Isola Bella Guest House

Isola Bella is a grand white guest house on Hart Road, six bedrooms sleeping fourteen, with a long balconied elevation facing the water and a wraparound veranda strung with lights.

The facade is lit at dusk with flowering shrubs in front of it and a covered entrance porch holding a wicker chair beside the garden path. From the water’s edge the whole building shows, reflected on the surface at sunset. There is parking on the street and off it.

Red cabinetry and a chandelier

The kitchen is well appointed, an island counter beneath a chandelier with red cabinetry, stainless appliances, a wine rack and the dining area past it. A smaller dining nook takes a red table and a glassware cabinet. Suites have their own open-plan lounges, floral armchairs round a kitchenette and dining table, and one of those lounges opens directly onto a balcony.

Fourteen beds, most with doors

Six bedrooms sleep fourteen and nearly every one opens outward: French doors to a balcony, wrought-iron chairs on a small patio, a door onto a balcony above the hills. Rooms carry combined twin beds with mirrored wardrobes or a writing desk, a wooden bed frame beneath a landscape painting, red ottomans behind sheer curtains, a chandelier over another. Fresh flowers get put out. Bathrooms take tiled showers under ornate gold-framed mirrors, white vanities and heated towel rails.

Adirondack chairs at dusk

Adirondack chairs sit on a balcony above a lit shoreline, and a covered terrace takes a table and chairs facing the lagoon and the hills. A small bistro table stands on a paved patio beside open doors. There is a courtyard garden with potted plants along a gravel path and beds of dense indigenous shrubs and wildflowers.

Hart Road and the heads

The estuary runs out past the house towards the Knysna Heads and the ocean beyond them. The island is reached over the Armstrong Road causeway and by no other route. Our longer piece on the island has more on what is here.

Fourteen people who

Are travelling together, whether a family gathering or two or three families, and want the water in front of them with somebody else running the place.