La Residence
Garden Route & Winelands, South Africa
Style Cape château
Setting Magnificent vineyard vistas
Presiding over the valley of vines in Franschhoek, La Residence hotel is a mini, modern Versailles with a contemporary shell and a romantic colonial interior: everywhere the eye comes to rest there’s a Persian rug, exotic antique or fine art work. This Winelands estate will make you feel as though you've been whisked off to your own private palace to live in the lap of luxury…
Need to know
- Rooms 11 suites, including four superior suites.
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Rates
Double rooms from AU$833.12 (ZAR7,702), excluding tax at 14 per cent.
The price shown represents the lowest nightly rate for a double room available at this hotel over the next 21 days. Any price conversions from the hotel's local currency (ZAR7,702) have been conducted using today's exchange rates from xe.com.
- More details Rates include full American breakfast. The property can be booked in its entirety (to sleep 22), from R73,200 a night.
- Facilities Swimming pool, gardens, courtyard, library, free WiFi, laundry, parking. In rooms: flatscreen TV, DVD/CD player, minibar, Molton Brown and Charlotte Rhys toiletries, underfloor heating, walk-in showers and separate baths.
- Poolside The outdoor infinity pool set in the expansive gardens is surrounded by attractive sunloungers covered in fluffy luxury towels.
- Check-out 11am, but flexible whenever possible. Earliest check-in, 2pm.
- Children This hotel is aimed at grown-ups in need of a little spoil-me time, so under 12s are not accepted (unless you're booking the property in its entirety). Older children are welcome, but you’ll need to book them their own room at the full rate.
- Also In-room spa and beauty treatments can be arranged with reception. Smoking is only permitted in the designated areas. No pets allowed.
Food and drink at La Residence
- Hotel restaurant The vast black-and-white tiled reception room doubles as a dining room (for hotel guests only), opening out onto the verandah where tables are set for breakfast or lunch. By night, regal red velvet wing-backed chairs are pulled up to white linen-draped tables, softly lit with candles. A sommelier will help you match wine from La Residence’s cellar to the daily changing set menu of seasonal, local produce, such as Franschhoek cheeses, lamb shank, roasted quail and line-caught trout.
- Dress code South Africa is relaxed, but this place will make you want to dress like holidaying royalty.
- Top table The alfresco tables all have panoramic mountain views; and at dinner, it’s more a case of choosing which richly upholstered chair you prefer.
- Last orders As you wish: around 2pm for lunch, and 8pm for dinner.
- Room service There’s no room service, but staff will help you out as much as possible, and there’s a well-stocked minibar in every suite.
- Hotel bar In a tucked-away ‘beverage room’, you’ll find a selection of cigars and drinks of all kinds; you can help yourself but a member of staff is always on hand to serve you or help you pick something from the impressive cellar. Take your drinks wherever you please: in the library, on the terrace, in front of the huge fireplace, or to your private verandah or balcony.
Also worth knowing
- Weddings This property is suitable for weddings. More...
La Residence Suite 44, Private Bag x19, Franschhoek 7690, Garden Route & Winelands, Western Cape, 7690
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Smith extra at La Residence
A Franschhoek Valley wine tasting in the La Residence's private cellar
In the know
Our favourite rooms
Every one of La Residence’s beautiful suites is different, but they're all large, with gorgeous views and a lavish mix of art and antiques. We loved white and gold Frangipani, the most tucked-away of the ground-floor suites, for its monumental marble four-poster, 18th-century French dressers and mirrored ‘Versailles’ bathroom, complete with chandelier, roll-top bath and chaise-longue. The Armani Suite’s muted Whistleresque palette gives it a more contemporary feel; we love its oversize ballet painting, distressed sideboard and Moroccan bathroom chest. The feminine Disa Suite is all delicate pinks and pretty greens, with a balcony looking over the pool to the mountains beyond, an unusual grass-green four-poster and mirrored deco-style sink cabinets. There are spellbinding views from the pond to the peaks from pink-hued Hibiscus; the ground-floor Chambre Bleu has two private verandahs, for those days when you don’t know what sort of view you fancy; and the exotic Indian-themed Maharani above it has two balconies.
Packing tips
Jodhpurs or jeans, so you can ride through the vineyards; bikini for poolside lounging; headache tablets, because the wine is so tempting, you’re bound to overindulge.
Also
All the unoccupied rooms are left open for you to peek into, which makes you feel even more like a privileged guest in a stately home or palace.
