La Roche Estate, Franschhoek — Hotel in Stellenbosch Local Municipality

I’ll start with the negative because it’s impossible not to..we stayed in Pinot Noir Suite and on our first morning decided to go for a bike ride around the estate. A very friendly man who works on the estate during the day helped us set up the bikes. We rode down towards the sanctuary (a lake with a small chapel in the middle) to look at the place as we have a wedding to attend here later this year. In about 50 meters from the lake there is a house with people in it. I saw a couple of dogs in the enclosure by made nothing of it because they were behind a high fence. So I get on my bike and ride slowly towards the gate beside the house, leading to a public road. I see a woman come out of the house, she proceeds to let one of the dogs out of the enclosure, the dog pounces towards me at full speed. The lady stands and watches this unfold calmly. My boyfriend rashers towards me and scares the dog off. I was in shock. The worst part is that there is absolutely no one at the estate who we could speak about this incident. We were on our own.

As to the positives, the suite was nice and the views are...

Cons: Load shedding kills this place and the apartment stone dead. There are no generator back up or solar batteries to keep the apartment going. This means you have NO showers No cooking No kettle No internet nada Also there was not enough teabags, milk coffee for our stay either. For the money being charged here I expect some form of back up to be in place. In fact I was that fed up I left early. There is very limited service and it's all faceless.

Pros: The rooms and the setting are just divine. You have ample space and everything you need for an enjoyable, relaxing break. Free use of the mountain bikes was a welcome addition that I did make use of too. The views from our balcony are just mind-blowing. Watching the weather roll across the mountainous back was just so cool. Overall you're far enough out of the town centre to enjoy the beautiful landscape but close enough to drive into town to explore the galleries and eateries etc. Originally I said I would definitely book this place again but after our outage experiences unless some form of back up is in place I'd...

We celebrated our wedding at La Roche a couple of weeks ago, and used both the Sanctuary and Festival Hall. First of all, the vineyards around the buildings, the lake the mountains and the calmness of the location makes it really magical. The buildings are absolutely stunning, with wooden ceilings and glass windows. Our guests were as “Wowed” by the location as we were. We planned our whole wedding from abroad and the communication with the La Roche team, especially Monise was very efficient and quick. We slept on site the day before and the day of the wedding, and here again, whenever we had a question or needed something, we got immediate support and little attentions. We served the wines that La Roche has on site and our guests really enjoyed it. We purchased a couple extra to come back to Europe with ! We truly cherish our memories at La Roche and will come back to stay a couple of days in the beautiful location. Thank you again to the whole team of La Roche for making this important...