Pinetown Accommodation

Pinetown was established in 1850 along the main wagon route between Durban and Pietermaritzberg and was named after Sir Benjamin Pine who was the governor of Natal.Pinetown. Pinetown was also the home of Lord Baden Powell, founder of the Scout Movement. His original house is preserved there.

Today Pinetown is easily accessible from any of a number of major highways in the area, and it is largely due to this fact that industry in Pinetown has increased immensely in recent years. Pinetown lies at the foot of Field's Hill on the M13 highway along the route of the world famous Comrades Marathon.

Pinetown is also the home of the Lahee Park sporting complex which boasts it's own swimming pool, hockey, rugby, cricket, and tennis facilities, and in more recent years a gymnasium and motocross track. The Pinetown Cricket Club, was established in 1873, and is believed to be the oldest in Kwa-Zulu Natal and one of the oldest in South Africa.

Overlooking Pinetown is the New Germany Nature Reserve which is a rather small reserve with pleasant, shady picnic sites, braai areas, wonderful trails which take visitors in a circular route around the reserve. The main attraction of the New Germany Nature Reserve is a hide located close to a waterhole where visitors can expect occasional sightings of zebra, nyala, impala, samango monkeys and others. Pinetown is also host to an annual racing event which sees hundreds of visitors flocking to its streets. The main Pinetown streets are closed off to form a track, on which various motorcycle and go-kart races take place. Other attractions in Pinetown include the Pineville Junction craft village, which is a recreation of an old style corrugated iron village, where various arts and crafts, and delicious snacks are sold on alternate weekends. This is also the site of the popular Pinetown Lord William Charles Pub, which was also constructed in a style of times gone by. There are a number of pubs and clubs in Pinetown, all of which contribute to an interesting night life. When it comes to shopping in Pinetown, there is the newly renovated Pine Crest Centre which offers a variety of stores ranging from jewellery stores to tobacconists.

Pinetown Accommodation - Generally bed and breakfast accommodation in Pinetown is the order of the day. Due to the vast industrial area called Westmead Industrial, Guest House accommodation in Pinetown attracts business reps from all over South Africa. Pinetown self catering accommodation tends to be a little less in demand and would mainly be taken up by visiting families in the area who would benefit from Self Catering accommodation in Pinetown because it would be more cost effective accommodation (especially with children)

Self catering accommodation in Pinetown is sometimes preferred by business firms who may send contractors out for extended periods of time. In this case, Pinetown bed and breakfast would prove to be too expensive.

As a holiday destination, Pinetown would not be rated as a favourite. Pinetown self catering accommodation as well as the Pinetown bed and breakfast and guest house operations would get too much competition from the accommodation in Durban itself (more holiday friendly)

During big events such as The Comrades Marathon, Pinetown bed and breakfast as well as Pinetown self catering gets support due to the shortage of Durban accommodation or Pietermaritsburg accommodation.

Guest visit to Pinetown
My husband and I were visiting Pinetown to attend a birthday party. We searched for accommodation in Pinetown and also the surrounding areas like Cowies Hill accommodation, New Germany accommodation , Westville accommodation and Durban accommodation.

There wasn't much suitable self catering accommodation in Pinetown, but we were able to find a lovely Bed and Breakfast in Pinetown called Rossi's B&B which is situated in Sarnia, a suburb of Pinetown which was perfect for us as it was close to the venue.

When we searched for accommodation in the Durban surrounding towns we did find other very nice Bed and Breakfast, Self Catering and Hotel accommodation but decided to stick with the Pinetown Bed and Breakfast because of access to the venue and also considering the drink and drive regulation.

Having left the gift-buying to the last minute (as usual) we were fortunate to find Pinecrest Centre in central Pinetown which had a variety of shops such as CNA, Crazy Store, Ackermans, Pep Stores and Game......success!! . We noticed on the way out that there was another mall right across from Pinecrest centre which had some interesting shops.
Some parts of Pinetown weren't bad, there are a few fast food restaurants in Pinetown such as McDonalds, KFC, Steers, Nandos and many more of the popular franchises. We also passed the Pinetown library which apparently is quite lovely inside.

Apart from the fast food restaurants, the library, the Pinecrest Centre and other small shops along the road there isn't really much to see or do in Pinetown. All along the main road there is an unusually high volume of car dealerships.
Also on the main road is the Pinetown High School and the Police Station.

The night before returning to Johannesburg, our friends decided to all meet at the Spur at Sandy Centre in Pinetown for Dinner, it is a great family restaurant and kept the kids busy (children's entertainment section)

I wouldn't look for holiday accommodation in Pinetown - Pinetown has nothing to offer for holiday makers ( Durban Beachfront accommodation is only about 15km away).

Liz and George.