Reviews of Ocean Eleven
(90%) From 23 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Fantastic beach house
Upgraded to a lovely room with terrace overlooking the bay, we were able to watch whales from our chairs.
Lovely staff and super breakfasts even though one night we were the only guests.
Really Pretty Guest House With Amazing Views
We were given a beautiful room, with wonderful sea views and our own small garden in front. There were oil paintings on the walls. Staff were very friendly and helpful.
We were made very welcome and served coffee in the comfortable lounge, as our room was not ready when we arrived - which was some time before their check in time. There was complimentary port and sherry in the room and on the second evening, we found a basket had been left, containing wine, chocolate, nibbles etc. Breakfast was great. Definitely recommended.
A fabulous place for whale watching.
Ocean Eleven is Perfect
We visited this area the 2nd week in October 2012. Rooms were very spacious with a pleasant beachy decor and every room overlooked the water. It is whale season this time of year and we were literally watching the whales from our room. We were in rooms 7 & 8 (on the 2nd level) which had great views. The weather was both rainy and sunny but never really warm enough to use their nice pool. Great restaurants in walking distance of the hotel.
At night, take a tuk tuck (taxi/moped combo) to the restaurant even though they are within walking distance as the area becomes desolate. While we were in Hermanus, we did the shark cage diving which is a must. Marine Dynamics is one of the most reputable companies and even though the water was very choppy, their vessell minimized the movement and their entire staff some of which are Marine biologists are very knowlegable. Sit back and enjoy the clifftops views and the whales just swimming along and if you are lucky, you will see one breach. Check out the cute shops along the way.
Beautiful stay, marred by suspected theft
Almost all was perfect. Excellent welcome, free unsolicited upgrade to premier view room (hotel not full), wonderful views, friendly staff and good facilities - all within a 20 minute scenic walk from the town centre. On our first morning, I arose and gazed idly out on the ocean, from our room. A Southern Right whale burst into the air in full breach - perhaps 400 metres away. This was followed by two more energetic breaches over the next five minutes - highlights of our holiday which we will never forget. We saw other breaches - and much frolicking by whales - during our walks from the hotel (and around the town) over the two days of our stay. A magical experience, in these respects.
Unfortunately .... we used the room safe (operated via customer-set pin-code) to store our valuables, including an Expert Africa travel wallet containing cash and other documents. On first retrieval of the wallet, I immediately felt that that the internal arrangement of its contents was not as I had left it. I quickly ascertained that all the pound sterling notes were intact - as were various travel documents. There remained a wad of South African Rand, which, foolishly, I checked only superficially (the wad was thick, like me, for reasons I explain below) and I dismissed my fears.
A few days later and many miles away, I counted our rand (in preparation for expected exchange control forms on leaving for Namibia - though in the event such controls never materialized) and found that we were 3-4000 short. We realized that, because we had received the initial 10,000 rand in denominations of 200 down to 10, it would have been relatively easy to skim off a third of the value, while diminishing the thickness of the wad only marginally. Since our stay at Oceans Eleven, the wallet had remained in our undisturbed possession or in room safes - and never, other than during our stay at that hotel, did we have the feeling that it had been interfered with.
I offer the following, probably obvious, tips.
(1) Make sure you control the mix and portability of your holiday cash (I had expected a wad thin enough to carry on our persons - but had no say in this, because I had ordered the rand via a mail delivery service).
(2) Do not trust hotel room safes - for obvious reasons, they can all be opened by hotel management, and it cannot be hard for service staff to become aware of emergency access arrangements.
(3) Count all your cash immediately, no matter how tedious, should you feel there is something different about what you had left in the safe.
(4) Consider keeping your valuables in the locked boot of your car and retain the car key on your person (although many travel insurance policies will not cover you from night loss in such circumstances - whereas they do normally cover theft, within limits, from room safes).
Ocean Eleven review
Nice location for walking into the town and along the cliffs.
Read more about the whole tripOcean Eleven review
More a small boutique hotel than a Guest House.
The best breakfasts in the whole of our trip.
Lots of whales
This hotel is ideally located on the coast path just outside Hermanus and when we arrived the whales were already in the bay only a few hundred metres off shore so we had our sundowners on our balcony with a glass of wine in one hand and binoculars in the other.
The rooms were very good, well furnished with lots of extras (robes, sherry, filter coffee) and nice bathrooms. The staff were helpful arranging trips, restaurant suggestions etc and the breakfasts were excellent - in a nice room overlooking the bay (not often you have to take binoculars to breakfast).
The coastal walk provided some much needed exercise and had a strong security prescence during the day. We did the whale trip in what was described as a gentle 3-4 metre swell but it was well worth it to get so close to the whales who continued about their activities completely unbothered by the nearby boat. Sitting right at the front was exhilarating (if a little wet - we were warned) and seemed to stave off any sea sickness.
Kasane to Cape Town Days 20 and 21
We were welcomed back as old friends, three and a half years after our last visit!
A lovely comfy room with complimentary sherry, port and nibbles. Excellent breakfast with lots of variety – so nice to get proper scrambled eggs rather than microwaved.
It was wonderful to watch whales directly below the guest house; we didn't need to do a boat trip though we did and enjoyed it.
Hermanus is a really friendly town – had we stayed longer we're sure we'd have become regulars at Fisherman's Cottage. As it was we had a great dinner and Antony, our host, recommended a lovely winery to visit the next day. We returned to Fisherman's Cottage for a tasty and economical lunch. Fabio's Italian is also good – it prides itself on being the only authentic Italian in town!
Ocean Eleven review
The location of Ocean Eleven on the cliff top is spectacular, we were lucky enough to see whales from our room and also during breakfast on our final day.
The rooms were modern, clean and airy with a private seating area overlooking the bay.
Not enamoured
Grey and lacking character. Room bare with no curtains and creaky laminate floor. Breakfast adequate and room had pleasant views.
Manager/owner was rather untidy and scruffy
Parking not easy and help needed to open gates
Nearby Harbour Vue guest house appeared to be much better and was confirmed by people we met
We would suggest you use other options in the future
Expert Africa comments
We were sorry that these travellers generally didn’t enjoy their stay at Ocean Eleven; put this in context by reading about their trip as a whole.
We have always believed that acting responsibly is the only way to approach tourism and we're one of
the few companies to hold AITO's original coveted 5-star status for responsible tourism. It's a lead
that others are now following.
