I spent six nights at the Rutland Lodge in Cape Town. Our room #4, was spacious, elegant, filled with light with a view of the city, a swimming pool below our deck and a Jacaranda tree outside the french doors. The old colonial is in immaculate condition with a view of Table Mountain and original African art in every room. The bed linens were fine and after a long day the bed so comforting. Our host Schalk was warm and helpful in every way. We came as a group of 12 and so had the feeling it was our home, but the hosts would make anyone feel that way. A fire was built for me in the living room one night when I skipped out on the group event. I brought my laptop down (free internet) and sat by the fire with their two dogs. The location is super convenient and made touring easy. Oh, and the food was too good and served in their beautiful dining room where the table fit our 12 comfortably.

I had the lovely pleasure of spending one night at Rutland and was thrilled that I had the opportunity to have such a beautiful experience. The hosts are charming and so very helpful. Breakfast is a wonderful way to start the day in the most beautiful dining room along with an excellent meal. The rooms are large, wonderfully appointed with beautiful linens and the bathroom was a dream. The home was designed by one of South Africa's best architects and I believe he also did the home of the American Ambassador in Washington. I am a tour operator from the US and frequently have guests who prefer staying in a private home setting. We will definitely be using Rutland for our guests in the future. A special treat is an extradionary art collection - a feast for the eyes if you love African art.

This beautiful colonial home is in the best part of Cape Town. Believe me, I am an ex-Cape Townian and know all the areas. It is picturesque and convenient. I travelled on my own and felt safe and totally at home. A few minutes taxi-ride (cheap) gets you to the Waterfront, and all the fantastic pubs and restaurants Cape Town has to offer. There is even a great deli/restaurant on the corner of Montrose Avenue.
The hosts, Jean-Jo and Schalk are just wonderful . The difference between staying at this guest house and an hotel is the personal (yet unobtusive) touch, as opposed to your being just a "guest:". Everything is catered to your pers0nal taste, even the conversation. And the breakfasts are delicious and excellent quality.

Rutland Lodge was the first stay as part of our 3 week honeymoon covering Cape Town, the Winelands and the Garden Route. It was our first ever vist to Cape Town and indeed South Africa.

We arrived at the guest house early in the morning after a full day of travel but were immediately met with a very warm reception from one of the owners, a theme of excellent customer service which was maintained through our 4-day stay.

Jean-Jo and the team at Rutland Lodge couldn't do enough to help, including recommending and booking a series of excellent restaurants, arranging taxis, suggesting tours and daily schedules and even DEMANDING (!) they be allowed to speak to Avis on our behalf to change the office we were to collect our hire car from to a much closer one (with an hour's notice) thereby saving us a significant taxi fare. We returned to the guest house on the second day to a complementary bottle of bubbly, which was a lovely touch. The Rutland team are all knowledgeable, well connected and genuinely want to help.

The guest house itself itself is beautifully appointed with comfortable and spacious communal areas and a lovely outdoor pool (although we didn't use this). Our ground-floor bedroom had doors out onto a patio, an open plan bathroom with roll-top bath and a selection of toiletries, TV, well-stocked mini-bar and complementary phone for booking taxis and local restaurants. The bed was huge and comfortable.

Alongside the great service, one of the other particularly notable parts of our stay was Rutland's excellent breakfasts. Based on the seven hotels and guest houses we stayed in during our holiday in South Africa, breakfast appears to form an important part of the tourist culture of the country, and this was particularly the case at Rutland Lodge. Breakfast included a bufffet style selection of pastries, cereals, fruit, juices, meats, cheeses and then an apparently limitless choice of cooked breakfast. We would thoroughly recommend Tracey's excellent omelettes! Breakfast is served around a large table, thus Rutland has a family atmosphere. Chatting to other guests and the staff was a nice start to each day; although other than this, we typically saw little of other guests. There are only a small number of rooms and therefore there is a sense of privacy and exclusivity as part of a stay there.

We found Rutland's location to be very convenient for seeing the whole of Cape Town. It is near the foot of Table Mountain, so has excellent views - backward up the mountain and downward over the city. It is close to the route of the "red" sightseeing bus tour, which we used heavily as a means of both taking in the sights and to generally get around the city - it is slow, but a great way to explore. Montrose Ave is also a short taxi ride away from the city, the waterfront and the many excellent restaurants of the City Bowl area (Bree Street etc). Camps Bay is also accessible by taxi, although a little more expensive. We enjoyed exploring on foot by day, although Rutland Lodge is located on a hill and the return walk (uphill) to the hotel might be challenging for those less mobile than us. Fortunately, local taxis are reliable and reletively cheap (I suggest using the metered cabs with fixed prices per KM) .

Overall, we would definitely recommend this excellent guest house and hope one day to return.