My husband surprised me with an evening at Emily Moon for our anniversary. Beautifull setting, stunningly decorated room and friendly personal butler ! We had dinner and breakfast at the Lodge, swam in the swimming pool and had some sundowners at the bar.
One of my highlights in my Life !

We stayed at Emily Moon River Lodge last December and had a great time. The view over the river is lovely and the staff terrific. It was a highlight of our stay in the Cape. I would highly recommend it if you are going down to Plettenberg Bay and wanting to stay in a delightful Lodge. The hosts Di and Simon Valentine couldn't have been kinder to our every whim .
Can't wait to return.

The heading of the review says it all, I will try and say why it was disappointing, because there was good bits to it as well.

Rooms
Very spaciaous with beautiful views, outside shower, comfortable bed, room for suitcases, clean with essentials such as shower gels etc, good towels. No wifi in rooms
Only communal areas. However there did appear to be a lot of scuttling beneath the high ceiling which defiantly was home to some creatures that kept us awake all night. Bats had been a problem previously in a pass review.

Communal areas for guests.

Here is the most frustrating part of it, there are none, Emily Moon is also part of a very successful restaurant within the hotel, but the restaurant is where the hotel guest have there breakfast, so as soon as you have finished you feel you need to leave as lunch time tables are being prepared, by 11.30 customers start coming in for lunch.

The evenings are the worse, as by they time we wanted to come down to have a drink all the communal area which really was two small sofas were packed with restaurant customers from outside, parking also became a problem, so unless you were eating in the restaurant there was no where to go, there is no lounge, there is no private area for guest only to relax

You only have your room and no where else to go.

Small pool area only two chairs, canoes available walks nearby, so location and position is excellent, the dramatic look from the dining area is great.i would love to be able to sit and look out on the view after breakfast but you felt you were unable to due to the staff all in a hurry to get the Restrurant ready for outside guest.

Host

The every day management of the hotel is run by Simon And Diane , who I understand are the parents of the owner Mark.
They appeared to be helpful but I found they were coming across as a bit over bearing, Simon can come across a loud character bit army Major.

I experienced this when one evening at 9.15pm when the Restrurant was fully open, I went over to the reception and found out no one is there after 8pm. So I asked one of the managers running the restaurant if I could have some bread and jam as I had not eaten all day and felt unwell,, I was made to wait 20 mins the excuses given was the bread was in another kitchen there was no jam, after 20 mins I was told they would send some to the room. By 11pm I gave up and no one came.

I was very upset because I felt that the hotel guest are not a priority , it is all about the restaurant. Next morning when I went to reception Simon came in and I told him I was not happy, he starting saying why didn't you come to see me I am the managing Director etc, I told him that there is no way I was going to walk into a Restrurant area whilst he is going round table to table introducing himself, I was going to go and ask him the MD for a piece of bread and butter, I thought that by asking a member of his staff quietly,they would resolve it.

He said I could of called a number and I would get through to someone.

Well, the first things is when we checked in none of this was explained,there was no number given to us, we had no idea reception closed at 8pm.

To me Emily Moon needs to decide is it a hotel or is it a restaurant, as one previous review put it
She felt they were in the way and I must admit I felt the same.

Simon and Diane playing host made me feel they were at times over bearing but not in the friendly way other hosts have done it.

Having mentioned my experiance to a couple of guest they said good on you. I got the impression that due to the big Character Simon is within Emily Moon people are not happy about putting across there problems.

He did apologise, but did not offer to put anything right and stated that the Restrurant was two entities run from the same complex and yes it was priority.

Would I return to stay No

Would I recommend it for others to stay. No

Location great, rooms very good, but something needs to change, I think know what that may be.

We stayed with our 3 children (16, 13 and 12) at the Emily Moon over Christmas and had an amazing time. The rooms are very comfortable with amazing views over the river (we had a go at kayaking down it) and the hills in the distance. The hotel obviously has a reputation for its food - we were there for Christmas lunch and they had automatically booked us in, which was just fantastic as we had no idea where else we could go. Amazingly 150 guests from outside the hotel were going to join us! Breakfast and all the meals we had there were superb - we had a bit of a panic one night with a sudden insect infestation, but it was handled brilliantly and our meals were cooked once again without a fuss. I agree that what really makes this place stand out are the owners - Simon and Diane really made us feel part of their family in their own home. They were knowledgeable, helpful and extremely friendly, as indeed were all their wonderful staff. We cannot recommend Emily Moon highly enough and we will definitely be going back.