Knysna Riverside Lodge

"Horrible place to stay. The food was horrible & they don't service the rooms properly (we had to ask them to do that). We had to even ask for cutlery and milk for tea for our room. We were also told that we only get one bar of soap and one bottle of conditioner for a 4 day stay."

"We paid R1100.00 a night for a small, damp and dirty room at this lodge. The sheet had pubic hair on it, one pillow a dead spider and most likely the dirtiest carpet I have ever experienced. The pictures on the website are not anything like the rooms you stay in, I stayed in room 8 with my wife and it was terrible. We could not find accommodation in Knysna so could not leave on the first night however could leave the second. Owner did not even offer a refund for leaving a day early but of course that is their policy and I suspect he charged someone for our room for the day we paid for though did not stay. Will never stay there again and something should be done so that people do not frequent this place and lose money they will not see again when they check out early."

"HORRIBLE!!! Spiders everywhere! And bugs! A bricked up section that passes for a decent shower (with cobweb, complete with spider, hanging overhead). Lumpy mattresses with springs poking through. And cutlery with previous occupants leftovers...eeeuw! The 6 sleeper has a lil Barfridge??!! A mini combo 2 plate stove/oven. NO lounge suite. MINI tv that never worked. My family left this place with inflamed sinuses and allergic reactions. Simply AWFUL."

"I will never stay here again and would not receommend staying here to anyone. We have stayed in Knysna many times previously at Haus Knysna and Bridgewater Manor. The accomodation at those establishments was FAR superior and we paid less there, even though it was the Knysna marathon weekend.The photos of the rooms for Riverside lodge were completely misleading!! Our rooms were dark and had old,mouldy smelling, off-white linen. The first room we were given was a dark hole. The interleading doors had no door handles and couldn't be closed and the room had no curtains. The rooms smelt damp and the toilets smelt faintly of urine.There was no heater in our room and no extra blankets provided so we were freezing on the first night. We had booked two forest suites but because the reception was so muddled and the first rooms was so unbearably awful we ended up with two forest rooms. Because of this one of our party ended up having to sleep on the floor on a matress.Then after we came home from running the forest half marathon we found that all the towels had been removed from our rooms. When we requested more towels we were informed that they were still being washed and would take another hour or two. We were horrified to find out that they only had a single towel per person staying and no extras.There was also only enough hot water for three 5 minute showers after which the rest were luke warm.They had confirmed that there was wifi in all the rooms but this turned out to be a lie. There was only wifi in the reception area that has one old couch to sit on.The couple that run the place were sweet but completely incompetent. The receptionist had no idea which rooms corresponded to which room number and the generally had no idea what was going on.Everything felt old, damp and dirty. In comparison Bridgewater Manor ahad beautiful sunny rooms with a view, first class showers and baths in the room with plenty of hot water. Heater and electric blankets in the rooms, dstv and wonderful soft, clean linen, a lovely warm receptionist that helped us with setting up wifi in our room, helped organise taxi's for us and was generally fantastic and charged R100 per person less!!Haus Knysna was also fantastic and charged even less than that!We were not the only party staying at the Riverside lodge that were unhappy and we left feeling cheated.I wouldn't be surprised if the place closes in the next year."

"Very pleasant stay with good accommodation and excellent food at the restaurant."

"The lodge needs some serious repair work. The plumbing makes horrible sounds and the rooms feel dirty. It does not look like the photos on the web at all, maybe taken 15 years ago. Very disappionted! The restaurant on the premises is excellent."

"The chalets are beautiful and clean. The owners are friendly and make one feel like family. The food is excellent at the restaurant."

"Ideally located just outside Knysna, with a great view of the river and surrounding forested hills. The rooms are stylish and comfortable, and the restaurant offers quality meals. Overall, a classy, picturesque place to stay."

"We had a great time staying at the Knysna Riverside Lodge. The owners and staff were most helpful and the food at the restaurant was good!"