2 outdoor pools, pool umbrellas, sun loungers
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Reviews of St James of Knysna

5 out of 5
St James of Knysna
The Point, Eastford, Knysna, Western Cape

Reviews

9.6

Exceptional

Rating 10 - Excellent. 137 out of 170 reviews" "
Rating 8 - Good. 25 out of 170 reviews" "
Rating 6 - Okay. 5 out of 170 reviews" "
Rating 4 - Poor. 2 out of 170 reviews" "
Rating 2 - Terrible. 1 out of 170 reviews" "

9.6/10

Cleanliness

9.6/10

Staff & service

9.6/10

Amenities

9.4/10

Property conditions & facilities

9.6/10

Eco-friendliness

Reviews

10/10 Excellent

Ettiene

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Memorable experience
I felt a bit like royalty.... Such a pleasureable experience! And everyone goes out of their way to help you.... And the free boat ride of course was very nice!
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2023

10/10 Excellent

Robert, Westhill

Travelled with partner
Liked: Amenities, property conditions & facilities
Beautiful Hotel in a quiet location. Staff are excellent and trip on the hotel’s own boat is a bonus. Pools are both lovely and our room/suite was lovely with great views of the lagoon.
Stayed 3 nights in Oct 2023

10/10 Excellent

Colm

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
We really enjoyed our stay here, we stayed in the Lady Anne Suite and it was amazing. The views over the lagoon were super and Sandy could not do enough for us. Was very helpful about suggesting activities for us and restaurants to eat in. It's a little bit out of town but they can arrange transfer for you which are quite reasonable. We had a really great relaxing stay here.
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

10/10 Excellent

Christian

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Lovely hotel right on the lagoon. We had a spectacular view from our room and it was so peaceful waking up to the sightband sound of the still lagoon. Staff were excellent, very friendly and helpful. Breakfast was amazing too.
Stayed 2 nights in Apr 2023

10/10 Excellent

Daniel

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Great staff and property. Large and immaculate rooms. A must stay place.
Stayed 3 nights in Feb 2023

10/10 Excellent

George

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Boat trip was awesome, staff amazing, drinks were outstanding, food was perfect. I will come here again, for sure!

10/10 Excellent

DOUGLAS

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
The best
This is our favourite place to stay in Knysna. Great staff, wonderful position, great breakfast.
Stayed 4 nights in Feb 2020

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort
Disliked: Property conditions & facilities
Service, staff and room were excellent but stay was ruined by no restaurant, no bar, no lounge no T V and very few other Guests. Renovation works in progress which we were not told about. Check before you book
Stayed 5 nights in Nov 2019

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Stayed 2 nights in Aug 2018

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Stayed 1 night in May 2019

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
This is a beautiful property. It is not inexpensive however the facility certainly merits the cost. It has a view of the waterfront and the rooms are spacious and extremely well maintained. The restaurant in the hotel has good breakfast and lunch options. Recommend having dinner at one of the many places on the waterfront. Solid 4 star property.
Stayed 4 nights in Mar 2019

10/10 Excellent

Eusebio

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2019

10/10 Excellent

DOUGLAS

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Old world elegance
Great place. Very happy. Once the luxury home of the first Miss South Africa
Stayed 4 nights in Feb 2019

4/10 Poor

Daniel

Liked: Cleanliness, room comfort
Disliked: Staff & service
Very disappointing
Below average. - right in the high way so lots of noise from traffic - slow service - old non maintained/renovated rooms - WiFi not working - more like a 3 star establishment + nice breakfast outside area Overall very disappointing
Stayed 2 nights in Jan 2019

10/10 Excellent

Jeremy

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 3 nights in Nov 2018

8/10 Good

Dirk, Germany

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Nice set up, big suite, older hotel, away from Restaurants
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2018

10/10 Excellent

Felicity, Canada

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
St James of Knysna is elegant, well-maintained and in a nice area with quite a few things to do. The staff is very friendly and professional. The rooms are beautiful, spacious and in great condition! We thoroughly enjoyed staying here and would highly recommend it!
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2018

8/10 Good

Moira

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort
Great location, but........
We liked the location of the hotel, at the beginning of Kysna and set on the shoreline of the bay. There is some construction work going on in the hotel currently, and they decided to close the restaurant, probably due to winter and not many guests, but even so, they should have put that on the website.. There was a 3 option sandwich menu available in the evening, rather sad really. Also, the other issue we had was the smell of cooking throughout the hotel at 5pm, which was the staff cooking their food as we were told, so the ventilation must not have been working in the kitchen to have caused this kind of overall spread of cooking smells. We had a suite on the first floor and could smell the food in the hall of the suite, we burnt incense and sprayed deodorant to help rid the smell. Overall the hotel was lovely but these few things didn't sit well with us.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2018

10/10 Excellent

Kathy, Guam

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
lovely hotel. Super food
Wonderful spot on the water, or use the pools, comfortable clean rooms, fantastic food. Great fireplaces if the weather is cold, terrific staff.. sorry we could only stay one night
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2018

10/10 Excellent

Alwyn

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great facilities and beautiful lagoon edge locatio
Beautiful location at the waters edge with fantastic views . Management team and reception staff exceptionally friendly and welcoming . Breakfast really nice particularly when weather was good enough to dine on the outside patio . Rooms are very spacious and well appointed . There is however need to consider refurbishing the bathroom which is now looking somewhat dated . Would definitely stay here again and especially at the price we paid

10/10 Excellent

Michael

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Wish we’d stayed longer.
Very pleasing stay with high service levels. Lovely al fresco breakfast.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2018

10/10 Excellent

Susan

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Our favourite hotel in South Africa
We returned to this hotel as we loved it so much on our last visit. Amazing comfort and lovely staff.
Stayed 3 nights in Feb 2018

10/10 Excellent

Peter

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort
Relaxation at its best
We stayed in suite number5 and loved watching the birds from our bed in the morning. Absolutely stunning location. The food was lovely especially dinner. Very sad to leave such a relaxing place. Would hope to go back very soon.

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
We had a wonderful time here. The staff are extremely friendly and helpful
Stayed 2 nights in Jan 2018

10/10 Excellent

les, england

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Excellent environment
Only stayed one night. Would have liked to stay longer.
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2017

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Hotel in lovely location
Stayed for 3 nights in the main building that only had a few rooms, so we felt like we had the hotel to ourselves. We really enjoyed the lounge feeling of the bar area. The dining area had views with very nice food. The hotel grounds are very cute with wonderful views over the bay. Lots of hands on TLC by the hotel staff made for a very pleasant stay.
Stayed 3 nights in Jul 2017

2/10 Terrible

andrew

Liked: Cleanliness
Disliked: Staff & service
Poorly run hotel.....
Hi. Whilst the hotel is nice and quiet and has a great view of the lagoon, it falls well short of its supposed 5 star rating. Our room is enourmous but has a heater situated at one end of the room so the end where the beds are remains cold at night. The taps in one of the sinks don't work and the bath automatically empties whilst you sit in it so you have to leave the taps running to maintain a water level. Today went for breakfast and had to wait over an hour! When it arrived the sausage was raw. Spoke to the duty manager who just moaned at me about his problems rather than apologising and attempting to sort things out. This is a 3.5 star hotel at best. Avoid if you have plans each day and wish to leave the hotel as at 10.30am this morning I am still waiting for my breakfast......
Stayed 4 nights in Jul 2017

10/10 Excellent

Louis

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Home away from home
Beautiful location/view! Peaceful. Professional.
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2017

10/10 Excellent

Antony

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Home away from home
St James has a peaceful ambience about it. The staff were friendly and very hospitable. The room were large, clean and spacious. They have a beautiful view of the lagoon with a nice variety for breakfast.

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
having stayed at St James before we booked a return visit. We had forgotten just how amazing the location is; on the ledge of the lagoon. Should have booked two nights not one so that we had more time to enjoy the lovely garden and pool.

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Wonderful accommodation and beautiful setting for a relaxing vacation

10/10 Excellent

Chris, Essex, UK

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
great views. excellent breakfast on the terrace
We used the restaurant and found the food excellent, service was good and pretty quick which was a pleasant surprise as some of the reviews I read criticised the length of time they had to wait for food.

10/10 Excellent

James

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
James, Joburg
Amazing old school boutique hotel

10/10 Excellent

Annette

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Beautiful country house hotel
Fantastic hotel in an unbeatable location next to the Knysna lagoon. Service exemplary. Suite really comfortable with wonderful views. I hope I'll be able to stay here again.

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great hotel as a base for touring garden route
Great hotel. Very friendjy and helpful staff. Very relaxing. Lovely views. Nice restaurant and food. Comfortable large rooms.

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Disappointed
Very disappointed with the lack of staff. We had to go looking for someone every time we wanted a drink. Eve meal poor.old English country house in South Africa it did not make sense. Good for older people who like that. Room was large with a lovely view of the lagoon.

10/10 Excellent

Jacek

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Sanctuary for your soul.
Great place to stay and relax, food outstanding, not so far is a sanctuary for elefants , birds and other wild cats. Once, this place belong to Miss Africa.

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
This was a great place to stay at a very reasonable price - individualised rooms, good room service and excellent breakfast included. The only drawback is that it's a little too far out of Knsyna to walk into town.

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

10/10 Excellent

Stephen, Durham, UK

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Beautiful location, large comfortable rooms.
Manager was great in helping us with a small issue and our stay was superb. Loved the hotel and facilities. Will definitely be staying again. Thoroughly recommended.

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Disliked: Cleanliness, room comfort
Easy access to Knysna from hotel for shopping etc

10/10 Excellent

Michael, Chorley

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Dinner by the lake
Peaceful night and good dinner

10/10 Excellent

Denise

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

10/10 Excellent

Richard L, Carmel, IN, USA

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Fine option in Knysna
We had a great dinner and breakfast here. The hotel and setting are beautiful.

10/10 Excellent

Lynn

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

10/10 Excellent

shuggie, aberdeen

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Brilliant stay in beautiful country house hotel
Thoroughly enjoyed our stay. Upgraded to 2 room suite overlookinglagoon . Property quiet since now out of season. Beautifully appointed rooms full of character. Service top notch but unobtrusive. Lovely staff. Gardener even washed my car each morning. Food well cooked. Would not hesitate to book again if I am passing thru Knysna in future.

10/10 Excellent

Deborah, Venice, FL

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
A beautiful hotel in a lovely setting.
This property is more like an upscale bed and breakfast than a hotel. Each room is different and they all were spacious and beautiful. The hotel is located on Knysna lagoon and is surrounded by a lovely garden. We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed it. You really need a car to stay at this property because it is a bit out of town and it would be difficult to walk anywhere. Otherwise it was easy to find because the sign was on the N2 and was prominent. This was one of my husband's favorite hotels during our two weeks in South Africa.

10/10 Excellent

Mike, London UK

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Very good hotel in a lakeside location
Excellent facilities and only a short drive to the centre of Knynsa.

10/10 Excellent

Trev, Godalming, England

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Excellent hotel
Stayed in a cottage next to hotel which was large and quiet with its own small garden next to the main garden and swimming pool. Beautiful hotel on the shore of Knysna Lagoon with great views. Very good restaurant with excellent breakfast. Also ate dinner in the hotel which was of a high quality and good value. Nice bar and lounge areas.