Wine tastings at De Kloof are not to be missed, and this original idea is a new favourite.De Kloof hosted an unusual blind wine tasting last night where guests were encouraged to BYOB (bring your own bottle). As guests arrived, bottles were collected and kept secret from other guests. These formed the basis of a […]

“Take Action; Inspire Change; Make Every Day a Mandela Day.” Today is the 95th birthday of a man that people across the world know and love. It has also become a day where people across the world dedicate 67 minutes to making a positive change in our world (to honour the 67 years of his […]

Refreshed is not really a word I’d use to describe the way I was feeling when I woke up. As usual, coughing fits prevented me (and Nicole, since I’d wake her) from getting adequate sleep, and the uncomfortable bed was giving me pretty serious lower back pain. Nicole said that the first few moments of […]

We had an early start to our day, since a bus would be by at 8am to take us off to Windsor, Stonehenge, and Bath. We headed to the hotel restaurant, where a very miserable continental breakfast awaited us, which included cold toast, even colder coffee, tinned orange and grapefruit slices, watery orange juice, and […]

We had a very pleasant sleep-in on our first day back in London – until a cleaning lady came in at about 8:30 and woke us up! We had plenty of time to kill before 11am, when the Contiki office opened, so we weren’t in any rush. I took a leisurely bath and then headed […]

I woke up all kinds of exhausted and with a few blanks in my memory on our final day of the trip. Luckily, my bag was pretty much packed so I didn’t take too long getting ready. Nicole and I had developed a system where we pretty much had everything we needed on a daily […]

We awoke hoping that Amsterdam would be more fun during the day than it had been at night. Breakfast wasn’t too shabby, with hot toast and a selection of cold meats and cheeses to enjoy it with. We rushed breakfast a little, though, so we could pop into the pharmacy quickly to get more cough […]

Everyone was exceptionally chipper as they climbed onto the bus this morning, indicating that we weren’t the only the two people who had enjoyed a decent night’s sleep. Nicole and I claimed just over 11 hours, so we were feeling refreshed for the first time on our tour. We enjoyed an interesting breakfast of mixed […]

I was quite surprised to find so many people down at breakfast when Nicole and I finally emerged from our room. We were running a bit late that morning since we both had a quick scrubbing down. Normally, I’d shower at night and leave the mornings free for Nicole. Boy did we need that shower! […]