Info Clarens

Clarens

Accommodation, Conference, Outdoor Specialist Activities in Clarens - Eastern Freestate

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Call us for your year end functions, family caterings, conferencing, group activities for year end functions and remember easter weekend

Call us for your year end functions, family caterings, conferencing, group activities for year end functions and remember easter weekend

Book Your Holiday Accommodation in Clarens – Mountain Odyssey

Get In Touch and Find Us Here:

Browse our listings and send us enquiries on those that catch your eye, OR send us a general enquiry here and we will call you back to discuss your requirements.

Call Gavin and Sarah-Jane on 058 256 1173

Email your enquiry to: infoclarens@mountainodyssey.co.za

Who We Are

Mountain Odyssey is a family-owned and run business that has been operating in Clarens for over 16 years. Using our extensive local knowledge and a large range of listings, we offer a free to the public, personalized holiday accommodation booking service to enable you to have a simple and stress-free way to book your holiday accommodation in Clarens and plan your stay. We use our local knowledge to advise you on the available venues best suited to your specific requirements.

What We Do

We can assist you in checking availability as well as handling your accommodation booking at over 150 venues and activities in and around Clarens. Venus include self-catering guest-houses, B&B’s, hotels, lodges and guest-farms. We’ve listed them under Self Catering Accommodation and B&B Accommodation. To view the list of available activities available in Clarens, click here.

Accommodation assistance for: weddings, conferences, group activities, team-building and more.

We do not charge any commission or booking fees and offer venues and activities to the public at their normal advertised rates.

Why Use Our Service

  • It’s free
  • We possess over 16 years of local knowledge
  • We give you a professional and lightning-fast response to your query.
  • We have a wide selection of accommodation venues and activities to explore in Clarens.

Further Information on Clarens:

The Village

Situated about 20km from the Golden Gate National Park, 40km from Bethlehem, on the Northernmost point of the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho. Clarens is an easy 3 to 4 hour drive for city dwellers from Johannesburg, Bloemfontein and Durban. It has become known as the “Jewel of the Free State” – an area extremely rich in natural beauty, where visitors come to drink in the peace and tranquility.

Clarens offer the ideal weekend getaway, with a wide variety of accommodation to choose from, suitable to all tastes, and excellent restaurants to satisfy the culinary tastes of even the most ardent food lover.

Activities

The village has recently been acclaimed as one of the best trout fishing spots in South Africa. It is also spectacular horse riding country. Clarens offers the visitor a very wide variety of activities, ensuring that everybody, from nature lovers who simply want to drink in the surrounding beauty to adventure seekers always looking for an adrenaline rush or a new thrill, can count on a truly remarkable stay. The village of Clarens is not known as the adventure capital for nothing, it has a flourishing tourist trade as well as an established artist community. Clarens is truly an artists haven! Many well known artists live in and around the village, whilst others frequent Clarens on a regular basis.

Shopping, Arts and Crafts

Many Arts & Crafts shops adorn the village, offering visitors a wide selection of original artwork and curios. Come take a leisurely walk around President Square and up Main Street and browse through the wide variety of curios available, or appreciate the talents of the many artists who display their products in the Arts & Craft shops, or simply sit down at one of the many restaurants and coffee shops and relax with a drink of your choice while taking in the peace and tranquility of our wonderful village.

Climate

Clarens has a climate typical of the highveld, with warm summer days often interrupted by late afternoon thunderstorms. Very cold temperatures in winter can leave many feeling the need for a warm fireplace or glass of gluhwein in a cosy pub, so be sure to bring warm clothes and extra blankets in winter. These cold winters often lead to snow in Clarens and the surrounding Maluti Mountains. Spring and Autumn weather is generally mild and comfortable, though nights can still be colder than expected.

Packing appropriately is recommended, remember, there’s no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing!

Geology and Environment

Situated in the picturesque Clarens Valley in the Eastern Free State Highlands, Clarens is known for its spectacular sandstone mountains and mild climate.

Clarens is part of the scenic Highlands Route and surrounded by the Rooiberge, and further on by the majestic Maluti’s which borders Lesotho. Everywhere you look you will see our famous sandstone cliffs with multi-coloured layers, which is a unique geological feature of the area.

This formation is also known as the Clarens Formation. Clarens sandstone is a very popular building material in this area and beautiful sandstone lodgings abound.

A prominent rock formation, known as The Titanic, welcomes all who visit the village. Its name dates back to 1912, when Clarens was established. This was also the year of the tragic sinking of the Titanic.

A resident in Clarens, unknown unfortunately, looked at this rock formation and remarked that it looked very much like a sinking ship! The name stuck.

Our quaint village is endowed with more trees than most other towns in the Free State province, which paints the village in the most wonderful colours during spring, when all the fruit trees blossom.

In autumn, our stunning Lombard Poplars attract photographers, nature lovers and artists from all over to revel in the colours and capture its beauty on film and canvass.

History of Clarens

The name Clarens was derived from an attractive village in Switzerland, situated on the Northern shores of Lake Geneva – the second largest fresh water lake in Europe – near Montreaux, where President Paul Kruger spent his last days as a voluntary exile.

It all started when in 1910 the farm “Leliehoek” was sold, and in 1911 the farm “Naauwpoort”, both to a company who wanted to establish a village in the mountains.

These two farms were then divided into separate stands and sold for the then majestic sum of fifty pounds each. To finalise the negotiations a commission was appointed in 1912 and a decision was made to name the village Clarens in honour of President Kruger’s influence in the area.