We had never been to South Africa before and the Lady Hamilton was our first stopping-off point before heading east on the Garden Route.
I have to admit that we (two women travellers) were a little nervous about the 'dangers' of travelling in South Africa after the many warnings and rumours we'd heard, so we were very relieved to arrive at this welcoming small hotel at the start. It's in a nice area called Gardens, which is about a 20-25 minute walk north of the Central Business District. As we'd arrived on a morning flight, we had to wait until the mid-afternoon for our room to be ready, but it was clean and spacious and the breakfast buffet was excellent. The hotel does seem to predominantly cater for largish German/Dutch/
French tour groups. The pool is quite small, but looked clean. There are nice cafes nearby (turn right out of the hotel to Kloof Street) but if you really want to push the boat out for your evening meal, try Aubergine (Barnet Street - booking essential) which is a 5 minute
taxi ride away (you'll need to dress up a bit!). The area around the hotel seemed very safe during the day and we just took taxis to and from restaurants in the evenings, which isn't a financial problem as the fares are so inexpensive (I think the most we ever paid was 40 Rand). It's not the plushest hotel in the world, but it had everything we needed and a nice location - I think it was very good value for money as it wasn't that expensive.