The Royal

You stay at The Royal, a hotel built in 1896 on Piet Retief Street in Steytlerville. The town is small — the hotel stands three stories high, as the Dutch Reformed Church required it not to surpass the church tower. Fourteen rooms have air conditioning and en-suite bathrooms; some are self-catering flats with kitchenettes.

The bar and restaurant reopened in 2005 after ninety-five years without a liquor license. The kitchen serves local dishes — you might find Karoo lamb or boerewors on the menu — and the bar has been enlarged three times to accommodate the town’s social life. Meals are served on the stoep or indoors under the original pressed-tin ceilings.

Steytlerville goes quiet by seven in the evening. The hotel is one of the few places with lights on after dark, which makes it a base for stargazing in the clear Karoo sky. By day you can walk the bougainvillea-lined streets or cross the Lady de Val bridge. The hotel also runs a deli selling local honey, jams, and handmade soaps.

The Royal was restored by its current owners, who applied for the liquor license that had been denied in 1910. The bar is now the town’s gathering place, as it was when the hotel first opened.