If you thought Britney Spears’ demand to have a stripper pole installed in her luxury hotel suite at the Dorchester in London was outlandish, that’s nothing compared to what the Argentine team is demanding of its team hotel at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

HPC Pretoria & Zakumi

The Argentine team’s demands include painting all team rooms white and tearing up and replacing toilet bowls and wash-basins for manager Diego Maradona’s bathrooms.

Maradona’s new E-Bidet luxury toilet seats offer warm water, a heated seat, warm air blow-dryer and front and rear bidet wands.

The Argentinians also want 14 different salads, 3 pasta sauces and at least 3 puddings for each meal. And 10 hot dishes a day and ice-cream all day long.

Why on earth would anyone need 14 different salads for a single meal? The poor hotel suffering at the hands of the Argentine prima donnas is the University of Pretoria’s High Performance Centre.

By comparison, the other teams are being positively un-diva like, even though some of it is still borderline weird.

The Mexican team at the Thaba Ya Batswana lodge is carting in its own priest to conduct services in a church at the lodge. The Brazilians at the Fairway Hotel have not one, but two chefs in tow.

The Italians apparently have no regard for the pasta at the Leriba Lodge in Centurion, so they’re bringing their own pasta. The Villas Luxury Suite hotel in Arcadia, Pretoria will not be using its flour because the Slovakians are packing along bags of flour.

The Kiwis chose the sprawling bungalows at the Serengeti Golf Estate so they could take golf lessons, while the Slovakians want two table-tennis tables.

The Italians had Leriba Lodge layout high-speed fiber optic cables so they could watch Italian TV channels, while the Fair City Roode Vallei got off easy with the Ghanian team who only want to watch African channels.

HPC photo – Univ. of Pretoria; Zakumi – shine2010

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I have to admit, I have never stepped foot in South Africa.  Yet.  But if I ever get to spend the money and make the trip, I hope to find myself spending a day at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town, body surfing off the little known Diaz Beach at Cape Point, and laying my pretty little head down at one of these fantastic luxury hotels for at least one night of my stay.

Top Luxury Hotels in South Africa

1.  Mount Nelson Hotel – Cape Town, South Africa

Penthouse Suite in Mount Nelson Hotel - Cape Town, South Africa

The Mount Nelson Hotel can host as many as 400 guests at a time, but maintains a feeling of seclusion with four distinct, separate wings. The hotel is set in the middle of South African wine country and offers wine tours, as well as kid friendly nature excursions. Did we say kid friendly? Yep – they even offer babysitting and enclosed gardens for children to play!

2. Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa - Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

View from Twelve Apostles Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa

Guests are greeted with sparkling wine upon arrival at The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa. Conde Nost Traveler named it one of the best places to stay in the entire world. While past travelers rave about exceptional service and luxury accommodations, I can’t help but think that their biggest selling point is the breathtaking view.

Photos courtesy of Mount Nelson Hotel and Twelve Apostles Hotel.

Liliesleaf Farm, the secret hideout in Rivonia in northern Johannesburg, South Africa which served as a refuge for Nelson Mandela and other African National Congress activists, is slated to become a boutique hotel.

Nelson Mandela & Liliesleaf Farm

The property is managed by the Liliesleaf Trust, and the hotel developer is local hotel company Mantis Group, which runs game reserves and boutique hotels in South Africa.

According to the MOU signed by Liliesleaf Trust CEO Nicholas Wolpe, construction work is scheduled to begin later this year in June.

The hotel will have 48 rooms in 4 blocks of 12 rooms each, spread over 2 storeys. The estimated cost of the project is R75m and room rates would range in-between R2000 to R4000 per night.

Mantis CEO Adrian Gardiner told BusinessDay that the hotel will offer conference facilities, a spa, a business centre, restaurant and a wine cellar. He also added that the historical significance of the property would be kept in mind, and would have rooms themed after the Rivonai accused.

Nelson Mandela was arrested on Aug 5, 1962 and sentenced to 5 years in prison. After that, on 11th July 1963, Liliesleaf was raided and the ANC leaders arrested, which then led to the Rivonia Trial in 1963-64, in which ten leaders of the African National Congress, including Nelson Mandela, were tried for 221 acts of sabotage designed to overthrow the apartheid system. Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment and was incarcerated for 27 years.

The Liliesleaf Trust says it always had plans for a hotel as part of its Legacy Project. The Trust was established in Dec 2001 and Liliesleaf Farm was opened to the public in 2008.

Nelson Mandela photo – public domain; Liliesleaf photo courtesy The Liliesleaf Trust

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