wonderful sound was one of the highlights of my entire trip. It’s also fantastic that the hotel allows guests to use it at any time of day - I enjoyed it most at night, when I also got to see a cute little genet cat scurrying across the terrace.

My only complaint is that my room (8) didn’t have much privacy unless you closed a few shutters, and if you’re light sensitive like me expect to wake up early, because the shutters really don’t do a good job of keeping the room dark. Some blackout blinds would be nice!

Delightful: excellent choices

The hotel is beautifully designed. Elegant yet comfortable/cozy. The staff was attentive, friendly and so helpful. The location is perfect. I enjoyed being a bit further out of town and the immediate access to the cliff trail. Breakfast in the terrace was the perfection. My massage was also a delightful experience.

Wow what a fabulous hotel. Beautifully put together and perfectly situated. A little expensive but worth every penny. The room was fantastic as was the food and wine which if you stuck to the local producers was all included in the price. The view onto the surf beaches was perfect and we sat in the sun. The only downside was the free shuttle into Hermanus. They let us down on the return journey as we had to wait an hour twiddling our thumbs until the car came. Don’t trust their whatsup system it fell down

a great combination of excellent food, amazing views from the veranda and personal, but relaxed service. Clive the chef made for a wonderful eating experience, very tasty, locally sourced food and wine. I'm not a 'foody' but ate fish most evenings and lapped up the puddings :-). We were full board, which I think is standard and with such a variety of dishes, we never got bored.

We stayed here for 6 nights and tried to keep active with walks, swimming, a marine five trip and some eMTB and a wine trip. If this is your thing then I would suggest;

- If driving from CT, take the coast road and stop at Pringle for a coffee and a led stretch.

- hiking in the Fernkloof (hills behind the hotel) lots of trials, ask the management or look on strava for recommendations. watch out of the baboons, friendly-ish, but don't entice / feed or try and scare them away....just be cool...and they wont hassle you. if they do, call the baboon hotline...yes, there is a baboon hotline.

- Mountain Biking at Oak Valley Wine estate - see my review if this, but go for the biking and not the food or wine - and use Joe Ride from Cape Town as a guide.

- The Marine Big Five - just do it. We were out of whale season and saw copper sharks, a hump back whale (yes I know right) lots of dolphins, penguins and fur seals. We didn't hang around in Gainsbaii, but seemed nice enough.

- Cafe at Grotto beach.

- Walking along the coastal path and swimming in the sea. Its cold, and find out of about currents, but very refreshing.