Starling Village Backpackers's Page

Do you love Africa?

I love Africa

Informatio about you!

Matthew & I travelled parts of South Africa for a year and a half when destiny led us to Plettenberg Bay where we ran out of petrol. We needed to find work and a place to stay, luckily we came across a room at Dots Plott, a retired old farm house in the shape of a barn, owned by Erez and Toni Shaked, who gave us the opportunity to start our Backpackers.

At the time Matthew & I only had R250 to our name and worked as waiters at one of the local restaurants. We took our R250 and rented a floor sander and started to clean up the place. Armed only with a pack of post-it notes and a cell phone we handed our number to any one we thought could bring us guests. With a month and a half till Student rage (Pletts annual student festival) we took every hard earned cent we made at the restaurant and bought paint, linen and second hand beds. Our first guests came in on the 20th of November 2005, 30 students for 10 days. Our first shuttle was an old 1984 Volkswagen Golf we picked up for only R1000. The following years rage we took in 250 students for 14 days on beds and camping. Since then Starling has grown into a beautiful country style international backpackers accommodating visitors from all over the world.

For two years Vicky and I worked at the restaurant at night and carried on building and creating our special place. With very little money we renovated and built new structures on the property with recycled and reused building materials taken from broken down building sites.

Today our friends and guests enjoy the great atmosphere of country life and true South African hospitality.

Your stories about Africa and Travel

Come visit us and we will tell you all our stories.

I am interested in...

backpackers and travelling

I would like to meet other travelers that...

we would like to meet all travellers.