The drive does some of the work. Beyond Cape Town the landscape widens, then narrows; you turn off onto the Elandskloof Road, and the city slips off you like a coat worn too long. Plum orchards, horse paddocks, then nothing but mountain. At the end a gate, an avenue, a house in ochre under steep roofs. You have arrived before you notice.
The location
Franschhoek sits in a bowl of the Cape, framed by ranges whose ridges turn orange at dusk. The Bidens’ estate claims twelve hectares of it: Cabernet and Shiraz vines, olive trees, and lawns that look as if someone laid them out with a ruler. The buildings wear ochre and steep slate-grey roofs, a Cape Dutch–Provençal blend that appears in no textbook.
Out front: loggias on timber posts, a pond, striped parasols. What strikes you first is the quiet, and the fact that nothing here was left to chance, not even the hedges. Tall pines throw long afternoon shadows across the paths.
Backstory
The story begins in 1999 with Malewane Lodge at Royal Malewane in Greater Kruger, the first property of The Royal Portfolio. La Residence followed in 2002 and was refurbished in 2008. A South African group that today reaches from Kruger to the sea, The Vineyard Suites followed in 2011 and the private villa Franschhoek House in December 2024. The group is run by their son, Matt Biden.
The driving force inside is Liz Biden. She designs every suite herself, collects across three continents, and has little time for restraint. Her style is maximalism with method: colour against colour, antique against present, everything a touch too much and somehow coherent for it. A hotel as an ongoing private project that never looks quite finished, and isn’t meant to.
Interior & architecture
Architecturally, La Residence is a hybrid: Cape Dutch gables, Provençal proportions, and the high, often vaulted ceilings that make such houses feel generous. Ochre render outside, black-and-white marble within, large windows, heavy doors, plenty of wood. The rooms are halls rather than bedrooms.The interior is entirely Liz Biden’s. Indian chandeliers hang from timber beams, mirrors the height of a man widen the walls, velvet and silk lie layered as if a bazaar had married. Antiques from Europe, Asia and Africa meet contemporary African art, with works by Kate Gottgens, Amanda Mushate or Franklyn Dzingai beside a seventeenth-century Aubusson tapestry after David Teniers the Younger.
Each suite has its own colour theme, from the orange-glowing Tibetan Suite to the blue-and-yellow Chambre Bleu. Turned, gilded bedheads over hand-painted lamps; patterned silk at the windows. Taste as a contact sport.
A look inside
The main house gathers the public rooms around the Great Hall, the dining room with its chequered floor and fireplaces, alongside lounge, bar, spa and pool. A little apart lie the five Vineyard Suites, roomier, with verandah, garden and heated private pool, meant for families and groups, while the main house stays reserved for guests aged ten and up. The villa Franschhoek House can be taken whole, for up to twelve.
The larger Vineyard Suites feel more like apartments: open living area, fireplace, sometimes two bedrooms. What they share is a fit-out that leaves nothing wanting yet never looks ordered from a catalogue. Eleven suites are spread here over two floors in the main hotel, each to its own colour scheme, no two alike. Beds under white linen, minibar included, air conditioning, generous bathrooms. You sleep remarkably well here, despite all the decor.
Culinary
People eat seriously here. Executive chef Cheslin Cornelissen cooks by the logic of the estate’s own farm: whatever ripens in the garden turns up that evening on a set a la carte menu that changes seasonally. It sounds like the standard pitch of the better hotels, but comes out more concrete: saddle of kudu, trout from the valley, vegetables that were in the ground that morning.
The main stage is the Great Hall, with chandeliers, black-and-white tiles and an open fire, joined in summer by the Persian Alley under the sky. For something intimate, book the Cellar Door Experience: five courses by candlelight in the underground wine cellar, ten guests at most, led by the sommelier.
Lunch is often a salad on the Loggia above the pond; evenings turn more formal. The day opens with a breakfast buffet from half past six, warm muffins included.
The wine list covers South Africa in breadth, the estate’s own La Residence bottlings among them. Franschhoek calls itself the country’s food-and-wine capital; the house takes the title at its word.
Wellness & relaxation
The spa is kept small and makes a virtue of it. There is one double treatment room, but the finest address is the Tea House, a raised platform over the pond where you are massaged with the valley wide open before you. If you would rather stay put, the treatment comes to your suite or balcony.
The menu runs to classics like the deep-tissue massage and a body polish made from the Pinotage grape, from what grows here anyway. There is a well-stocked gym with a view onto the courtyard. At the centre of the estate lies the pool, ringed by loungers, beside it a trolley of water, wine and permission to do nothing.
Surrounding area
La Residence is a short walk from the village; the shuttle is free. Franschhoek is small and wears its Huguenot past openly: the Huguenot Memorial Museum and its 1948 monument tell the story of the French refugees who left the valley its name and its vines. For art, go past the guidebooks. EBONY/CURATED at Bordeaux House shows contemporary South African painting alongside its own furniture design; the gallery Manz Art on Huguenot Street collects established and emerging African work. At the La Motte estate, the Pierneef Museum holds the work of J. H. Pierneef, after which you can eat regional cooking at the restaurant Pierneef à La Motte.
Lovers of old machinery should make for the Franschhoek Motor Museum at L’Ormarins, four halls, more than 220 cars. Sweets come from Huguenot Fine Chocolates on the main street. At Babylonstoren, the Soetmelksvlei farmstead shows how the Cape once worked the land. Come in May and you meet the Franschhoek Literary Festival, three days of books among the vineyards, more conversation than spectacle. Between the estates runs the open Franschhoek Wine Tram, slow enough to actually see the valley. Eat out best at La Petite Colombe or Chefs Warehouse at Maison.
Activities
The valley offers something for every inclination. A selection, sorted by interest:
Wine & pleasure. More than forty estates lie within reach, many of world rank. The Franschhoek Wine Tram links them at an unhurried pace; tastings run from the big name to the small cellar. Add tours of cheese, olive oil and chocolate.
Nature & movement. The Mont Rochelle Nature Reserve offers trails with valley views; mountain-bike routes wait around the Berg River Dam. Riding through the vines can be booked, as can trout fishing in clear water.
Art & culture. Galleries, the Huguenot Museum, the Motor Museum at L’Ormarins, and in May the Literary Festival. Aim for Cape Town and you reach Table Mountain or the Zeitz MOCAA, the largest house for contemporary African art, in a little over an hour.
Golf. The Pearl Valley course, a Jack Nicklaus signature, ranks among the country’s best and sits minutes away.
The table. Beyond the house, Franschhoek’s top kitchens beckon—La Petite Colombe, Le Coin Français, Protégé—from tasting menu to easy lunch.
From the air. Helicopter flights over the Winelands, a hot-air balloon at dawn, and, for the bold, paragliding off the mountain.
Family. The Vineyard Suites take children of any age; pool, garden and the region’s animal encounters do the rest. The main house stays reserved for guests aged ten and up, a deliberate split between calm and commotion.
Simply staying. Some arrive and barely leave the estate: pool, spa, a book in the shade of the pines, a glass of the house wine at night. That, too, is a programme, and not a bad one.
Details
- Rooms: 11 suites in the main house, 5 Vineyard Suites for families, plus the private villa Franschhoek House (6 bedrooms, up to 12). Character pieces: Chambre Bleu, Tibetan Suite.
- Dining: Great Hall, Loggia and Persian Alley; Cellar Door Experience and Chef’s Table on request; afternoon tea.
- Spa: double treatment room, gym, pool and heated private pools.
- Service: free shuttle to the village, sommelier, own wines,Tea House over the pond, breakfast buffet, tailored menus.
- Good to know: main house from age 10; children of any age in the Vineyard Suites; children of all ages at Franschhoek House; pets by arrangement.
