Land of Legends Press Release:

There was a time not long ago, when Kwa Zulu Natal ranked as the poor third cousin in the eyes of international travellers in particular. That’s changed in recent years, and if the outcome of House & Leisure’s Visa Best of SA competition is anything to judge our province by, it seems the world has finally awakened to the beauty and diversity of this spectacular region.

Within the walls of the province, there has long existed an intimate collection of hospitality properties known as the Land Of Legends, whose common glue is their celebration of culture, tradition and history, and their outstanding records of social upliftment and environmental preservation. These establishments include Hartford House, Phinda Private Game Reserve, Fordoun Hotel and Spa and Rocktail Beach Camp, and the first three of these recently made the final five in each of their respective categories in House & Leisure’s competition.

Given that the best names in South African hospitality were among the finalists in each category, its not only a wonderful tribute to the Land Of Legends in general and these properties specifically, but it’s a compliment to the depth and diversity of Kwa Zulu Natal’s offerings, that all three were voted national winners by the readers of South Africa’s most popular lifestyle magazine.

Hartford House topped the podium as the nation’s best restaurant in that category, which included the Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francaise (a world top fifty restaurant) and Le Colombe at Constantia Uitsig, which last year won Eat Out’s Top South African restaurant award.

Hardly surprising, for their well established reputation for excellence, was the Phinda’s Homestead Lodge’s top spot in the Best Of SA Lodge category, and here again, we should be mindful that the finalists included Ivory Lodge, Singita Sweni and Makanyane Safari Lodge.

In the Spa category, there were two Kwa Zulu Natal based properties amongst the finalists, Fordoun Hotel and Spa and the Karkloof Spa, with the Nottingham Road-based Fordoun being the voter’s favourite.

While the voting was not confined to South African readers alone, the outcomes were probably as much a statement about the excellence of these Kwa Zulu Natal establishments, as they were for the values South Africans treasure most: excellent quality, great dependability and outstanding value, and the fact that increasingly, modern travellers have originality, authenticity and genuine hospitality at the top of their shopping lists, in the choice of where they eat and where they choose to stay.