Prince's Grant Accommodation Beyond the 15-Room Lodge

A round at Prince's Grant is easy to plan. Where to sleep is the harder call, because the estate is secure, quiet and a little remote, and the right answer depends on who is coming and whether they all play golf. Prince's Grant accommodation comes in three forms: a room at the 15-room Lodge above the course, a private house on the estate itself, or a self-catering house 25 minutes north in Zinkwazi Beach.

Each suits a different trip. The course itself, with its Umvoti 15th and windy closing holes, is laid out hole by hole for anyone heading to Prince's Grant Golf Estate; this is about the beds.

The Lodge at Prince's Grant

The Lodge is the simplest answer for golfers: 15 rooms on the estate, with the first tee, the restaurant and the bar a short walk away. Rooms come in two types. Standard rooms start at R1,750 a night and Luxury rooms at R1,950, and every room has air-conditioning, an en-suite bathroom, a balcony or patio, DStv, tea and coffee and internet.

The Lodge was completed in 1994, the same year the course opened, and it has the feel of a golf club that also takes guests rather than a hotel that happens to have a course. Lodge guests pay the reduced R500 green fee for 18 holes, which takes a fair bite out of the room rate if you play every day. Meals are at the Prince's Grant golf club restaurant in the clubhouse.

Book through the Lodge directly on 032 482 0005, by WhatsApp on 076 194 0251, or at reception@pglodge.co.za. It is small, so golf weekends and holidays fill early.

The clubhouse is the social centre of the estate. Its walls are crammed with old photographs and golf memorabilia, Mulligans is the bar, and Bunkers is the à la carte restaurant. The estate also hosts conferences and weddings, so on some weekends you will share breakfast with a wedding party. Ask when you book if quiet matters.

Houses on the Prince's Grant estate

The estate has around 500 freehold sites, with just over 300 homes built, and a share of them are let as holiday houses. Renting one gets you the estate's facilities: 1.5km of private beach, a lagoon with 2.5km of open water for paddling, three communal pools, tennis and squash, and 24-hour manned security with biometric access at the gate.

These houses are listed on the big booking sites rather than through the estate, so search for Prince's Grant by name and check what the host includes before you pay. The one firm rule worth knowing: pets are not allowed on the estate. If the dog is coming, stay elsewhere.

Staying in Zinkwazi instead

Zinkwazi Beach is about 25 minutes north of the course on the N2, roughly 9km away in a straight line. It suits groups who want space, families with non-golfers and anyone travelling with a dog. Most of the village is self-catering in Zinkwazi: whole houses with kitchens, braais and pools, which is how a golf four or two families usually want to live for a week.

Three houses show the range. Nkwazi Cottage has eight bedrooms and sits where the lagoon meets the sea, with direct access to both. Milkwood Bungalow is an old fisherman's cottage rebuilt for six adults in queen beds and six children in a bunk room, with a big garden and pool. The Boat House is a three-bedroom cottage right on the lagoon, for a smaller group that wants morning coffee on the water.

If you would rather have a hotel room than a house, ANEW Hotel Ocean Reef sits right on the Zinkwazi beachfront, with hotel rooms and a few self-catering units, the village's one hotel. Zinkwazi Lagoon Lodge, at the mouth of the lagoon, has rooms and a campsite, with Raffia restaurant on site.

For golfers with tired legs, SeaClusion in Nkwazi Ridge Estate is on one level with no stairs, and Ridge House in the same estate is close to the communal pool. Both sleep ten.

A dog changes the shortlist. Several village houses take pets by arrangement, so start with the pet-friendly accommodation in Zinkwazi Beach.

A second round at Darnall

Darnall Country Club is the practical second course on a Prince's Grant trip. It sits inland among the sugarcane, about 7km west of Zinkwazi in a straight line, and plays nine holes as eighteen from alternate tees. Old club, old furniture, a members' bar that has not changed in decades and a Sunday carvery that is the kind of long-running fixture a resort course never has.

It is cheaper and closer than Prince's Grant, and walkable in a couple of hours. Use it for a casual round, a rain-out backup, or the day after the big round when nobody wants the drive south. The club also has squash, tennis, bowls and a pool, which helps if someone in the group would rather not play golf at all. Phone the club on 032 486-1207 for tee times.

Darnall itself is a small sugar village, one of the places Tinley Manor, Blythedale and Darnall describes between Zinkwazi and the resorts to the south.

Between rounds

Zinkwazi gives a golf trip an evening that needs no planning.

For dinner, Raffia at the lagoon is the sit-down option and fills on Friday and Saturday nights in season, and Proud's delivers pizza within the village for a R50 surcharge if nobody wants to drive.

Anyone sitting the golf out has the lagoon, the forest trails and a quiet beach, and there is plenty to do in Zinkwazi on the days off.

Getting there and the gate

From King Shaka International Airport the estate is about 30 minutes north on the N2. Take the Stanger and Blythedale Beach exit, turn left toward Stanger, then right at the first traffic lights. After 2km turn right toward the golf estate and follow the road for about 5km to the gate.

Access is controlled around the clock, with biometric entry for residents. Guests sign in at the gate, so have your booking name and the house or Lodge contact ready, especially if you arrive after dark. From Zinkwazi, it is the same exit heading south, about 25 minutes door to door.

When to book

The Lodge is small and the estate houses are popular in December, over Easter and in the July school holidays, when families fill the coast. Golf weekends and corporate days can also take a block of rooms without much warning.

For a golf trip, the quieter months are the better bet anyway: May and June, and September into early November, when the weather is settled, the course is less busy and Zinkwazi houses are easier to get. Book the bed, then the tee time.

Which option suits which group

A golf couple or a pair of friends: the Lodge. You will be on the first tee in five minutes, the green fee discount helps, and dinner is downstairs.

A golf four on a long weekend: a house in Zinkwazi or on the estate. Per head it can come in under the cost of four Lodge rooms, so compare before you book, and you get a braai and a fridge of your own.

Golfers with families or non-golfers: Zinkwazi. The lagoon is calm and shallow for children, there is more to do on the days off, and the dog can come.

Two families on one booking: one of the big Zinkwazi houses on Nkwazi Drive, and a tee time at Prince's Grant for whoever wants it.

For everything else on the coast, from the one hotel to the lagoon campsite, the full range of Zinkwazi accommodation is the place to compare.