Roger

- Yes!

Just by the way, it doesn't help that there is a SA chain which includes Courtyard-branded hotels that are nothing to do with Marriott.

Yes, this will sort itself in the end. Interesting observations from a North American perspective, which of course is fine given the FT membership.

From somewhere only slightly closer to SA, there is so much more to SA than just Cape Town, which is why I was happy to post in the other thread. I'm used to misperception where my country ('the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland') is routinely referred to as 'Britain' (OK) or 'England' (that upsets the Scots), and visitors want to get their UK/GB/etc experience just in London.

As it happens, most of my historical Protea stays in South Africa have been on business, mostly pre-Marriott. I readily admit that my last two stays have been on Marriott points.

There is much discussion to be had on Protea hotels, their qualities and services, the variation in standards between properties and how well they fit into Marriott generally. Of necessity, this will take time. The referenced thread is good for views/reviews of Protea hotels.

mrstraveler

So I managed to luck out and snag a room at the Radisson Blu Waterfront on points for our dates. And yes, it was quite expensive at 70K points per night. Because Marriott lets you reserve on points without having the actual required quantity in your account I also have reservations for the Protea Cape Town North Wharf, African Pride 15 On Orange, Protea Cape Town Sea Point and the Cape Town Marriott Crystal Towers. I also see that the Radisson RED Hotel, V&A Waterfront is available for 66K points per night in a premium room. My question is now that I have options which one is a solid hotel choice for Capetown?

SHLTP

We really liked the Radisson Blu -- it was not a luxurious or gorgeous room but nicely appointed... the locations and view however were beautiful. It was also in a relatively safe part of town. I have not stayed at your other choices. I am usually a Starwood focused person but preferred the Radisson Blu over Westin by far. By far.

Happy

You dont need to make so many tentative bookings across so many Protea hotels. If you have read the thread and the reviews on TripAdvisor you should have a relative good idea on the Pro and Con of all the properties you mentioned.

And dont abuse the privilege the Marriott program provides. Hoarding the award nights would mean taking away the availability from others who may want to book those properties on the same dates you have booked but not intend to stay.

You have already known that the Radisson Blu Waterfront is the best among reward booking, so why you still ask "which one is a solid hotel choice for Cape Town?"

Just EXACTLY what you plan to do in Cape Town and what EXACTLY is your personal preference / needs ?

Besides, the locations you picked are all over the place. Do yourself a favor to look at the Google map because I have no idea why would you include Marriott Crystal Tower which is really outside Cape Town in a suburb where even with a car, can be rather confusing to get in and out the Century City area! On top of that the design of the room is weird - some reviews said it was like a Brothel for example.

African Pride 15 on Orange also is no where near the Waterfront, in the area of Cape Town that many dont consider safe after dark but it is great for those who enjoy bar hops / night life of many kinds... as it is very near Long Street where the night actions are, but definitely not as safe as Waterfront area.

So exactly what you seek for your Cape Town hotel?

Since you mention Radisson, do you realize there is a Radisson Le Vendome at Sea Point and is a much nicer hotel than the Protea Sea Point? Go read some Trip Advisor reviews to learn more about this Radisson - a bargain at 38K pts. If you are CC Gold and book a revenue stay (not expensive especially booked early), you most likely get upgraded to the Exec room with a balcony. The free breakfast that is for all guests at this hotel is Excellent.

Again the reviews on Trip Advisor, plus pictures from the reviewers would give you more than enough information on which hotel you should choose based on your own preference/ purpose of the trip.

There is absolutely no reason to make many tentative bookings like this when there is no chart change in the picture.

sdsearch

I got the Radisson Blu La Vendome in Cape Town (a few blocks from the water, down the road from the V&A area) for 30k points per night. It may not have as luxurious or whatever as Waterfront, but I thought it was fine (and I didn't feel like using 65k or 70k points per night if 30k was a "good enough" hotel.)

But as Happy said, you need to know what you want to do in Cape Town. Me, I was mostly driving (and had a rental car), and La Vendome had free parking (in a lot they have across the street). I did walk to eat dinner nearby a couple nights, and there was enough variety for me (on a 3-night stay), but again everyone's different in what they want from restaurants too.

mrstraveler

Thank you happy and sdsearch for your advice. I did a little more research via TA and it looks like the Radisson Blu Le Vendome is a better fit since it offers free parking for our rental and free breakfast as well as costing a significantly less amount of points. The Waterfront charges a daily fee for parking.

Happy

Waterfront is by no means luxury. It is a modern design and the standard room is very small. Only when you are in the business room or the room with balcony (only very few have), then it feels worth the 70K. Otherwise it is way overpriced.
It is very close to V&A but by itself, there is no seaside promenade near it. The promenade starts much further down from Waterfront. The section of Beach Road near Waterfront is not pleasant either. On the other hand it is very easy to walk from Le Vendome to the Sea Point Promenade across Beach Road. It is a very long promenade by the sea, and a big green space between that and the Beach Road. We did a very nice evening stroll this past August along the seaside until Bantry Bay, then turned into the Main Road "inland" to walk back to Le Vendome. On our way we found a small Asian restaurant called Make, with excellent foods and cheap prices (like 20 rand for a beer of any variety available in the restaurant). Apparently it is a locals favorite too - lots of patrons came for take out, and the tiny place were full the whole time we had our meal.
Across street there is the Ocean Basket, the chain seafood restaurant that offer relatively good seafood with reasonable pricing. Though the quality is uneven - depending on location. Avoid the location at V&A. The best one is at Hemanus, the famous little town for whale watching from the shore.

Le Vendome is a "boutique" style hotel. Standard room is also rather small and that is what point redemption tends to get. However with a pay reservation Club Carlson Golds often get nice upgrade. Our last stay was booked with UR pts from the CSR account therefore only paid slightly more than 6K UR pts for $90 cancellable rate about 2 months before stay. The rate steadily went up and by the time of our stay it was like $130 or more Still on the cheap side comparing to other Cape Town hotels though, and it has an excellent free breakfast - on top of the usual buffet spread, it also has a menu to order from - egg dishes, waffles, pancake etc. I would rate this breakfast BETTER than the one we had at Marriott Crystal Tower. We spent our first night at Crystal Tower because we wanted to drive north on M14 along the sea in the afternoon, and then in the evening to go to Sunset beach at dusk. This was our 3rd trip to Cape Town so we knew our way around.

Le Vendome has hourly shuttle to/from V&A that runs pretty late. From the time table I saw the last shuttle was 10 or 10:30pm. Taxi is about $10 to $15 I was told. Therefore it is fairly easy to go to V&A in the afternoon, explore the area a bit and then stay for dinner then take the shuttle back.

I would say if one gets a business room or a junior suite room with a good size balcony, the Waterfront cannot be beat. Last year's trip we got the junior suite with the balcony above the corner of the outdoor area of the restaurant. We watched a pair of seabirds took turn to nest the eggs in the meadows right underneath our balcony stretched out to the sea. It became our daily ritual in the 4 days we were there, to check out how the birds were doing. A memory still brings me smile now I am typing it.

However from the value proposition view point, Le Vendome cannot be beat with the low point level / low cash price. As a comparison, Waterfront routinely asks for $300 for standard room only.

rny321

I have a new 7-night Category 1-4 that I would like to use while in Cape Town next year and I am trying to decide between the Protea North Wharf and the Africa Pride 15. Although you answer was directed towards another poster, I was hoping that you might have help me decide between them. I will be going to Boulder's Beach, the Winelands, andshark cage diving. Unless staying in the Waterfront area, my guess is that I might only visit it once or twice. I will have a rental car for at least part of the time.

Happy

Yike, FT wiped out my long reply...

Would suggest North Wharf over Orange Pride as we dont much care for the area around Long Street.

However I feel 7 nights at Cape Town is an overkill. I also dont think it is a good idea to do day trip down to Ganbaii Shark Alley for the dive then have to make it back to Cape Town because your hotel is there.

Personally I would save the cert to use elsewhere and just use points. You really dont need / want to stay 7 nights in Cape Town, even include doing day trip to Cape Peninsula, spend a day at the incredible botanic garden, etc.

If you also have UR pts from Chase, you should check the UR travel portal. Last year we only spent 2 nights in Cape Town before we headed out. The first night was at the Marriott north of the city due to we wanted to check out the wild flower situation at West Cape NP, as well as revisiting the drive along the northern coast. The second night I used about 6500 UR pts at 1.5x for the Radisson Le Vendome at Seapoint.

Rental car at South Africa is very cheap with very reasonable one-way drop off fee. We rented with Avis each time. The past 2 years were 2 one-way rentals each visit. Keeping a rental car all the time does not add much more cost than using Uber or public transportation, if you are comfortable with the "wrong side" of driving, that is.

If you need more info on Cape Town / South Africa, PM me.

rny321

I hate when I lose my long responses. I'm sorry it happened to you. After numerous post losses, I decided to post a rough draft and clean it up in supplemental edits.

Thank you very much for the great suggestions. I plan to take your advice and stay closer to planned activities, instead of returning to Capetown each day. I will look for lodging near Ganbaii Shark Alley and the Winelands.

Like many members, I've got points and status from multiple programs. Since my wife and I both have Radisson credit cards, we have accumulated a large supply of Radisson points. Although I agree that the Radisson Blu Le Vendome is a better value than the Waterfront, there was a 2 BR suite for 87,500 points that my wife would prefer.

Except for the many multi-lane roundabouts in Australia, I quickly adjusted to driving on the other side of the road.

SHLTP

We are going back to Cape Town soon and wanted to do Shark diving. You wrote you don't recommend staying in CT for that. Too far?

where would you recommend we go them? I see the Autograph might be closer?

Thank you

Happy

You may want to do some googling and the driving routes/distance from Cape Town to Ganbaii that is where the Shark Alley is, and decide if this makes sense for a one day trip - drive down and then partake the activity, later drive back to lodging at Cape Town. That simply does not sound a good arrangement to me.

Better to find a good B&B in the area (Hermanus / De Kelders / Ganbaii for a 2 nighrer stay. There are good detours on the drive - Cape Peninsula, Simon's Town, Boulder Penguin Colony and Stony Point Penguin Colony (less visitors and cheaper admission if you dont have wild card), Route 310 now fully built is very scenic, so as the Route 44 following that.

Use the google map and pay attention on the sun's direction to decide which route to take on your way down and up if you want to take better pictures. (Think the sun shines from the East in the morning and from the West in the afternoon.)

The property at Arabella is a golf course resort and far from the sea. If you plan to use it, pay close attention on the cancellation policy - I have seen a one month requirement in the past, most other time is 7 days. That just would not cut it for our type of travel which plans change often even after already on the trip.

Happy

If a 2 bedrooms at only 87.5K versus the standard room at 70K, then by all means go for it.

We had stays in tiny standard room on ground floor facing the tiny tiny "marina" in 2015 when we arrived at a fortnight of some art festival with the hotel full to the gill. 2016 they gave us a nice junior suite at the far end of the 3rd floor with a nice balcony facing the sea - one of our daily activities was to watch the nestling bird in the ground cover growth from our balcony, on how she moved and when the male came back to take turn... really cool. And they were booked before the 2-4-1 was killed. Club Carlson allowed advance booking well pass 12 months, seemed to depend on properties. We cleaned out the existing balance then for bookings 18 or more months in advance in Cape Town and in London. Luckily we managed to use them all.

If you do stay at the waterfront Radisson, check out if their room service menu still has the Sea Bass and the Lamb Shrank - they were crazy good, huge portion and dirt cheap - they only charged a single delivery fee for the whole order. These items were not available on the dining room menu unfortunately. We were sad to only discover these wonderful dishes until the 4th day of stay when we decided we just dined in versus going out.

We will be in Australia in 5 weeks. Only plan to take out a car at Brisbane as we would like to revisit Sunshine Coast. Original plan also includes to revisit Gold Coast / Surfers Paradise - after seeing the google pictures, we axed the plan. It is very overdeveloped from just a few years ago, plus the long stretch beaches have been disappearing... kind of sad as Queensland has long been our favorite part of Australia.

bhrubin

Of course you can stay in Cape Town and do shark "dives"! We've done them a few times. The closest to Cape Town is False Bay. Not too far--40-50 min drive max down to Simon's Town where most boats put in. Gansbaai is more like 2.5-3 hrs drive and that's where we've done it. Recently, there were some Orcas that scared off most of the great whites in the region, so you had to go all the way to Mossel Bay--about 4 hrs from Cape Town.

The wake up and drive to Gansbaai is painful--but it's so worth it! Gansbaai is the place where most of the specials are filmed near Shark Alley. It's incredible. Hermanus isn't too far away, and that's a big town for whale watching. You also can catch two of the better wineries in South Africa on your way back to Cape Town: Hamilton Russell and Bouchard Finlayson, among others.

Gansbaai doesn't allow "true diving" since it's where most of the most serious shark research is done and they want to minimize any issues bothering the sharks. So you just jump into a shark cage adjacent to the side of the boat and submerge with a mask (and snorkel if you really want, but it's not necessary) to see the sharks. They can get VERY close.

fdem