Orange River Rafting Lodge

I have booked the 6 sleeper chalet at Orange river rafting lodge in Vioolsdrif earlier this year. To be honest the pictures are quite deceiving from what you get in person. The drive to get to the lodge is absolutely horrible and we can see that the road does not get scraped very often. You cannot come here with a small car. We were greeted with a warm welcome however, the staff seemed very rude as we stayed on and did not greet unless we greeted them first. The bathroom had a horrible smell and the toilet keeps leaking. This prevented the toilet bowl from filling and we had to ask the helper twice to come fix the toilet. It also seems as if the lodge's water supply comes from the river because the water smells bad. My family also complained about the pool being slippery and full of algae. This stopped most of us going into the pool. I was asked when we wanted room service and we said on the second day. On the second day we waited for the room service until past 12 and we had to ask the ladies ourselves to come and clean the rooms. The ladies were very unfriendly. The chalet was also full of cockroaches and insects. This was very off putting. A few months back when I spoke to the manager I was told that we don't have to check out immediately at 10'o clock. We can check out later which gave us the peace of mind to leave the place at eaze and not in a rush. And this morning we were told to leave at 10. This is something that has to be communicated with us. Overall, this was not the best experience and it is such a beautiful and relaxing place. I hope for the lodge to take this into consideration and make a lot of improvements. I rate this place 2/5

Very nice cottages, perfect location, very good swimming pool, good possibility of kayaking on the river

For the location, campsite and the view I would probably give a rating of 4, so this one 1 star I gave rated is for our overall experience. We arrived at this location dusty and tired after spending some weeks 4 x 4 overlanding in Namibia and Botswana and enroute to Cape Town. Upon arrival we were blown away by the location and the welcome we recieved from the manager, little did we know that looks can be deceiving. Come 6pm other guest started to arrive at the chalets and we immediately became apprehensive after loud music was turned on and liquour started flowing, we knew that we were in for a very very long night and little did we know that it would turn into a total nightmare! In my mind I expected that OK, the group of guests is just having a get together and probably come 10 or 11pm the noise will stop - No way!!! The partying continued through the night up until 4pm, with the guest shouting Chug, chug, chug non stop!!!! How the Management of this establishment can allow this to happen is totally baffling and totally inconsiderate of the other paying guests. It was a very long drive to Cape Town after a sleepless night at this place.

We had a fantastic couple of days here; Vaughn, Tanya and Daniel were extremely helpful and nothing was too much trouble. The chalets are clean but a little shabby, however, a starlight hot tub is a must, and do ask Vaughn to arrange a river rafting day for you - especially if you are a birder. The team is very small, as is the menu and the bar but more than adequate and Vaughn really went out of his way to make our stay memorable and fabulous. Even to the extent of checking travel conditions for our next two stops on our roadtrip. We highly recommend spending a few days here and simply decompressing. Thanks guys.

We made use of the Camping facilities. Not what we expected. Real experience does not reflect what is stated on the Internet. The pool was not cleaned, and the bathrooms were not cleaned properly. If they do attend to this, we will stay there again.

The place is amazing and has a great view. It gives you peace and the staff is amazing. I would go back to this place. Amazing, tranquility, beauty… the rooms are spacious and the bathroom is definitely the best. The food was amazing and makes me want to go back for more.