Casa Cara Guest House

At first glance, the place seems fine, but the shower was broken and wobbly. I killed about four Black Widow spiders in the small outdoor area for smokers. The aircon unit outside was full of them too, and they were all Black widows. That’s not acceptable to me.

It felt safe, and the staff were friendly and helpful. The room was clean, and the air-conditioning worked perfectly.

We got access to the water park, which is a good reason for us to return. The stay was good value for money, just off the Main Street.

We booked the four-bedroom Pond Villa for two families of four, and there was plenty of room. The resort scenery was beautiful, the unit was nice overall, and we liked fishing at the pond in front of the villa with its lovely view. The river was too strong for fishing because of all the rain. The covered outdoor area was really nice, though it could have been cleaned better. The waterpark was clean and fun, especially for younger kids, with slides for older kids and teens too. We enjoyed lunch at the restaurant. We’d planned a weekend around school sport in Potch after a long drive, but the rugby was cancelled because of the rain. The resort’s cancellation policy meant we would lose our deposit of more than R6000, so we went ahead anyway. From our first emails, the admin lady was rude, and communication was poor. We weren’t given much information, and she was rude when I asked for more. A few things in the unit caused problems. The TV didn’t work and wasn’t fixed during our three-night stay, so the kids couldn’t watch a movie when it got too cold to sit outside. The bath hadn’t been cleaned, with dirt rings around the rim, and the toilet seats were loose. One door had no key, so we had to leave the unit open and sleep with it unlocked. We reported that, but nothing was done. On the first night, an alarm in one bedroom beeped all night and kept us from sleeping. The pillows were cheap JET ones, too big for their pillowcases. One scatter pillow had Prestik or chappy stuck to it, another sign the cleaning wasn’t up to standard. The mattresses and linen weren’t good quality, and there were a lot of flies with no measures taken to get rid of them. At over R13 000 for three nights, the stay wasn’t up to standard or worth the price.