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Trekker’s Hostel Highlights: a Sunflower Stop, Cape Town

Welcome to the second installment of my Hostel Highlights! Today I am going to review a smaller hostel located right on the doorstep of the V&A Waterfront, the Sunflower Stop.

During the planning stage for my trip back to South Africa, I looked at almost every hostel’s website and was REALLY excited when I found Sunflower on the web! It seemed like the perfect stop, with little noise and a relaxing atmosphere.

Now keep in mind that this was my first stop after about 36hrs fly time, and jet lag was kicking in to say the least! Here are my impressions of this quaint little place:

On my arrival there was a mix-up with my booking. In other words, they didn’t have it due to a miscommunication. The person I had emailed was away on vacation and didn’t write my booking down. Luckily “the season” hadn’t really started and I ended up with a whole dorm to myself. The second mix-up was the rates: I had been told one thing but they were charging a higher rate. But they were happy to give me the lower rate since that was what I had been told. Now that’s service!
Once I was in and settled, I realized they didn’t offer dinner, and so the hunt began. Out the gate I went! After about 10 minutes’ walk along Green Point’s Main Road (map), I came across a few restaurants, all snotty places and very expensive. So I kept going, hoping to find a supermarket or something, and five minutes further was a Woolworths – rather small but it had a few things. Hoping to find a larger supermarket I kept going, but after walking for a total of about 20 minutes I gave up and went back to Woolworths, to pick up a meagre dinner consisting of a sausage roll (like a spicy hot dog, sort of) and a peppermint crisp.

Back at Sunflower I explored a little but the vibe was kind of cold and not too inviting. There were a few other guests but no one seemed chatty or interested. I sat outside by the bar for a little while but finally gave up on friendly company and went in to have a shower and head to bed.

The showers were ok – a little dirty and you were not quite sure if someone was going to be able to catch a peep through the door or window – but at least the water was warm and the pressure decent. The beds were fairly comfortable and it was nice and quiet, so on the whole I guess it was what I was looking for – or perhaps a little too much of it!
I made two return trips to Cape Town and never stayed there again. On the whole it was pleasant and perhaps I caught it at a bad time or the jet lag skewed my perspective, but it is fairly safe to say that I was a little disappointed. Perhaps with more time and more sleep The Sunflower Stop would have seemed more of a winner.

Keep Trekkin’

Trekker