Riversong Guest House

We travelled to the Cape for a waterpolo tour at SACS and stayed at the beautiful Riversong guest house. Which was very homely and top standard comfortable accommodation. The staff and management were very friendly and we intend to make this an annual event and also advise other parents to stay here

During a 2 day stay in Cape town recently, I was privileged enough to have stayed at the 4 star river son guesthouse in Newlands Cape town. Nestled at the foot of table mountain, this beautiful guesthouse is ideal for all types of visitors. Unfortunately I arrived their in a 40 degree heat wave and the rooms are not air conditioned, so I did battle to sleep at night. This is however my only downside to the venue. Apart from that, the venue was excellent with great breakfasts, views and comfortable surroundings.

I just completed an 8 day stay at the Riversong Guest House, with another 28 day stay coming up and a subsequent 10 day stay after that. The reason for these multiple visits is that I am a U.S. professor, visiting Cape Town for 3 winters as a Fulbright Scholar and need to be close to the University of Cape Town. The Riversong has many virtues and has proven to be a perfect fit with my needs thus far. I have been booked the most economical of the guest house's 8 rooms, the "Colonial", but even that is larger than many hotel rooms where I have previously stayed. It has a double bed, a very serviceable desk, a microwave, a small refrigerator and the most extensive coffee setup I have ever seen in a room (including an electric kettle, a collection of instant coffees and tea bags, some biscuits and, to my amazement and delight, an individual size coffee press and ground coffee). Being the most modest (and therefore least expensive) of the rooms, it does not have an easy chair for reading. Right outside the room, however, is a very large and comfortable common lounge area that I have yet to see used by anyone but me. There does not appear to be air conditioning, but since I have been here in the winter this has been a total non-issue; my sense is that even in the summer months it is nearly always comfortable. Each room has a heater, but I like it cold so I have not even bothered to figure out how to turn it on. As far as I am concerned, this is an ideal setup--one that reminds me very much of home. It has also proven to be remarkably quiet. The Riversong offers free wifi. The connections drops occasionally, and is not terribly fast, but I experienced the same thing at much more price hotels and even at the university--this is more of a South African issue than a local issue. They did indicate in their handouts that they need to pay an exorbitant price for bandwidth (about 70 rand, of $5 per gig) and encouraged guests not to make excessive demands on the system. I asked about this--being a professor of Information Technology, I rely on the internet heavily--and they simply told me not to worry. Needless to say, in an effort to be considerate, I am not watching any videos on the system. Other than that, it has not been a problem. Breakfast at the Riversong is cooked to order. It is a standard English breakfast (i.e., eggs, cooked tomato, mushrooms, "bacon"--what we in the U.S. might call pork bellies or ham--and toast) supplemented by cereal options and a variety of sliced meats and cheeses. They offer some customizing options, and have encouraged me to express my own preferences, given the length of my various stays. They serve from 7 to 10:30 am on weekdays, which means that I have never found myself feeling crowded at breakfast time. Nearly all the other commentaries refer to the wonderful and attentive staff. The observations of these reviewers are completely consistent with my own. They have attempted to address every need I have put forth, an