jimcoddington

Cape Town, South Africa:

Protea Hotel Cape Town North Wharf or Protea Hotel Cape Town Cape Castle

Which one would you recommend and why?

escapefromphl

I would do neither and stay at the Westin if that's at all an option? Otherwise I would probably go with the North Wharf location. There a little bit more directly around it and better TA reviews.

jimcoddington

Thank you. I have an award reservation currently at the Westin, but these Protea Hotels seem to be a really good deal based on there Marriott award levels.

escapefromphl

Yeah as SPG plat at the Westin you will get breakfast in the exec lounge on the top floor with view of Table Mountain. Probably get a nice upgrade as well. It's as good as any Westin I've stayed at in the US.

Happy

The area surrounding Westin is not safe to go outside at night.

You would be better off to be in the areas by the water front - from Sea Point, Green Point, to V&A, are all safe to go outside at night based on our observation on 2 trips (Mar 2015 and Sept 2016). Only Radisson Blu as chain hotels concerned, has properties in the waterfront area.

allbrosca

What about the Protea Hotel Breakwater Lodge? It looks to be in the V&A area. How is it?

Happy

It is not directly at the waterfront like Radisson Blu waterfront, or like the Radisson Blu Le Vendome at Sea Point on a side street with 1 min walk to the waterfront.

The Protea is much further inside and quite a trek - also needs to cross the Dock Road which can be busy at times. It is also far away from the shopping and entertainment area of V&A on the other end of it. It used to be a prison compound and now a university is located there. You want to read the TripAdvisor reviews and make your room choices carefully. The non-rennovated rooms can be dreadful and very basic like a dorm room, for example.

I would pick other Protea locations instead of this one unless you can guarantee the room type you want.

allbrosca

Thanks. I ultimately found a good deal at the Table Bay Hotel and booked that. I have stayed there once before and was satisfied. No points, but it is a good location. I also stayed at the Westin once and found it to be very nice, but as mentioned by someone else, I did not feel comfortable walking around there in the evening.

mrstraveler

For those who have visited, I could use some help finalizing our hotel. I am gold, but based upon my research it seems most properties will not honor Marriott status. DH and I plan on spending five nights in Capetown this December and I think I have narrowed things down to the following:

Protea Hotel Cape Town Sea Point
African Pride 15 On Orange Hotel (honors Marriott status)
Protea Hotel Cape Town North Wharf

I like the apartment style offerings of the Protea hotels, which allots the option of cooking some meals but gold gets us breakfast at African Pride. I love the idea of being close to the water and being able to see the ocean from our room at Sea Point. Location, service, amenities, luxury how do each measure up?

Happy

You do know African Pride brand in the Protea family is above the Protea brand, much like the JWM is above Marriott, right?

On top of that Protea brand has very uneven standards among them. Your best bet is to check TripAdvisor reviews.

I could only tell you that none of the Protea brand in Cape Town would offer you luxury. By definition, an apartment style is more suitable for family vacationing than a luxurious holiday...

A friend recently stayed at Protea Sea Point and his has only one word - Mediocre, for that property. Sea Point itself is a long section along the sea with the most outer maindrag fronting the sea, but the back side of the area, away from the sea, is nothing anywhere near nice. Some parts can even classify a bit run down, unkempt if not seedy.

If you really want location with a tad of luxury, the Radisson Blu Waterfront is better than any of the Protea brand locations. While you do not have elite amenities (well they treat Club Carlson Gold decently - we got an upgrade to junior suite ocean front on our last stay which was a returning visit from the year before), their other services are top notch. The room service dining menu was surprisingly cheap and the foods very tasty. We only wish we have discover that much earlier than the last day of our 4 days stay there.

Protea North Wharf location actually is much closer to the happening place of V&A than Sea Point. It is near Westin and the Convention Center. Might not be too safe walking outside at night though. However the retail rate at this Protea is higher than the rate at the Sea Point location. You be the judge.

sdsearch

Courtyard honors Marriott status, but generally does not give free breakfast to anyone, no matter how elite.

Only a tiny fraction of Marriott brands give free breakfast to elites, and then another small fraction of Marriott brands give free breakfast to all.

But Protea/African Pride hotels are not among the brands where Marriott elites get breakfast. You only get breakfast at Protea if the particular Protea hotel gives free breakfast to everyone, or if it's included in your particular room rate. But AFAIK no Proteas/African Pride hotels in South Africa give free breakfast to all on all rates (only in other countries).

sdsearch

Isn't the often-cheaper Radisson Blu La Vendome still better than most of the Protea brand Cape Town locations, even if not as luxurious as the Radisson Blu Waterfront?

Happy

Absolutely correct. I did not mention it because this is Marriott forum.

We actually spent 2 nights there before moving to the Waterfront location. Le Vendome is like an upscale boutique European hotel down to the decor of the front lobby and the wide staircase going up the floors.
Rooms are fairly small but furnished nicely. Unfortunately they do NOT recognize CC elites - the time we were there they were like below 30% occupancy judged by the parking lot usage yet they were stingy enough not to give us a balcony room.
This location hosts big meetings - the day we arrived the whole parking lot was full to double/triple parked and we had to squeeze barely in at one tiny corner at the front terrace of the hotel. We were told the conference would disperse after 5pm and when we would be just fine when we returned after that. Sure enough, when we returned at night the whole lot had only 4 cards left.

On Protea - one needs to really pay attention on the actual property and NOT the brand. Some of them are like resorts but some of them also like or worse, than your Fairfield here.
For example the Protea at Kruger Gate is like a safari resort, very nicely done on both public areas and inside the room. But the Protea at Hazyview looks like a run-down Fairfield when we drove pass it enroute to Kruger Gate.
The Protea at Knysna on Garden Route is very resort-like and commands quite a high retail rate but it is at the same category like many other Proteas that are several steps down.

Finally if you are lucky enough to find a PointSaver redemption, be sure to bring this up at check in, else the Protea hotel would not know what to do when it sees the point deducted were less than its level and would turn around to charge you full points again. It would take multiple emails back and forth including the involvement of Marriott Rewards to get this fixed based on our experiences.

mrstraveler

The Radisson Blu Waterfront was actually our first choice, unfortunately it is not currently available during our prospective dates.

SanDiego1K

Marriott announced category changes for 2017 today. There's a lot of movement, both up and down, in South Africa. I only looked at one of your properties, African Pride 15 on Orange. It will be moving from a level 4 to level 5. Changes occur for properties booked on or after March 7.