Booking a rental house for a weekend away is often a dodgy business; you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get for your money. Online photos can be deceptive and exorbitant prices often lead one to believe that the place “must be good.” None of this is so with Limestone House in Paternoster.
It was time for a break. A friend and I just needed to get out of Cape Town for a weekend and we hit the internet, thinking of idyllic Paternoster as just the remedy for our troubles. The first search came up with Limestone House, which almost looked too good to be true. I called Rita, the lovely owner, and badda bing, we booked our weekend away. Simple.
We left Cape Town on a sunny Friday afternoon, zipped through traffic (yes, teachers do get to leave work early!) and found Paternoster. The clear sea and glaring but sweet white cottages were immediate balm to my soul. Next we had to find Limestone House. Luckily, Paternoster isn’t exactly big and getting lost is not easy.
After driving past some of the locals’ cottages, m
y friends were starting to doubt my judgement on just what kind of house I could have been talked into. But the house was beautiful! It is a large house, with a separate upstairs apartment with its own entrance. The main house has three double bedrooms, two bathrooms, a huge dining room table, an open-plan kitchen, dining room, sitting room and a courtyard. The upstairs has its own kitchen, sitting room and two bedrooms and one bathroom.
This makes it perfect for small and big parties because you can choose to rent out only the main house or apartment, or both. The rooms are clean, with quirky decor of oil lamp lights, shells and some interesting prints. The kitchen is well stocked, with only wine glasses running a little short (to me, a big problem!). My only complaint is that all the rooms only have double beds (no twins) so if the house is full, everyone needs to share a bed, whether a couple or not!
The house is 50 metres from the beach and easily within walking distance of all the restaurants and shops (not that there are many!) The incredible part of this lovely house was the price. The main house is R600 a night for the first two people and then an extra R100 per person (the house accommodates six people) and the apartment is the same (but sleeps four people). This means that for ten people, each person only pays R180 a night.
If you are heading to Paternoster, you need to book at restaurants before; it is only a “klein dorpie” and has become very popular but the restuarants are all still fairly small. Read on tomorrow f0r reviews of the Noisy Oyster and Voorstrandt Restaurant!
email: Rita, limestone@mweb.co.za
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