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Crystal Springs â€" resort review â€" South Africa

By: marcashton

We chose to go up to the picturesque Crystal Spring resort in Mpumalanga for our anniversary this year.

The resort is situated in the mountains about 40km out of Lydenburg and roughly a 3 and half hour drive from Johannesburg or Pretoria and the resort offered both self catering and hotel styled units.

One of the things that surprised us about this particular weekend was that the things we expected to be good (game viewing etc.) wasn’t what stood out for us, but the general relaxed atmosphere and the stunning scenery won us over hands down.

In terms of amenities we stayed in the self catering â€~lodges’ which sleep either 4 or 8. You have a stunning view over the mountain range and down into the valley. The units themselves are quite close together (164 of then), but you never feel like you are on top of your neighbour.

The units themselves come with a fully stocked kitchen and limited DSTV. Cellphone reception is never a problem and you are close enough to either Lydenburg or Pilgrims Rest (A famous historic mining town in SA), and Graskop to be able to get food or see some historical sites.

As an interesting aside, the annual Gold Panning Championships took place in Pilgrims Rest this weekend and the town was absolutely buzzing.

The resort itself comes complete with a restaurant, fully stocked shop for groceries a coffee shop, a pub and full entertainment area. The entertainment area includes 4 pools, tennis courts, spa, Jacuzzi etc.

The restaurant I found a little pricey but the food wasn’t too bad. Recommendation â€" go the self catering route to get the most out of the experience. The unit is equipped with a full kitchen and an outdoor electric â€~braai’ which makes cooking an absolute breeze.

Just make sure you clean up properly afterwards and leave your unit closed up nice and tight when you not in them. On Sunday a big troop of baboons came swarming through the resort â€" they obviously watched a number of the guests check out on Sunday and they made a right royal mess of the units down the way from us.

The views from the unit are stunning and you can walk for miles and see some really diverse scenery with little effort.

One of the negatives for us was that we selected Crystal Springs with the idea of doing some game drives. Admittedly we took a small car, but after being bumped around and battling on some really poor gravel roads we decided to give up on the idea of a game drive and hit the pub for some cocktails.

The lack of game sighting was a disappointment for us but was probably the only real negative we took out of the weekend.

For the rest, we had a fantastic time and would definitely recommend it for anybody who enjoys a scenic, self catering option.

Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

About the Author:
The Holiday Blog (www.holidayblog.iblog.co.za) is a South African managed blog aimed at discussing the travel industry as well as destination and resort reviews.

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