Strengths: Proximity to Paul Kruger Gate of Kruger National Park
Weakness: Expensive
I visited the Protea Hotel Kruger Gate in mid September 2010. This hotel is located about 90 miles from the Mpumalanga Nelspruit Airport (pronounced as MUM-ALANGA) and it takes about an hour and forty five minutes to cover that distance. It is advisable to rent a car and not take a cab as it is 5 times more economical and saved you ZAR 800 one way.
When you drive through, remember you will pass through Whiteriver and Hazyview and then you will come to Paul Kruger Gate of the Kruger National Park. The Protea Hotel Kruger Gate is about 100 metres before the Paul Kruger Gate of Kruger National Park. There are Protea Hotels in Hazyview and Nelspruit as well, but I strongly suggest that you stay in Protea Hotel Kruger Gate due to the proximity to the Paul Kruger Gate of Kruger National Park.
This hotel is best suited for a 2 night stay if you are going for a safari into the Kruger National Park (obviously you need to be a die-hard wildlife enthusiast, else there is no point coming to Kruger in the first place). There is no other reason for staying here, other than visiting Kruger. The Protea Hotel Kruger Gate (or almost all hotels in and around Kruger) is very expensive priced at approximately INR 13000 per night. This rate is inclusive of breakfast and dinner. The room facilities are as good as any other 4 Star hotels. I would not rate it is as a 5 Star as my experience was a bit below the best as there were some leakages in the bathroom and the Air Conditioning was a problem – and they took a lot of time to fix it. But I am guessing that this was a one off occurrence.
The breakfast is awesome and could be rated as one of the best I have ever had, however the dinner was a bit weird for my traditional Indian Palette. There is a variety of meat which is served (and very little chicken or mutton which significantly reduced my options). It is really great if you eat all types of meat including Pork, Beef, Deer, Kudu and several other varieties which I was scared to even touch. So I did not rate the dinner option very highly, however I realize that this is specific to my taste only and others may find it pretty good, and I think the other tourists who were present found it awesome. The good part during dinner was that they have a tribal group of teenagers performing some traditional African songs and this was quite an experience as I think it was the first time I was listening to traditional tribal African music.
The Protea Hotel Kruger Gate has a Travel & Tours desk which organize day trips to the Kruger National Park. You have several tour companies to select from and I would rate Echo Safaris as one of the best. They have a full day tour from 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM for ZAR 750 per person where they take you out in an open air jeep and it is very cool. Their guides are also very good and know exactly the places where you will be able to spot the wildlife.
The Protea Hotel Kruger Gate has 2 very nice restaurants, one of them with a sit out area overlooking the Kruger National Park and if you are equipped with Binoculars you will be definitely be able to spot some wildlife from the restaurant deck itself. It is an awesome place to unwind with Pizza or wine or whatever it is you like. The swimming pool at the Protea Hotel Kruger Gate is very small and is more of the kiddies pool and the water was freezing cold in mid September – so I did not enter it at all. The Internet is very expensive at ZAR 100 for 1 hour which means you are shelling out INR 700 for 1 hour of Internet. The Protea Hotel Kruger Gate has a store on premises where you can but stuff like souvenirs and batteries for your camera and Kruger National Park memorabilia.
I strongly recommend that when you visit South Africa you need to spend a maximum of 2 nights in the Protea Hotel Kruger Gate. The first day can be a full day Kruger National Park Safari and the second day will be chilling out at the hotel, going for a massage etc. Any more days spent in the Kruger National park area and I am sure you will get bored, unless you are a die-hard wildlife enthusiast.
Weakness: Expensive
I visited the Protea Hotel Kruger Gate in mid September 2010. This hotel is located about 90 miles from the Mpumalanga Nelspruit Airport (pronounced as MUM-ALANGA) and it takes about an hour and forty five minutes to cover that distance. It is advisable to rent a car and not take a cab as it is 5 times more economical and saved you ZAR 800 one way.
When you drive through, remember you will pass through Whiteriver and Hazyview and then you will come to Paul Kruger Gate of the Kruger National Park. The Protea Hotel Kruger Gate is about 100 metres before the Paul Kruger Gate of Kruger National Park. There are Protea Hotels in Hazyview and Nelspruit as well, but I strongly suggest that you stay in Protea Hotel Kruger Gate due to the proximity to the Paul Kruger Gate of Kruger National Park.
This hotel is best suited for a 2 night stay if you are going for a safari into the Kruger National Park (obviously you need to be a die-hard wildlife enthusiast, else there is no point coming to Kruger in the first place). There is no other reason for staying here, other than visiting Kruger. The Protea Hotel Kruger Gate (or almost all hotels in and around Kruger) is very expensive priced at approximately INR 13000 per night. This rate is inclusive of breakfast and dinner. The room facilities are as good as any other 4 Star hotels. I would not rate it is as a 5 Star as my experience was a bit below the best as there were some leakages in the bathroom and the Air Conditioning was a problem – and they took a lot of time to fix it. But I am guessing that this was a one off occurrence.
The breakfast is awesome and could be rated as one of the best I have ever had, however the dinner was a bit weird for my traditional Indian Palette. There is a variety of meat which is served (and very little chicken or mutton which significantly reduced my options). It is really great if you eat all types of meat including Pork, Beef, Deer, Kudu and several other varieties which I was scared to even touch. So I did not rate the dinner option very highly, however I realize that this is specific to my taste only and others may find it pretty good, and I think the other tourists who were present found it awesome. The good part during dinner was that they have a tribal group of teenagers performing some traditional African songs and this was quite an experience as I think it was the first time I was listening to traditional tribal African music.
The Protea Hotel Kruger Gate has a Travel & Tours desk which organize day trips to the Kruger National Park. You have several tour companies to select from and I would rate Echo Safaris as one of the best. They have a full day tour from 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM for ZAR 750 per person where they take you out in an open air jeep and it is very cool. Their guides are also very good and know exactly the places where you will be able to spot the wildlife.
The Protea Hotel Kruger Gate has 2 very nice restaurants, one of them with a sit out area overlooking the Kruger National Park and if you are equipped with Binoculars you will be definitely be able to spot some wildlife from the restaurant deck itself. It is an awesome place to unwind with Pizza or wine or whatever it is you like. The swimming pool at the Protea Hotel Kruger Gate is very small and is more of the kiddies pool and the water was freezing cold in mid September – so I did not enter it at all. The Internet is very expensive at ZAR 100 for 1 hour which means you are shelling out INR 700 for 1 hour of Internet. The Protea Hotel Kruger Gate has a store on premises where you can but stuff like souvenirs and batteries for your camera and Kruger National Park memorabilia.
I strongly recommend that when you visit South Africa you need to spend a maximum of 2 nights in the Protea Hotel Kruger Gate. The first day can be a full day Kruger National Park Safari and the second day will be chilling out at the hotel, going for a massage etc. Any more days spent in the Kruger National park area and I am sure you will get bored, unless you are a die-hard wildlife enthusiast.
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