Morukuru Ocean House

a truly fabulous and fun place to stay

Morukuru Ocean House is located in the De Hoop Nature Reserve on the Whale Coast area of the Western Cape.

The house is an absolute delight to stay in, every little touch has been carefully considered and delivered. Those of us who are lucky enough to have stayed here consider it to be one the best places that we have ever been in Africa and one that we have strong yearning to return.

It is hard to explain quite how wonderful this place feels when you first arrive, like a super-comfortable version of the evil villain’s lair in a James Bond movie.

The ground floor contains expansive shared spaces centred on a large indoor dining area and snug lounge. To the rear a sheltered courtyard contains outdoor dining and lounge areas plus a rather pleasant swimming pool.

On the first floor there is a lovely lounge bar where wrap-around picture windows provide 360 degree views over the surrounding landscapes and the ocean beyond. There is also a large telescope and a further outside lounge terrace.

The house has underfloor heating and there are wood burning stoves in the rooms and open fireplaces in other areas which tend to be used more often during the cooler evenings of May-Sep.

Remarkably the whole house is solar powered, they are very proud of that fact and you really would never know.

Rooms

Guest accommodation at Morukuru Ocean House is back down on the ground floor, where there are four beautiful bedroom suites, each with ocean views direct from the beds and lovely large bathrooms, all beautifully fitted and equipped. The pillows here are truly incredible.

A fifth bedroom doubles as a children’s bunk room and TV room.

As mentioned above, the children’s bedroom doubles up as a TV lounge, with full satellite TV, as well as collections of DVD’s and lots of games for kids and adults. There is also free wifi throughout the house, although with relatively limited bandwidth at times, so streaming video is probably not an option.

Service levels

The staff of eight here are truly exceptional, there seems to be no limit to how far they will go to pamper their guests and make them feel relaxed and at home.

The feedback for this place is truly remarkable. Not only are guests unanimous in giving it the highest possible marks, but it is also very noticeable how often they go out of their way to name and praise every individual member of staff. People really feel like they have become members of a greater family during their stay and we can certainly echo those sentiments from our own personal experience.

It is the little details which seem to most please the guests, from the song on arrival, to the wonderful picnic lunches down on the beach and sundowners on the dunes. Little touches which lift the days and make them even more special.

Activities

Morukuru Ocean House provides access to the following activities, most of which are usually included in the room rate …

• Intense relaxation
• Beach picnics
• Snorkelling
• Inter-tidal walking safari
• Dune-boarding
• Vehicle safari
• Walking safari
• Mountain-biking
• Tennis

The De Hoop area is much overlooked, but we love it and include it in trips relatively frequently. It works so much better in combination with Cape Town than the much more distant and touristy Garden Route.

The usual stay duration is 2-3 nights.

Getting there

De Hoop is accessed by road, usually as part of a self-drive triangle between Cape Town, Franschhoek in the Cape Winelands and here.

This routing is not only advantaged by being relatively short, but it also includes some particularly scenic drives. The drive between Franschhoek and De Hoop, with lunch in the sleepy village of McGregor is particularly lovely.

If you can approach De Hoop via the village of Malgas, you will have the added pleasure of using the quaint hand-pulled ferry.

the best coastal reserve in the Cape