Blue Bay Lodge also known as Blouwaterbaai  is situated literally  meters from the white sandy beaches of Saldanha near the town of Langebaan.

Me and my wife was invited to a special occasion of two of our friends that got married the past weekend at Blue Bay Lodge in Saldanha. Now let me start by saying how Blue Bay Lodge describes their nice, or shall I say not so nice place to stay. “The elegantly gabled Blue Bay Lodge is built only meters above the wide, sandy beaches of Saldanha Bay; a tranquil South African fishing village lying approximately 120 kilometers North of the legendarily beautiful Cape Town. Situated in the relaxing privacy of the resort, the hotel offers guests privacy, first class accommodation, and a wide range of services and activities.
‘Privacy and tranquillity’ is our tag line. The hotel has comfortable, five star ‘en suite’ rooms, broad terraces where drinks are served to guests as they relax watching whales and porpoises glide by, before being served delicious meals in its charming a la carte restaurant, the well known ‘Blue Bay Cafe’.”

Now after visiting the Blue Bay Lodge website and reading the above I was impressed and the R800 per night price tag kind of made sense. This impressiveness soon disappeared after I booked in and walked into the suite.

Me and my wife arrived about an hour and a half before the wedding was suppose to start, enough time for us to take a nice shower and bath after the hour and a halves drive from Cape Town. As we entered the suite we walked into a small kitchen with bathroom to the right. First thing my wife noticed it that there was no bath only a shower and she already did her hair before we left Cape Town. As we walked into the room my jaw dropped to the ground when I saw that we are sleeping in a 3×3 size room with just enough space to move around the bed.

So we proceeded to get our stuff ready for the wedding, I sat down on the bed and notices that this is not a double bed, but in fact two single bed pushed together to make it look like a double bed, and the worst thing was the there wasn’t even a double bed duvet over the two single beds. Each bed had their own single bed duvet. Now I’m a real calm man, but at this point I was starting to get upset, because for a fee of almost R800 for the night I really did expect more from the three star graded Blue Bay Lodge.

It was time to get into the shower to freshen up after the drive and get ready for the wedding, getting in the shower and turning on warm tap there I stood for a good 5 minutes waiting for some warm water. Yes that correct a 3 star hotel that doesn’t have warm water, I must have overseen that part on the Blue Bay Lodge website. Now I let the warm water slip, thought maybe for some odd reason they turn of the geysers during day and it was hot so I took a cold shower. However the next morning while getting ready to go to breakfast there was still no warm water, not even a little bit of warm water.

The wedding was fabulous apart from the ceremony being held next the the pool where the staff did absolutely nothing about the people swimming and screaming while two people stood in front busy with a very moment in their life. Other than that I would say the wedding went quite well, just one or two persons entering the function area that was not meant to be there.

The morning after the wedding the wife and I headed to the restaurant after not showering due to no warm water as stated, and proceeded to go and get a cup of coffee. This was when a gentleman that worked the bar the previous night asked us for our names and checked a list. He then told us that our names are not on the list and that we would have to pay extra to have breakfast. Suddenly I just had enough of Blue Bay Lodge and their so called first class accommodation and service.

The day I made the booking I asked for bed and breakfast and after receiving the reservation details and seeing that it is almost R800 just for the night I had no doubt that it had to include breakfast, seeing that I did ask for a room for me and my wife with breakfast in the morning.

I told the guy how disappointed I am in the Blue Bay Lodge establishment and that I would like to see a manager, and he started getting really cocky with me saying that he is the manager. That’s just where I had really enough bullshit from Blue Bay Lodge and their staff and decided to proceed back to my room and packed my car and took off to Cape Town again where I could have a nice warm shower in the comfort of my own home and sleep on a bed next to my wife under the same duvet.

If you are thinking of visiting Blue Bay Lodge or would like some accommodation in the Saldanha area, I would urge you to stay as far away from these guys as possible. I have sent through an email early this morning, and phoned requesting to speak to a manager but no one is available to talk to me. Blue Bay Lodge is not worth a three star tourism grading, and for sure not worth R800 for a one night stay.

I’ll keep you guys updated as to what happened in the end, if and when someone from Blue Bay Lodge phones me.