Varun is taking a break from his Daily Diary for a few days and has entrusted this responsibility to Tim & James
Filming of the 2010 series of Inside Luxury Travel is near completion. During 2010 Varun and the Inside Luxury Travel film crew travelled to Melbourne, Hawaii, KwaZulu-Natal, Quebec, Istanbul, Prague, Edinburgh, Abu Dhabi, Mexico, French Polynesia, Barcelona and Tasmania.
We are pleased to announce the filming locations for 2011 - Malaysia, Antigua, Napa Valley, Sydney, Big Sur, Wales, Geneva, Sweden, Botswana, Egypt, New Delhi and Mumbai.
Over the next few weeks there will be a series of Look Back Diary entries. Our fourth filming location was Durban.
The two properties that we filmed in Durban were The Oyster Box Hotel in Umhlanga (www.oysterboxhotel.com) and &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve (http://tinyurl.com/Phinda)
Filming of the 2010 series of Inside Luxury Travel is near completion. During 2010 Varun and the Inside Luxury Travel film crew travelled to Melbourne, Hawaii, KwaZulu-Natal, Quebec, Istanbul, Prague, Edinburgh, Abu Dhabi, Mexico, French Polynesia, Barcelona and Tasmania.
We are pleased to announce the filming locations for 2011 - Malaysia, Antigua, Napa Valley, Sydney, Big Sur, Wales, Geneva, Sweden, Botswana, Egypt, New Delhi and Mumbai.
Over the next few weeks there will be a series of Look Back Diary entries. Our fourth filming location was Durban.
The two properties that we filmed in Durban were The Oyster Box Hotel in Umhlanga (www.oysterboxhotel.com) and &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve (http://tinyurl.com/Phinda)
The traditional start of show photo
The Oyster Box has 86 rooms & suites. It was originally opened in the 1940's but in 2007 was bought, closed and refurbished ... it took around 2 years to do the work and it opened again in October 2009."The refurb was very sympathetic to the original design ... but there have been some wonderful additions like the Turkish tiles on the ceilings of the main restaurant." - Varun
Genera Manager,Wayne Coetzer and Executive Chef, Kevin JosephThe fabulous General Manager Wayne Coetzer who has kept us smiling and on our toes in equal measures. He has worked here for nearly a decade and has seen it blossom & help guide it into one of the finest hotels in South Africa.
The Oyster Box was all about attention to detail.
"The Lighthouse! I have never stayed in a hotel that has its own lighthouse! The Lighthouse at Umhlanga Rocks was commissioned on the 25th November 1954 andtook just 4 days and 19 hours to build. It is 21 metres tall ... and the beam produces1.6 million candle power that can be seen by ships 24 nautical miles away! There are 121 steps internally ... and I climbed them to get to the top!" - Varun
"The monkeys at Phinda are VERY cheeky and in fact Happiness at the restaurant has to walk around with a stick shooing them away. At lunch one of these little chaps managed to get past her and whipped a bread roll from a diner’s table. It was actually quite funny – but Happiness was NOT amused… I know this happens at nearly every reserve but sometimes I wish something like this would happen in New York or London!" - Varun
Rhino's blocking the road
"We met loads of the children … it was just lovely. Sadly half the children are orphans or come from very poor backgrounds. The school ensures that these kiddies get food, water and an education that would not have been available if Nomusa and Phinda were not around. The school gets gifts of love in the form of books & pens … I raided The Oyster Box for at least 1600 sweets … every child in the school received sweets today … and I LOVE that & THEY loved that too!" - Varun
Jane has been with &Beyond (formerly CCAfrica) for 14 years and along with Jonathan – her husband – is a veteran of running successful properties. The private reserve is 23,000 hectares of land … looking after this and the staff is a major undertaking!
Our fantastic guides, Jono and Thembinkosi. South Africa was the first location of it's type for the 2010 series. It must be one of the finest safari experiences in the world.
