If you are looking for a quiet hotel in tranquil, yet beautiful, surroundings the Devon Valley hotel could be for you. It is about ten kilometers from the vibrant university town of Stellenbosch and is located at the end of a quiet country lane.
The setting is idyllic, on a hill with open views from the front across countryside to the distant mountains. It boasts two outdoor pools plus an outdoor dining/bar area and is set in attractive gardens. It is a good base from which to explore the Winelands and about an hours drive from Cape Town.
However, make sure you are not allocated a room in the annexe where rooms are numbered C1 to C8. These are definitely sub standard with cramped bathroom and storage facilities, no air conditioning, room safe or phone. Access is across a very dusty carpark and along a narrow shared verandah on which each room is allocated a table and two chairs making passage to the further rooms unnecessarily difficult. I was allocated C8, furthest from the main hotel building and I could not have been more disappointed with it. The room was long and narrow at the end of which was a tiny bathroom filling one corner and small wardrobe in the other. The bath and toilet were clean but grey and very scratched from many years of over exuberant cleaning. Small flies were everywhere. The washbasin was in the bedroom area wedged between the bathroom wall and the wardrobe thereby blocking access to half of it.
Daylight could easily be seen right around the entrance door which opened onto the verandah. In my view, any hotel with all its rooms like this would struggle to justify 2 star status.
However, after complaining, next day I was moved into room 12 in the main building which had become vacant. It was everything that C8 was not. Clean, airy, newly decorated, large shower room with washbasin and WC, air conditioned and with a safe - seemingly a necessity in South Africa. It was comfortable without being excessively so. After C8 the fact that it was at the back of the hotel with no view was not important. It is disappointing that both these rooms are classed as standard and charged at the same rate.
Other standard rooms face the front, some of which have a private external seating area and superior rooms are also available. A good sign is that local people seem to book wedding and other functions there.
Breakfast is good value with a choice of continental or cooked though it is slightly spoiled by the fact that the hotel obviously refills the otherwise branded jam/marmalade pots.
You need a car if you don't want to dine at the hotel. Meals at dinner time do not excell. We sent one back cold and received no apology. It does not seem important to the waiting staff that couples/groups actually want to eat at the same time so delivery of food is not always synchronised. Plates are cleared as soon as cutlery is put down, a common occurrence in Sth Africa, so again, one person may be eating alone and generally you feel rushed through courses.
The bar staff are fairly disinterested in serving guests yet over zealous in presenting a bill giving the impression that in the bar you are not particularly welcome. Best to order from your table or from the outside area.
Reception staff are great. Eager to help, anxious to please. So start with them and get the right room.
