Namaqualand country Lodge

Namaqua Lodge sits in Vanrhynsdorp at the southern edge of Namaqualand, where the semi-desert erupts in flowers each spring. The lodge has twenty-two hotel rooms with air-conditioning and en-suite bathrooms, plus ten self-catering units with kitchenettes and a five-room family house with a full kitchen. A hundred-kilowatt generator and solar power keep the lights on during South Africa's loadshedding cuts.

Mikie's Restaurant serves steaks, calamari and local West Coast wines in a room with pool tables and what the lodge claims is the world's second-largest tie collection. The bar shows live sports. From July to September, the lodge runs flower tours into Namaqualand's bloom, either in their vehicles or as self-drive options with a guide.

The lodge is thirty minutes from the coast and close to mountain biking trails and rock art sites in the Cederberg and Bokkeveld ranges. Vanrhynsdorp has two succulent nurseries, one in a converted 1895 jail. The lodge takes pets on request.