Fodor's Expert Review Apollis Cottage

Remote in location, 30 minutes from Springbok, this is the real deal if you want comfort and solitude with big skies in a desertlike location. Although there's an abandoned open-pit mine in the background, it oddly enough fits in with the sparse landscape—even the pool looks as though it's been carved out of the rocky substrate. The guesthouse is owner Annie Vonk-Apollis’s tribute to her family in the form of a B&B on the farmland where she was raised. The house—decorated with family photographs, Annie's grandmother's loving restored furniture, and memorabilia celebrating the Apollis clan—has three, large, en-suite bedrooms, a lounge-cum-dining room area, a kitchen, a garden, and braai area at the back. With a well for water and solar panels for electricity, it's something of a self-sufficient oasis in an otherwise barren desert. But all the surrounding emptiness is quite something to behold, especially at night when you cast your eyes up to the star-studded sky. You can also order dinners, picnics baskets, and cheese platters.