Grande Roche Hotel

We arrived at the Grande Roche and were impressed with the great views. The vineyard surrounding the hotel is in bad shape with most of the vines dead due to drought. The staff at the hotel were very nice and helpful. We also had the power issue during our visit called "load shedding". In addition to this issue, the hotels own power circuits were not working properly and had to be fixed. As a result, we were constantly having the power drop. The breakfasts were very good but did not have a good experience at Bosmans for dinner. This hotel is a bit tired in need of renovation and currently not worth the premium prices it commands. Read less

I booked to stay one night at Grande Roche Hotel in December 2018 as a good friend was getting married elsewhere down the road. I checked in at 2pm with the plan to get ready for the wedding, only to be told upon check-in that there was currently load shedding and there would be no electricity in my room until 5pm. However, the wedding started at 4:30pm so it didn't help me that the electricity would be back on at 5pm. When I enquired about a generator I was shocked to be told that they only have one (noisy) generator that only supplied the reception area. How can a hotel that I paid the equivalent of USD280 for one night and that is a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the world group, not have generators for their guest rooms? Load shedding is not new in South Africa. It has been going on for years. Most luxury hotels compensate by having generators that allow guests to continue their stays without being inconvenienced. That is not the case for Grande Roche. The rooms are dark so I got showered, dressed and put make-up on in the dark. I had to blow dry my hair in a makeshift room next to reception. Needless to say I was unimpressed. Load shedding is usually planned in South Africa so businesses and private residences are informed in advance when they will lose electricity and for how long. Grande Roche could easily have informed me (they had both my email address and phone number), so I could have planned to get ready elsewhere. I complained to management and I was told to write a letter to them, which I did the next week. In response, I was informed by the revenue and reservations manager that I would receive a voucher for a complementary night for my next stay at Grande Roche. I am still waiting to receive that voucher (3 months later). I would never stay there again anyway (free night or not). The rooms weren't great and the staff were not helpful. Totally overpriced and not worth it. Read less

The setting of this hotel is indeed beautiful and one can imagine past glory. However, all the infrastructure here is tired and needs a serious upgrade. This is not a 5- star hotel— a few images below of our “upgraded” room, which we asked after seeing our first room- we got the upgrade after quite some struggle. This upgraded room was going for over 200USD on booking.com at the time. It doesn’t feel right paying that much for a dirty room with cheap furniture and a moldy bathroom. There are many beautiful places to stay in the area, for far less than 200 USD. Do think twice before booking this hotel. Read less

This hotel is in a lovely location, set up the hill overlooking Paarl towards the mountains in the distance. Very helpful and polite staff. Complimentary drinks on arrival while checking in. We had a pleasant suite (Saddle) but, be warned, there is no sound-proofing so one could hear everything being said in the next door room, which we didn’t appreciate at 6.00 am in the morning! Very good breakfast on the terrace in the sunshine (we were on a bed and breakfast rate through Booking.com ) but the evening menu was not to our taste so we ate elsewhere (see my other reviews). Not advertised, but available on request, is a free taxi service to run you into Paarl, which we used very happily to get us to and from our evening restaurant. Read less

This is a very nice hotel in an excellent location .Drinks on the terrace before dinner with a stunning view overlooking the valley and the mountains .Dinner was very good and service is excellent. The environment is somewhat formal and may chase people away. When we went for dinner there was only one other couple there nonetheless we had a very nice experience and is somewhere for a special dinner. Read less