Wild Coast accommodation, South Africa
| country: | South Africa |
| location: | Nqileni Village on the Wild Coast |
| price: | From ZR40 per person camping, ZR80 per person in 4 bed hut or ZR200 per double/twin room, per night. |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
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introduction to Wild Coast accommodation, South Africa
The realisation of a dream dreamt during years of travels through the most remote parts of Africa, China and South America: to create an eco-friendly backpackers lodge in the most wonderful place in South Africa in partnership with a vibrant, traditional local community.
The lodge is situated in a beautiful location surrounded by beach, forest, lagoon, rolling hills, dolphins and whales. We have 5 lovingly decorated huts with 4 beds and 4 huts with double beds (or 2 single beds) - all have bedding and stunning views. The lodge runs on solar power, our rocket showers are legendary and all huts have been positioned for great sea and forest views.
The community owns 40% of the lodge and is an integral part of daily life here. No fences, no crime, no beggars, no hassles, just friendly smiles. Take a walk around the village at any time of the day and night and you’ll be invited into the mud huts for a drink and a chat.
We offer canoe trips up the beautiful Xhora River where kamikaze fish may jump into your boat and Malachite kingfishers hunt in the forested cliffs upstream. You will also see the ancient cycad trees, relics from the dinosaur era. All this with a cooler box of beers... And at night there are the parties: real booming beach fire parties – we dance until dawn. And if you’re lucky you’ll dance on the stars.
The lodge is situated in a beautiful location surrounded by beach, forest, lagoon, rolling hills, dolphins and whales. We have 5 lovingly decorated huts with 4 beds and 4 huts with double beds (or 2 single beds) - all have bedding and stunning views. The lodge runs on solar power, our rocket showers are legendary and all huts have been positioned for great sea and forest views.
The community owns 40% of the lodge and is an integral part of daily life here. No fences, no crime, no beggars, no hassles, just friendly smiles. Take a walk around the village at any time of the day and night and you’ll be invited into the mud huts for a drink and a chat.
We offer canoe trips up the beautiful Xhora River where kamikaze fish may jump into your boat and Malachite kingfishers hunt in the forested cliffs upstream. You will also see the ancient cycad trees, relics from the dinosaur era. All this with a cooler box of beers... And at night there are the parties: real booming beach fire parties – we dance until dawn. And if you’re lucky you’ll dance on the stars.
rooms, food and facilities
We have 5 beautifully decorated huts with 4 beds and 4 huts with double beds (or 2 single beds). They all have bedding. We fully cater for 3 meals a day at very reasonable prices; we cook excellent meat and veggie options every day. For self-caterers, there is only a very basic spaza shop nearby, so it is best to bring supplies with you but please leave as much packaging behind as possible.
special things to do and see here
The community offers horse riding, canoeing, guided tours & hikes, fishing, traditional medicine gathering and use lessons, and craft making. how to find us
We believe that most backpackers in South Africa are missing out by not travelling around the country on local transport. Anyone who arrives at the lodge by local transport from Umtata gets the first night free. We are happy to provide more details on public transport.Cape Town to Umtata:
The bus has a toilet, video, drinks, etc and costs R250. It takes only 13 hours and on your return to Cape Town they drop you at the door of your lodge/house for free.
Umtata to the lodge:
Local transport: Taxis and a ferry costs R32 and takes approx 2 hours. From the ferry there is a 35 minute walk through a beautiful friendly village, but you can get someone to carry your rucksack for R10.
Shuttle: Our shuttle collects from Umtata daily. You MUST call us the day before to book your seat and thus ensure that the shuttle is sent to fetch you. The shuttle costs R55 per person.
Self drive: It isn’t possible to drive to the lodge without a 4x4. However, we have arranged secure parking at the nearby shop for R10 per car per day.
how this holiday makes a difference
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As community members we are actively involved in a range of development projects in the village. These include funding and set up of numerous 100% community-owned businesses: horse riding, canoeing, hiking, tours, craft making, laundry, bakery, fishing lessons, etc. Our organisation has created jobs and income for 33 families over and above those employed directly at the lodge.
 We helped set up a vegetable seedling, fruit tree and indigenous tree nursery, as well as acommunity-owned irrigated vegetable garden to supply the village and the lodge with fresh vegetables. Our accommodation was the first to build compost toilets in the village and we have established a solar powered restaurant and coffee shop owned and run by the community (using 5 parabolic solar cookers). We funded and set up a comprehensive Natural Farming Training course teaching community farmers sustainable, organic farming methods. We offer free accommodation for anyone who has skills that would make a meaningful contribution to this community. We run a number of HIV awareness programmes and help facilitate the imminent provision of antiretroviral treatment at our local hospital. We secured a donation of 100 wood burning Vesto stoves (one for each family), which are incredibly efficient when burning wood and reduces wood consumption by 60%. We also planted 10,000 mangrove seeds to regenerate the forest that died 10 years ago in a severe drought. In order to protect the dunesd we built raised walkways to prevent human traffic causing erosion.  This holiday is part of the responsibletravel.com and Conservation International Community Based Tourism Programme to support and promote community based tourism ventures that offer significant conservation and development benefits to local communities. To see other community based tourism holidays and find out more about the programme click here. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |
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