How far do you really need to travel to feel as though you’ve gone away? Sometimes the best escape isn’t the one that involves hours on the road. It’s the moment the traffic thins, the landscape opens up and the Magaliesberg comes into view. Tucked into the Skeerpoort Valley, Remhoogte Mountain Lodge offers a country getaway close to Johannesburg where a night or two is enough to swap city pace for mountain air, farm life, good food and the rather underrated pleasure of having nowhere you urgently need to be.
And Remhoogte gives you a little flexibility in how you do it. Mountain Lodge and Crafters Lodge can be booked separately or together and sit approximately one kilometre apart on the property. That means a couple, family or smaller group can settle into one lodge, while a larger gathering can use both without everyone having to share the same space.
If you’re looking for a country getaway close to Johannesburg, here’s what a stay at Remhoogte can offer:
• Escape to the Magaliesberg without spending half your weekend getting there
• Choose Mountain Lodge or Crafters Lodge, or book both for a larger group
• Enjoy the privacy of two lodges situated approximately 1 km apart on the property
• Wake up to a mountain-farm setting rather than another morning in the city
• Head out on one of Remhoogte’s three professionally graded hiking trails, or choose a slower day on the farm
• Settle in for a meal at The Farm Shed
• Spend time outdoors, explore the Skeerpoort Valley or simply do very little
• Turn one or two nights away into a genuine change of pace without travelling far from Johannesburg or Pretoria
How Far Do You Need to Go to Get Away?
There is a peculiar flaw in some weekend escapes: by the time you have packed the car, fought your way out of Johannesburg and driven for several hours, a sizeable chunk of the weekend has disappeared.
Sometimes going closer makes considerably more sense.
The Magaliesberg gives Gauteng travellers that rare combination of accessibility and genuine change of scenery. You can leave the city behind without turning the journey itself into an expedition.
And when the point of the weekend is to slow down, that matters.
A country getaway close to Johannesburg gives you more time at the destination and less time getting to it. Friday afternoon can become an arrival rather than merely a drive, while Sunday doesn’t have to revolve around the looming journey home.
Two Lodges, One Mountain-Farm Escape
Remhoogte isn’t built around one large hotel building.
Instead, accommodation is divided between Mountain Lodge and Crafters Lodge, two separate lodge experiences situated approximately one kilometre apart on the property.
Both can be booked independently, which works naturally for couples, families and smaller groups. But they can also be booked together when you need more accommodation.
That opens up an interesting option for extended families, groups of friends or gatherings where everyone wants to go away together without necessarily wanting to be together every minute of the weekend.
One kilometre is close enough to share the same Remhoogte experience, but far enough apart to give each lodge its own space and sense of privacy.
There is something to be said for meeting up for the day’s adventures and still having somewhere of your own to retreat to afterwards.
Wake Up Somewhere That Feels Different
The measure of a good short break isn’t necessarily how many kilometres you travelled.
It is how quickly your surroundings convince you that you’re somewhere else.
At Remhoogte, the Magaliesberg landscape does much of that work for you. This is an upmarket mountain farm lodge rather than a city hotel transplanted into the countryside. The outdoors isn’t scenery added around the accommodation; it is part of the reason for being here.
Morning doesn’t have to begin with traffic.
It might begin slowly over coffee. It might begin with walking shoes and a trail plan. Or it might begin with absolutely no plan at all.
All three are perfectly respectable uses of a weekend.
Choose Your Own Level of Adventure
If sitting still for an entire weekend sounds suspiciously like wasted opportunity, Remhoogte has plenty of reasons to head outdoors.
The property has three professionally graded hiking routes, giving visitors a choice according to their fitness, experience and appetite for a challenge.
The White Trail is the easiest at approximately 5 km with around 90 metres of elevation gain. The Blue Trail steps up to a Moderate grade over approximately 6 km and 180 metres of elevation gain. Then there is the Orange Trail: approximately 8 km, 460 metres of elevation gain and a Difficult-to-Extreme grade depending on conditions, with steep technical terrain and short scrambling sections.
In other words, “going for a hike” can mean three very different things here.
The advantage is choice. You don’t need to tackle the hardest route to experience the landscape, and experienced hikers don’t have to settle for an easy farm stroll when they’re looking for something more demanding.
The routes are also available through AllTrails, with downloadable GPX files for hikers who use compatible navigation apps or GPS devices.
Or Choose Not to Hike at All
This may be one of the most important pieces of travel advice in this article.
You don’t have to fill every hour.
A weekend away can become strangely exhausting when we decide that every available moment requires an activity.
There are trails and outdoor experiences at Remhoogte for people who want them. But there is also the farm, the mountain landscape, birdlife, space and the simple luxury of not having a schedule.
Read. Wander. Sit outside. Have another coffee.
The mountain will cope remarkably well if you don’t climb it.
Make The Farm Shed Part of the Weekend
Then there is food.
The Farm Shed is Remhoogte’s relaxed farm-style dining hub, with a menu that moves through breakfast and lighter dishes to pasta, Neapolitan-style pizzas, hearty mains and desserts.
When the weather allows, The Terrace extends The Farm Shed experience outdoors beneath the trees.
For overnight guests, this means food can become part of the rhythm of the stay rather than another logistical exercise.
You can have breakfast before heading out, come back hungry after a trail or let lunch stretch a little longer because there isn’t somewhere else you urgently need to be.
That last option has considerable merit.
A Weekend Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
There is a tendency to think that a worthwhile escape needs a packed itinerary.
It doesn’t.
A night or two in the country can simply be a chance to change the view.
At Remhoogte, you can make the weekend active, slow or somewhere comfortably between the two. Hike the Magaliesberg. Spend time over a meal. Watch birds. Explore the farm. Stay with friends. Bring the family. Or disappear into your own corner for a while.
And because Mountain Lodge and Crafters Lodge can be booked separately or together, the accommodation can flex around the kind of getaway you’re planning rather than forcing every group into the same format.
Close Enough for a Weekend, Different Enough to Feel Away
Perhaps that is the real appeal of a country getaway close to Johannesburg.
You don’t have to go particularly far.
You just need to arrive somewhere that changes the pace.
The Skeerpoort Valley and Magaliesberg provide the landscape. Remhoogte adds the mountain-farm stay, two lodge options, trails, food and room to spend the weekend in whichever way feels most like a break.
And when Sunday comes around, Johannesburg hasn’t moved any further away.
Which makes deciding to come back rather easier.