Ludus Magnus

Accommodation was cancelled three days before we arrived due to a “system error” and overbooked. Our booking was made 9 months earlier and correspondence had been made with the hotel only weeks before our stay to request air transfers and a babysitter and all was confirmed.I turn on the tv to see the hotel was filming love island on the dates we were due to stay. Interesting booking error! Very disappointing.

My family’s trip was cancelled 3 days before our arrival. They notified us at 8:30pm on New Years Eve via email in regards to the cancellation. We prepaid the full amount of our stay 8 months in advance and had booking confirmations via email in regards to our stay. A huge disappointment. There are much better hotel options to stay nearby with great reputations - look elsewhere.

We really enjoyed our stay. Blessing and Erin made sure we were comfortable our whole stay. We also enjoyed cycling(they provide a bike if you have one) around the property. We had a nice dip and picnic by the river. The food was also great and the place comfortable.

We loved every second, was treated and spoiled, the food view and service is unbeatable

An absolute five star experience. From the attention to detail, to the warm hospitality and friendly staff, it really feels like a home away from home. It was our second trip to Ludus this past weekend and I continue to be amazed by how dreamy it is there. Loved staying in one of the villa's, where we were treated like royalty. Thank you for yet another amazing experience at Ludus. We hope to be back soon.

Ludus Magnus is a haven of serenity.The views of mountains, landscape and pool are spectacular! The staff (Alecia, Ernest and Julius) went out of their way to give us the best experience possible. Our glasses were topped with amazing wine at all time and the chef prepared 5 star meals. We can highly recommend this amazing place!

Unique luxury accommodation with cool on-site activities. A fun alternative to the wine estates nearby - in my opinion. A few things didn’t go our way during our stay but they were resolved well in the end and we leave happy guests wanting to return again. Special thanks to the lovely staff!

A true example of excellent hospitality.Without doubt one of the favorite hotels/resorts.Upon arrival we were warmly welcomed by the staff and general manager, our names were mentioned on the board/welcoming letter and we had the freedom to explore and move freely like it was our own home space. The staff was extremely friendly, even build a cute outdoor gym just for myself and partner to enjoy while absorbing the sun. The facilities are absolutely amazing for the explorer, athlete or simply just an adventurer.I highly recommend Ludus Magnus

For me to rate a place 1 star is a huge disappointment. This is a great example of “Instagram-fantasy”. See their IG page for amazing videos…Before I get into the issues let’s start with the few positives. The location is in the beautiful Franschhoek area, the buildings and accommodation are nicely designed and decorated, the “facilities” promise a lot…Sadly the IG fantasy is exactly that.. a huge unattainable fantasy. The reason for this? Gross incompetency of the on-site management team.Issues:To access the premises requires entry via one of 2 gates on the Paarl- Franschhoek road.. both roads cross the Berg river.. one via a low bridge which floods. Getting around via Uber was near impossible. Add to this that the property has locked gates which operate electronically.. which only the staff can open.. without intercom access.. diabolical!It rained for part of our stay. We were hoping to use the laned swimming pool to do some training.. it was green.. and covered.Although autumn, the property has an abundance of flies.. every evening before dinner we came under attack from the flies! This is gross!Dinner- since Franschhoek and Stellenbosch are some distance away, and given the accessibility issues, we chose to dine in. No menu choices were provided other than “tonight we are making x,y, and z. “ The food however was beautifully prepared.. but when you pay 5 star prices, you need a choice. How long this will continue depends on who replaces the incumbent excellent chef who has about to leave.Price!! I have stayed in hundreds of better and cheaper five star and luxury hotels around the world..Internet.. intermittent at the best of times.. so much so that we could not even pay for our extras on departure…Verdict: the concept is great.. the execution.. sorry to say “it sucks big time”

My family from Australia booked a three bedroom Villa at Ludas Magnus in April 2022 for an early January 2023 stay. The booking was pre-paid at the time in April to guarantee our booking and a booking confirmation was emailed to us. We had constant communication throughout the year with the hotel to arrange airport transfers, cots and babysitters for our 3/4 month babies.At 8:45pm on the 31st December 2022, (3 days before our arrival), we received an email notifying us that the hotel had “double booked” our accomodation and that our Villa had been cancelled. The hotel has blamed an integration system as the error however we don’t believe this. Instead of rectifying the booking they offered no further support.Strangely, the Villa we booked in April was advertised on the 22nd December 2022 for 3X the price we had initially paid…makes one think - did they just take the higher booking rate?! Happy new year to us and what a great way to bring the new year in.We will never recommend this hotel to anyone travelling. We are seasoned worldwide travellers and have never experienced this before and the way that the management team has acted towards us.