The Turbine Hotel and Spa: a Gem on Thesen Island

IIf you get excited about hotel breakfasts, then you’ll most definitely enjoy the breakfast at The Turbine Hotel & Spa. There’s a continental buffet station with various cereals, fresh fruits, a variety of cheeses and cold meats, pastries, bread and jams, and fruit juices. There’s also a breakfast menu with various dishes, including flapjacks and poached eggs.

You can enjoy your breakfast outside on the pool deck, overlooking the canal, or inside Island Café.

The Island Café menu also includes lunch and dinner options. The menu changes often, with a variety of dishes including vegetarian, meat, chicken and fish. We had one dinner in the restaurant. I had the pork chops and my husband had the line fish. While my chops were delicious, the line fish was absolutely superb. We finished off with lemon meringue pie and chocolate mousse.

Pop intothe Gastro Pub for a cocktail before dinner one evening and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere inside. The menu is simple, including salads, sandwiches, burgers, and fish. Along with a few cocktails.

The accommodation
The hotel is made up of 24 guest rooms, including standard rooms, luxury rooms, a honeymoon suite, and two luxury self-contained Lagoon and Canal Suites adjacent to the hotel.

Each bedroom has been individually decorated and named to reflect the various cultural, historical and geographic aspects of Knysna. We stayed in the Elephant Room, one of the hotel’s standard rooms. The room was comfortable and elegantly decorated, including a full bathroom with shower and bath, fully-stocked minibar, coffee machine, work desk, flat-screen TV, and a complimentary bottle of wine.

The activities
The Turbine Spa offers various beauty and relaxation treatments. We had a couples 60-minute full body massage during our stay and walked out feeling so relaxed. 

The Turbine Water Club is the hotel’s activity centre where you can hire bicycles and kayaks to explore the island and canals. They can also organise a cruise on one of their two motorised pontoon barges to explore the lagoon and head out to see the Knysna Heads. We joined a sunset cruise which started off with ‘window shopping’ through the canals to check out the nearby houses on the island, we then headed out into the estuary and made our way towards the Knysna Heads. The cruise included some drinks and a delicious snack platter to munch on. Our captain, Monty, was so friendly and shared lots of interesting information about Knysna and the surrounding area. I recommend the sunset cruise if you stay here.

We also took advantage of the kayak hire and spent an hour cruising through the canals checking out the million rand houses and looking for the infamous Knysna seahorses (without any luck, unfortunately). I forgot that we were in South Africa for a moment, it really felt like we were in a fancier, modern version of Venice. Really beautiful and picturesque.

Overall, we loved our stay at The Turbine Hotel & Spa and really enjoyed exploring and experiencing Thesen Island.  Check out the hotel’s current rates and specials on their website.