Accommodation Review: Summerstrand Hotel

The Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism team are, hands down, the best tourism office we have dealt with over the last 2 months of road tripping. Not only are they passionate about the city of Port Elizabeth and surrounding areas, but they are helpful, resourceful and super friendly.

We were keen to attend the #ColoursOfYouSA, #MyNelsonMandelaBay instawalk but, since it started at 3pm and ended late, we wouldn’t have been able to move onto our Sunday’s River stop which was over 2 hours away. I mentioned this to Reuann and she quickly arranged for us to stay at the Summerstrand Hotel for 2 nights on a bed and breakfast basis.

Honestly, a treat like this couldn’t have come at a better time. Hotels are usually not within our budget and to actually have someone cook breakfast and clean up afterwards, was a stunning treat. It had been a long time since we had that luxury at Tsitsikamma Village Inn.

Tsitsikamma Village Inn

The words that kept coming to mind when I looked at the Summerstrand Hotel was, “a place that time forgot”. I’m not sure why though, because the decor wasn’t dated by any standard. There was just an old school feel about it, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

As we stayed there over off peak season, they hotel was taking the time to do a few repairs and small renovations in preparation for the upcoming June/July school holidays. Every surface was being scrubbed down and minor repairs were taken care of. The staff was super accommodating and didn’t bat an eye when we requested drinks glasses with ice (while carrying soft drinks under our arms). Crass? Maybe. But I refused to spent R16 for a 340ml can of soda from the vending machine.

We treated ourselves to room service dinners while we stayed and I was very impressed with the prices. Our bill for 2 nights was under R500 and the kids loved the novelty of it.

The breakfast spread was sublime and we lingered over it for a while, because we didn’t have anywhere to race off to and the kids were overwhelmed by the number of choices they had. I mean, the cereal bar even had Coco Pops as an option. I’ve never seen that before!