Marriott Concierge

It’s official! Protea Hotels and Marriott Rewards have joined together.


Starting November 17, Marriott Rewards members will be able to earn, redeem and enjoy full benefits at ALL properties in the Protea Hotels portfolio, including Protea Hotels Fire & Ice! and African Pride Hotels.


From chic urban hotels to luxurious safari lodges, experience the diversity and excitement that the African continent has to offer with more than 100 properties across eight sub-Saharan African countries, including Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia.


Member Exclusive:

Start your African adventure with your choice of special offers, available at participating properties from November 17, 2015 to February 17, 2016.

2,000 Points: Boost your points balance as you broaden your horizons. Get 2,000 bonus points with each stay.

20% Savings + Breakfast: New vistas are even more exciting with 20% off the best available rate, plus free breakfast for two.

Choose from participating hotels across the brand and across the continent — Protea Hotels,
Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! and African Pride Hotels.

Where will your African journey take you? Check out this link to learn more:

MarriottRewards.com/ProteaHotels

leeky

but still not elligible for LNFs
The Best Rate Guarantee does not apply to Delta Hotels, Protea Hotels®, Ritz-Carlton Montreal, The Ritz London, Hotel Ritz Madrid, and Ritz-Carlton Residences
http://www.marriott.com/online-hotel-booking.mi

hhoope01

I'm not sure I want to mention this to my wife. She has been talking for a few years now about taking my daughter and going on an Africa trip. I suspect even using hotel awards and airline miles, it wouldn't be an inexpensive trip.

mike929

I'm wondering what ball park figures look like for a trip to Africa?
Would an all-inclusive get-a-way be better?

SkiAdcock

Free brekkie for two is a nice bennie. Hmm, is the free brekkie just until Feb 17th?

Isn't the South African rand doing badly against the $$? Might not be as expensive as you think.

Cheers. Sharon

GetawaysRus

Yes, Africa is unfortunately expensive. I had started looking into an Africa trip a year or two ago, and then my wife got spooked because of Ebola. (I tried explaining that Africa is a big continent, and we were planning for South Africa where there was no Ebola, but to no avail. We switched our plans and visited Peru instead.)

We were working with an agent who specializes in Africa and planning a trip of about 2 weeks. A major issue with the cost is the price of the safari lodges. Even if I were to use hotel points to help cover some of the costs in Johannesburg and Cape Town, we were looking at close to $6000-ish per person for a 3-4 night visit to each of 2 separate safari camps plus a short stay near Victoria Falls. (I decided on 2 separate camps because I was hoping we would see different wildlife in each location.) Air within Africa would have added about $900 per person (unless I was able to use miles). And that price also did not include air to and from the USA because I was hoping to cover the air using air miles. I admit that the safari camps that the agent suggested were expensive ones, and it would likely be possible to find lower cost camps, but these were also not the very top end camps. With a shorter itinerary I am sure you could travel for less, but I view Africa as a "once in a lifetime" type of trip, and I've read that getting round-trip air using miles is not easy, so we were not going to chintz if I was able to put a trip together.

escapefromphl

You don't have to book the private game parks, South Africa has National Parks which are a fraction of the price.

http://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/

Many of the Protea properties are Cat 1-5 some of which should be a decent use of certs etc. I have successfully booked business awards to SA a few times, it's not as difficult as New Zealand.

Happy

Exactly. South Africa probably is the CHEAPEST place for high quality lodging and restaurants with the current exchange rate. (even before that it was already very reasonably priced.) That is, you do NOT use the private reserves but do your own self-drive safari inside Kruger, and other South African National Parks.

Granted, the lodging options inside SANParks are very basic, just like what you would find in US National Parks. But if your goal is to see the animals in their habitats, and do this with you, yourself, doing the drive to see it, SANParks are excellent.

We did a 12 days South Africa trip in Feb this year. We did not go to Kruger (we will go in Sept 2016) but went to Mountain Zebra (2 nights) and Addo Elephants National Park (1 night) near Port Elizebath, drove the Garden Route from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town (4 nights en route), stayed 4 nights in Cape Town and had the Avis rental car all the time - total tap was less than $2000 for 2 persons when the air was on award tickets, 1 night at JNB and 4 nights at Cape Town hotel were on points. The rest were all out of pocket expenses - including 3 nights in National Parks, 4 nights on Garden Route, 12 days Avis rental, and CPT-JNB flight on Kulula (an LCC which parent company is BA's 100% sub Comair), and of course all the restaurant meals of which 70% were seafood restaurants. I honestly think it is VERY CHEAP.

We will return to South Africa in Sept 2016 specifically for visiting Kruger, go whale watching and see the wild flowers in West Cape. I have reserved the bungalows for our 6 nights in Kruger's rest camps (bungalow with ensuite bathroom). The cost before the park admission, is 7670 ZAR. The current exchange rate is US$1 = roughly 14 ZAR. Do the math yourself and see HOW CHEAP it is to stay at SANParks facilities versus private lodges.

The 2 Protea hotels at JNB (one behind security as a transit hotel one at the perimeter of the airport with regular shuttle) is a Cat 2 10K properties. On our dates the Point Saver rate is available at 7500.

At Cape Town, the Castle hotel is very near V&A waterfront and it is a Cat 3 only.

If all Protea hotels are eligible for point redemption, then you have a Protea at Knysna and a Protea at Mossel Bay - both are good spots on the Garden Route for an overnight. We had an excellent dinner in both places - fresh seafood, oysters, very good local beer - the bill was less than $60 in both cases.

For your flights - if you have AS miles that is your best bet - on CX via HKG, business class is 125K r/t, first class is 140K r/t - though HKG-JNB does not have F service. You can have a stopover at HKG going and coming.

You will pay more using UA or AA miles. Using AA miles your best bet is fly QR via DOH. So you dont pay the rip off BA YQ.
If you are lucky you may be able to find award seats on SA direct flight to J'oburg but then SA's business class seat is much inferior to QR's and of course CX's. Otherwise there are TK's flights then connect at Africa somewhere with either South Africa or Ethopia's flight to J'oburg.

BA Avios are great for the intra-South Africa flights as well as the flights between Jo'burg and Victoria Falls or Livingston as the pay tickets are relatively expensive, except JNB-CPT route which is like shuttle flights. Thanks to the current exchange rate, I see the potential flights for our Sept 2016 trip are between $50 to $60 if you use Kulula or Mango (SA's low cost arm). BA or SA's flights are 3x the prices but I dont see why you want to fly those, esp Kulula often put their passengers on BA's should their own flights delay.

Just be prepared the travel time is long - going thru DOH, flying time alone would add up to almost 23 hours. going thru HKG is longer but since you can take a break at HKG, it is nicer. Personally also prefer CX's seats than QR's seats (777 versus 787) despite they both are reversed herringbone.
Of course you could fly CX F between US and HKG if F is available. J is fairly easy to find.

Finally, if you are willing to do some research yourself, you do NOT need a travel agent to plan a South Africa trip. The Africa forum on FT, as well as TripAdvisor community has plenty information and people are very willing to help with suggestions.

Some words about Victoria Falls - Unless you plan to take to the air to see the Falls, down below you dont see much other than, well, waterfalls with tons of water. it is only with aerial view you can truly appreciate the greatness of it. There is no get around for "reasonable" price at Victoria Falls - everything is expensive - but at least now you can get a "Combo" visa versus visa with Zim and Zam separately.

Again, go read the TripAdvisor forums you will be much better off to arm yourself with knowledge instead of relying on a travel agent.

SkiAdcock

Wow - thanks for the detailed input! Much appreciated!

Cheers. Sharon

Happy

Glad to provide some personal experiences to show an African trip does not need to be expensive.

Just check Marriott site - all Protea hotels are now bookable with points.

The Knysna property is by the water, very nice place and is at 7500 pts on random dates in July. (rate is 2200 ZAR so 7500 pts are pretty good redemption value).

I 100% agree with the title of this thread.

wroxpopuli

To add my two cents: Just completed a trip to South Africa and Victoria Falls for my honeymoon. We stayed at a Protea hotel in Cape Town (15 on Orange) which was fantastic, and a steal at the reward saver price of 15,000 points we booked at. Very well situated, and we were able to book a suite with a fabulous view of Table Mountain at the base redemption rate.

The protea hotels are currently priced very, very attractively. Had they been available when we were traveling, we definitely would have considered the Stellenbosch hotels (Cape wine region) and the Livingstone hotel (Zambia side of Vic Falls).

With the rand at its current rate, we found that our money went very far in South Africa. We ate very well and all of our non-points lodging was very reasonable.

The biggest disadvantage of a few of the Protea options is location. Their closest Kruger hotel isn't actually in Kruger (or one of the nearby private reserves) meaning that you'd only be able to be in Kruger during the hours in which the gates are open.

The Livingstone hotel was a little further from the falls than where we stayed (the Avani Victoria Falls, which is technically on the grounds of the falls), though at Category 1 redemption prices, it would be hard to pass up.

As Happy mentioned above, flights within Southern Africa are very points-friendly. We used BA reward flight savers for our flights to/from Victoria Falls.

astroflyer

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with Elite benefits at Protea Hotels now that they're fulling in the Marriott Rewards Program. It appears that the following should apply:

• Room upgrades
• Lounge Access or free breakfast
• Free Internet

Is that correct or am I missing something? Do they generally treat Marriott Golds/Plats well?

I'm planning a trip to South Africa right now and loving all the Cat 1/2 hotels that look quite nice!

SkiAdcock

On the Marriott website Protea is not listed as a brand where lounge access or free breakfast applies.

"Guaranteed Lounge Access/ Breakfast

Enjoy refreshments and complimentary breakfast for you and one guest in the lounge. In the U.S. and Canada, at hotels without a lounge or if the lounge is closed, you’ll have a choice of continental breakfast in the restaurant or 750 points. In Europe, hotels without a lounge offer a choice of breakfast for two in the restaurant or 750 points. See terms and conditions for full details and any exclusions.

At JW Marriott®, Autograph Collection®, Renaissance Hotels® and Marriott Hotels® (Resorts, Courtyard Hotels and AC Hotels are excluded)."

You will get free internet access per T&Cs. Not sure about upgrade but can't hurt to ask.

Cheers.

SkiAdcock

Marriott announced partnership w/ South African Airlines:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...-airlines.html

Cheers.