As I am sure you already know by now, I spent the better part of my day yesterday in Saltrock, at Canelands Beach Club and Spa managed by Signature Life Hotels.
I have already given you a rundown of the activities that I was kept busy doing at the hotel, but now I intend to give you a review of the Beach Club and Spa itself from my perspective.
Your drive to Canelands (situated on the north coast) is scenic along the N2 highway, and as you come off of the highway you immediately notice that you really are in an up-market suburb. As you arrive at the Beach Club, you wonder if you are really coming to a hotel, or to a millionaire’s private beach house. This is because Signature Life Hotels chooses to keep their hotels smaller than your average, run of the mill, large hotel; which is really quite a nice thing because that gives the guest the best personal service possible, you don’t feel like you are just one of the crowd anymore.
As you walk in through the pretty garden and welcoming entrance, the first of your senses to hit you as you walk in, is your sense of smell. The glorious smell of freshly brewed coffee mingled with the unmistakable smell of the sea mist. Glancing away from the well stocked bar and coffee corner, you look out the large glass doors onto the wooden deck, across the pool and down onto the unspoilt beach.
As we begun our tour of the hotel, we were told that this hotel has 10 rooms, and sleeps only 20 guests. We walked upstairs to view one of the 4 Superior sea facing rooms, each with their own deck. There are also 6 Standard Garden Facing Rooms. All rooms have wi fi internet facilities available, and plasma TVs. Bedroom facilities also include en-suite bathrooms, air conditioning, electronic safes, and Tea/Coffee making facilities. A quick glance in the en-suite bathroom shows you a huge bath, separate shower and large mirrors. The huge cupboards that are big enough to hold a party in even include your own bath gown for use while staying at the hotel.
We were next taken to the private conference room which is designed to provide corporate groups with a superb and luxurious environment for decision-making and meetings. With a maximum seating capacity of 40 delegates, you will be supplied with standard conferencing facilities such as, flip charts, retractable screens, TV and DVD machines, and of course a white board and markers.
Next, we were shown into the Spa, the Spa is run by the renowned Jennifer Eales. This is a very new Spa and has recently been featured in a number of top market magazines and websites, including the ridgeonline.co.za. The spa operates daily and consists of 4 treatment rooms with trained therapists. The spa menu ranges from individual treatment to half day and day packages that can be tailor-made to suit the client. Dermalogica is the product of choice used by all the Jennifer Eales Spas.
Lastly on our guided tour we were shown the open restaurant, what is so special to me about this restaurant is that the kitchen is fully open so you can easily see the chef, Genevieve as she cooks you the most delightful meals, where you can eat either is the shelter of the indoors, out on the deck, or even down on the beach itself!
After the tour I took the liberty to walk out onto the deck, the first thing I noticed other than the view, was the little bell on a pillar with a sign above it that read "Ring this bell when you see dolphins", and I couldn’t help but
wonder at their attention to detail. I took a moment to admire the 25m lap pool with a cocktail seat, and then strolled down onto the quite beach as the tide had started to come in. I walked maybe as much as 100 meters south to a lovely old fashioned tidal pool hewn out of what appears to be slate rocks, and watched the waves breaking over the tidal pool. If it had not been such a chilly afternoon I would have loved to take a swim in it. 
All said and done, I really enjoyed my day at Canelands Beach Club and Spa, and wish that I could have spent more time to appreciate it. I would like to thank the following staff of Canelands Beach Club, and Signature Life Hotels for the lovely day: Alan Vels, Lerina McCall, Ellen Aucamp, Melanie Roberts, Chris Johnson, and Jessica Nhleko. Also the kind waiter who brought me my awesome coffee, I think his name was Luis?
I would absolutely love to give more reviews on the other hotels and resorts run by Signature Life Hotels, especially the Casa Do Capitao Barra Beach Club and Massinga Beach Lodge. However that entirely depends on the decision, of who are the winners, made by Signature Life Hotels for the “Best Job on the East Coast” competition. So make sure you are listening in tomorrow morning to East Coast Radio from 7am.
I have already given you a rundown of the activities that I was kept busy doing at the hotel, but now I intend to give you a review of the Beach Club and Spa itself from my perspective.
Your drive to Canelands (situated on the north coast) is scenic along the N2 highway, and as you come off of the highway you immediately notice that you really are in an up-market suburb. As you arrive at the Beach Club, you wonder if you are really coming to a hotel, or to a millionaire’s private beach house. This is because Signature Life Hotels chooses to keep their hotels smaller than your average, run of the mill, large hotel; which is really quite a nice thing because that gives the guest the best personal service possible, you don’t feel like you are just one of the crowd anymore.
As you walk in through the pretty garden and welcoming entrance, the first of your senses to hit you as you walk in, is your sense of smell. The glorious smell of freshly brewed coffee mingled with the unmistakable smell of the sea mist. Glancing away from the well stocked bar and coffee corner, you look out the large glass doors onto the wooden deck, across the pool and down onto the unspoilt beach.
As we begun our tour of the hotel, we were told that this hotel has 10 rooms, and sleeps only 20 guests. We walked upstairs to view one of the 4 Superior sea facing rooms, each with their own deck. There are also 6 Standard Garden Facing Rooms. All rooms have wi fi internet facilities available, and plasma TVs. Bedroom facilities also include en-suite bathrooms, air conditioning, electronic safes, and Tea/Coffee making facilities. A quick glance in the en-suite bathroom shows you a huge bath, separate shower and large mirrors. The huge cupboards that are big enough to hold a party in even include your own bath gown for use while staying at the hotel.
We were next taken to the private conference room which is designed to provide corporate groups with a superb and luxurious environment for decision-making and meetings. With a maximum seating capacity of 40 delegates, you will be supplied with standard conferencing facilities such as, flip charts, retractable screens, TV and DVD machines, and of course a white board and markers.
Next, we were shown into the Spa, the Spa is run by the renowned Jennifer Eales. This is a very new Spa and has recently been featured in a number of top market magazines and websites, including the ridgeonline.co.za. The spa operates daily and consists of 4 treatment rooms with trained therapists. The spa menu ranges from individual treatment to half day and day packages that can be tailor-made to suit the client. Dermalogica is the product of choice used by all the Jennifer Eales Spas.
Lastly on our guided tour we were shown the open restaurant, what is so special to me about this restaurant is that the kitchen is fully open so you can easily see the chef, Genevieve as she cooks you the most delightful meals, where you can eat either is the shelter of the indoors, out on the deck, or even down on the beach itself!
After the tour I took the liberty to walk out onto the deck, the first thing I noticed other than the view, was the little bell on a pillar with a sign above it that read "Ring this bell when you see dolphins", and I couldn’t help but
wonder at their attention to detail. I took a moment to admire the 25m lap pool with a cocktail seat, and then strolled down onto the quite beach as the tide had started to come in. I walked maybe as much as 100 meters south to a lovely old fashioned tidal pool hewn out of what appears to be slate rocks, and watched the waves breaking over the tidal pool. If it had not been such a chilly afternoon I would have loved to take a swim in it. 
All said and done, I really enjoyed my day at Canelands Beach Club and Spa, and wish that I could have spent more time to appreciate it. I would like to thank the following staff of Canelands Beach Club, and Signature Life Hotels for the lovely day: Alan Vels, Lerina McCall, Ellen Aucamp, Melanie Roberts, Chris Johnson, and Jessica Nhleko. Also the kind waiter who brought me my awesome coffee, I think his name was Luis?
I would absolutely love to give more reviews on the other hotels and resorts run by Signature Life Hotels, especially the Casa Do Capitao Barra Beach Club and Massinga Beach Lodge. However that entirely depends on the decision, of who are the winners, made by Signature Life Hotels for the “Best Job on the East Coast” competition. So make sure you are listening in tomorrow morning to East Coast Radio from 7am.
