This South African holiday home The Gem, located in Jeffreys Bay, is an individual architect-designed house with different levels, which can be reached by short flights of stairs. There is a large balcony with a special wooden deck. You can practically see from every room of this holiday home or guest house of the Indian Ocean – even from the bath on the upper floor. The view from the balcony of the property The Gem is fascinating. View, from far above foreign roofs, on the 30 kilometer beach of Jeffreys Bay, where you will also see dolphins and sometimes whales. Or watch the omnipresent surfers, because Jeffreys Bay is one of the global hotspots for wave surfing.

In the distance, the view is caught by a mountain range, which is about 40-50 km away from The Gem.

There are 3 main bedrooms and 1 spare bedroom on the lower level, so therefore up to 8 or 9 people could stay in The Gem. But we highly recommend rather 4 to 6, maximum 7 people.

The holiday home The Gem has a fully equipped large kitchen with all the utensils and crockery.

There are 2 living rooms, so that a small group could sometimes go out of each others way – if needed. The upper living room, the lounge has an open fireplace, which gives a wonderfully cozy atmosphere to the usually occurring even earlier African evenings.

Moreover, in the South African holiday home The Gem on the two bunks each a bathroom with bathtub. And there’s an extra bathroom with shower. The toilets are separated into separate rooms of the bathrooms, so it certainly is not a morning scramble.

The large balcony of The Gem is perfectly located. It is protected from the wind and teh hot sun. But the less stronger morning sun is touching the breakfast table and gives you a phantastic start in the day.

The South African holiday home The Gem and the town Jeffreys Bay are both quiet and safe. The house is ideal for couples, small groups or even especially for parents with kids. We have 3 children ourselves, who enjoy each stay in The Gem. Therefore, the blue room (our children’s room) in The Gem is equipped with a bunk bed and a single bed. The blue room can of course also be used normally by adults. It has just no double bed – which can sometimes be an advantage.

You can park right in front of the house The Gem or – on request – on the enclosed property of The Gem.

We would be happy if you could smoke just outside on the balconies or on the plot.

The beach is about 800 meters away from The Gem, which is 2 minutes by car or 7-9 minutes on foot. Shopping facilities are nearby. 4 supermarkets which are open 7 days a week. In addition, Billabong, many surf shops, a shopping mall, gas stations, liquor stores and some smaller shops. There are quite good restaurants in Jeffreys Bay, so that within a week you can go every day to a different location and enjoy tasty food. I am happy to give advice on request. Otherwise The Gem owns a fully equipped kitchen.

Excursions from the cottage from The Gem: Addo Elephant Park (1.5 hours away), Plettenberg Bay -> Ocean Safari (1.5 hours), Tsitsikamma Forest -> jungle tour (1 hour) Lombardini Game Farm (20 min. ) Kraggakamma Game Park (40 min.), Port St. Francis for Fishing Tours (30 min), Sea View Lion Park (40 min), African Dawn (20 min surfing) and local / Learn to surf with Andrew Moon, riding , jogging, cycling, collecting shells (Jeffreys Bay is known for beautiful shells) or go for really good food, ….

List of stuff you will find in The Gem:

• bed linen
• towels
• 4 lounge chairs
• oven, fridge, dish washer, washing mashine, pots and pans, wok, cutlery, crockery, glasses, egg boiler, coffee mashine, water heater, waffle iron, ….)
• cooking book (German)
• iron and ironing board
• a few German books
• 2 TVs, 2 DVD player, SAT-TV
• tuner and CD player
• a few family games, card games
• several German movie DVDs (sorry, I am still working on the English ones)
• diverse Audio CDs (ca. 140 Stück)

The name of our house “The Gem” needed a longer development time and comes not least from our guests. The Gem means in English “gem, jewel, special.” In the bginning this name was feeling a little bit too “cool” for us. But all the guests who have been in our house, have said from themself, that it is indeed a very special house, and it is perhaps even unique like a gem. The number of regular guests in our house has been growing steadily, which we interpret as a sign that this house and the location really has to be something special. We then eventually decided to name our house as seen by our guests: The Gem

Last of all but perhaps a few more information you might like to have.

First, the issue of “malaria”: Jeffreys Bay and the entire surrounding area is malaria-free. In South Africa, malaria prevention is actually advisable only when visiting the Kruger National Park.

Air Conditioning / Heating: The house has no air conditioning and no permanently installed heating. The nice thing about South Africa is that the temperatures for northern Europeans is very tolerate. Especially in Jeffreys Bay is not oversized hot. This is certainly due to the ocean. Moreover usually goes a refreshing breeze. The air temperature drops in the evening, again to an extent that you can sleep relaxed. Standing heat, which disturbs your sleep, does not, or only very rarely, exist. In addition, the house is built so that it is not particularly heated. Thus, an air conditioning system is completely unnecessary.

Bad weather with days or even weeks of rain clouds or dense gray sky is nothing you will experiences in South Africa. Bad weather usually lasts for no more than 3 days. By then, the sun shines again. This also applies to the South African winter. In winter (July, August) we have stayed several times in The Gem and have felt the Southern African winter being better than the prevailing parallel German summer. The temperatures rise naturally in the winter not to the number of degrees like in summer, but during the day it is around 20 degrees. In the evening and at night the temperature can drop to around 8-12 degrees. With a sweater and trousers, this temperature is bearable. If you turns on the fireplace and also the gas heater and / or the fan heater, then you can endure anything. Most likely, it is also at night 14-17 degrees and such temperatures are in Germany called spring temperatures.

Building: The house is solidly built with bricks and cement. The windows are beautiful and custom wood windows in British style. The fact that in South Africa no insulation is required (see above “air conditioning / heating”), leads buildings which are not as tight and sealed such as in Germany. This means in practice that  windows and doors are a little game, and at strong wind they can rattle sometimes. This is normal. We have felt the rattling on windy days rather cozy than annoying.