Grande Roche Hotel

A superb luxury hotel that just oozes class. The rooms are large, comfortable and well appointed. The staff make you feel special and everyone is super friendly. The food is superb; expertly cooked using the freshest of ingredients and beautifully presented.

Luxury hotel in scenic location. Think idealized Dutch colonial village set in superb botanical garden. This is one of those destinations that you just cannot fault. Instead of a room or suite, you get a cottage which is very tastefully furnished and decorated so that you feel immediately at home. We dined out (at Noop) but the the breakfasts at Grande Roche are excellent. The staff are all super friendly and helpful. This place is an experience that you should not miss on a tour of the winelands.

An excellent hotel that oozes class, with a warm and friendly feel to it. The room was large and very comfortable. The food is superb, everything was so well cooked and beautifully presented. The staff are so welcoming and make you feel special.||It is a stunning hotel and would thoroughly recommend it.

I recently stayed here with my two daughters. We were looking forward to our stay based on the good reviews that we read about this hotel and the fact that Grande Roche is a relatively high end establishment. We were bitterly disappointed to say the least. Our suite was right next to an adjacent property which had dog who barked incessantly throughout the night. I have never experienced such exhausting torture. When I let the reception staff ( Divan and Charné) know after the first night, they didn’t really seem to take me seriously, and were not at all apologetic, neither did they attempt to rectify the situation. On our second and last evening as soon as it started to get dark at around 6pm the barking began again. Divan came to check it out and agreed that this was a problem and assured me that this was a new problem that no previous guests had experienced. Only at 8pm after my children were bathed and in bed were we offered to change rooms, at which point we declined as it was too much hassle at this late stage as we had to be up by 6am the following morning. I spoke to the reservations manager before we departed and he let me know that he had been made aware of the situation during our stay and was sorry that he had not offered us the opportunity to swap rooms sooner. The only thing that we were offered to make up for our two nights of torture was a guarantee that we would not be offered a room close to the barking dogs should we decide to stay at Grande Roche again. At no point was the hotel manager available, and at no point during or after our stay was I contacted by the hotel manager.

I consider myself lucky to have spent a night at this establishment. A world class hotel with the best service and views in the region. Accommodation: stunning rooms, with a warm mix of Cape Dutch and modernisms in the bathroom. Service: staff were friendly and attentive from the moment we arrived till we left, they are professional and help maker your stay so much more comfortable. Food: we chose to eat at the hotel's main restaurant, sadly, this did not live up to expectations. I tried the Cape Beam, which was quite average and found that the flavours on the plate just did not make sense. The same for the lamb, a small portion with textures and flavours that did not work. They do have a great wine list. The breakfast is absolutely delicious and I highly recommend the Farmers Breakfast. Will definitely head back there.

What an amazing place. We had never stayed before, and this was our "treat" place on this trip. By booking directly you get a room upgrade (if available) and a bottle of wine. We did get the upgrade to the Merlot suite which was just gorgeous. The photos do not do it justice. The reception staff and the lovely man who takes your bags were very welcoming, and the iced rooibos tea with blood orange was so welcome on arrival. We used the large pool which was like something from north africa with the palm trees, pool lilos and comfortable sunbeds. The turndown service was lovely. Charlotte Rhys toiletries, and robes are provided. The breakfast on the stoep overlooking the valley was generous and delicious, especially the avocado toast. The only thing that let it down was the restaurant, but I will leave a separate review for that.

We stayed 3 nights at the Grande Roche, at the end of our trip in South Africa and this was certainly the way to end the trip on a High! From Arrival & throughout our stay until departure we had an amazing time & the staff were all first class. We were upgrade to lodge rooms which were lovely and the size of a large 1 bed flat (here in the UK), turn down service each evening just made for the special care and attention. Nothing too much trouble for any of the staff. We used the restaurant on site for breakfast and dinner each day as it was so nice with excellent food both served and presented in such a lovely manor, you felt as they had made each dish for you personally rather than just on mass. The settings of this hotel within a vineyard, with all the separate areas, all of which are meticulously kept in order just makes for a relaxing and calming location. I've already recommended to other friends who will be visiting SA later this year and we will definitely be returning.

We in fact stayed for two months at this hotel, from mid January to mid-March 2025, wanting a relaxed base for a long holiday in South Africa, to avoid the European winter. We chose this hotel from good experiences in previous short stays. We were not disappointed.||The hotel itself is small, with only about 30 rooms, but spread around the beautiful grounds and historic buildings. Its setting evokes a Manor House and wine farm, with vineyard areas as well as lawns and attractively planted gardens and great, ancient oak trees. Apart from the hotel accommodation itself, there is a sheltered swimming pool, a spa, and courts where energetic guests can play pickleball. The Venue (the conference and function area) is well-positioned, away from the majority of the hotel accommodation, and there is really no disturbance. ||Some of the accommodation (the “heritage” rooms) are spilt level, with sleeping space upstairs and a spacious living area downstairs. However, because my husband has eyesight and mobility problems we chose a terrace suite, which has spacious accommodation all on one level, in small thatched terraced groups. Each such suite has its own patio and an evening pleasure was drinking a gin and tonic, or sharing a bottle of house wine from the Hotel’s associated wine farm “Under Oaks”, sitting on this patio and watching the colours change an the mountains opposite as the sun went down, and the lights of Paarl began to twinkle. ||In the room itself, the king size bed was very comfortable. There was reasonably good wardrobe space; only full length dresses being a little problematic. The sitting room was also comfortably furnished, and all was decorated with an interesting miscellaneous mix of eclectic pictures and ornaments. The bathroom was modern and spacious, and whilst there was some trouble keeping the water inside the surround of the walk-in rain-shower, the housekeepers always restored the bathroom to pristine dry order each day. ||The food at the Grande Roche is outstanding. First, the hotel scores enormously for not having the ubiquitous buffet breakfast! Usually in such cases, it gets boring seeing the same offering spread out every morning, and all too often, the additional help-yourself items turn outs to be a bit stale. At the Grande Roche, the breakfast menu includes about a dozen imaginatively varied dishes, (so there always feels like a good choice) and all are cooked freshly for you. Furthermore, if you fancy a variation on the actual menu, they will do their best to provide it. So a leisurely breakfast on the terrace, with gorgeous views over the restaurant entrance garden and onwards over vineyards and the Paarl Valley to the magnificent mountains opposite, with the sun rising above them, is a memorable and delightful experience, every day.||Dinner raises the standards yet another notch, with a selection of fine dining dishes, with interesting taste combinations, continually being varied with the seasons. But alternatively a more bistro-style meal can also be enjoyed from the “Winnifred’s” menu, either in the restaurant or through room service. The unpretentiously named “chunky vegetable soup” turned out to be a delicious hearty mix of fresh vegetables. The “toasties” were such generous toasted sandwiches that sharing one was a perfectly adequate light supper for two, especially combined with the freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, a pack of which were supplied for snacks, each day.||The staff at the hotel were all delightful, friendly, thoughtful and eager to please, almost invariably giving efficient service over a whole two months!. We appreciated this particularly, because my husband underwent an operation during our visit, and the hotel staff, at all levels, could not have been more caring and helpful to us both. Thank you all for this (and especially Courtley, who looked after us so attentively at breakfast).||This hotel is a relatively high-end establishment, and is not cheap, but it has understated elegance in a traditional South African style, a sophisticated but relaxed ambience and high quality staff in all areas, making for a memorable and very satisfying stay.