Around The World In 21 Days: Exploring Mahe Island

By Robert | Published June 12, 2016

Index:

  1. Introduction
  2. Delta Comfort+ ECP-ATL-JNB
  3. Hilton Sandton
  4. British Airways Economy JNB-PLZ
  5. Conrad Pezula
  6. Knysna and the Garden Route
  7. Westin Cape Town
  8. Exploring Cape Town + Penguins!
  9. British Airways Economy CPT-JNB
  10. Protea Hotel OR Tambo Airport
  11. Kenya Airways Economy JNB-NBO-DXB
  12. DoubleTree Hotel Jumeirah Beach
  13. Exploring Dubai
  14. Kenya Airways Economy DXB-NBO-SEZ
  15. Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort
  16. Exploring Mahe Island
  17. Kenya Airways Economy SEZ-NBO-BKK
  18. W Bangkok Hotel
  19. Exploring Bangkok
  20. Vietnam Airlines Economy BKK-HAN-NRT
  21. Back In Tokyo!
  22. Delta Air Lines Main Cabin NRT-DTW-ATL
  23. DoubleTree Atlanta Airport
  24. Delta Air Lines Comfort+ ATL-ECP
  25. Conclusion

Introduction
While some of my RTW destinations were easy to decide on (South Africa, Dubai) others were a bit more difficult to decide. The Seychelles were one of those destinations, and it happened to be the one in the middle of my trip. I had looked at not only the Seychelles, but also Zanzibar, the Maldives, and Southern India. Many of these destinations became problematic due to less-than-daily flight schedules or either non-existant or terrible routing to get from one place to another.

One of the rules of RTW itineraries is that you typically cannot backtrack, and that was true with Delta’s SkyMiles RTW award. This meant that, except for connections, any stopover needed to be in the same direction as your overall direction of travel. If you started traveling East, that meant from each stopover, you could only go to places more East of you, based on longitude. North and South, however do not matter.

Zanzibar actually would have been the easiest in that since it is right off the African coast, I would have been able to stop there on the way to Dubai. However, while I would like to go to Zanzibar and wander the alleys in Stone Town, I really wanted a tropical beach getaway. I couldn’t make Southern India work from Dubai (there seems to be an overall lack of SkyTeam coverage in India, it seems), and the Maldives while I could have had an amazing stay I’m sure, the flight schedules weren’t the best and could have seen me having to fly via Moscow on Aeroflot. The Seychelles really did check all the boxes.

Tropical island? Check. Gorgeous beaches? Check. ‘Easy’ to get to? Double Check.

The main island of the Seychelles, Mahe Island, is the primary population center of this small African nation in the middle of the Indian Ocean. As such, this is where you will fly in on any one of number of airlines, including with each of the three major alliances being represented. The majority of destinations are from relatively close-in places (Africa, the Middle East) with a handful of flights to Europe. Coming from Africa, it’s not a bad flight at all with it being about 3.5 hours from Nairobi to Mahe Island.

Obviously getting there is one thing, but being able to get on to the next destination is just as important. Thankfully, Kenya Airways has a surprisingly decent route network, and that made it easy for me to get to my next destination of Thailand afterwards. With everything considered, the Seychelles really did fall into place as being the right fit for my trip…and I’m glad I found myself there!

Near The Resort
My first 24 hours on the island were spent nearly entirely at the Hilton Northolme Resort, aside from my taxi journey from the airport through Victoria to the resort. Which is pretty unusual for me, as I hate being “stuck” at a resort; part of the reason that I think that I let this happen was 1) Really needing to relax and 2) The Hilton Northolme was a small resort that wasn’t overly tourist-ified, like when I think some of the huge resorts you find in your “typical” resort destinations. You can read all my thoughts on that in my previous post here.

As the day started to end though on my first full day on the island, I felt the need to get out and explore. Fortunately, this would be an easy enough of a task; down the hill from the resort is the village of Beau Vallon. It’s a small-ish village, but it’s where a number of the resorts and hotels are located on this side of Mahe Island. This means there are tourists out and about, and for good reasons: the beach unlike the tiny one at the Hilton stretches for a good distance as it frames the edge of the water. There’s restaurants, bars, and everything else a tourist might need on a visit to the Seychelles.

Walking Down The Hill To Beau Vallon

On The Edge Of Town

Beau Vallon

I had not done any research about Beau Vallon to be honest, so I didn’t know what the options were for dining or anything. I checked out a few restaurants, many of which with beachfront dining and even contemplated just going to the Le Meridien Fisherman’s Cove so I could say that I’ve been there. To my surprise however, I stumbled on something else. Something better. Under a tree-lined sidewalk barely removed from the beach, I found a number of tents and tables set up. I moved in to get a closer look, which turned out to be a handful of folks cooking up and selling various dishes. It was cheap and served to be in a styrofoam box, but I took my meal of mystery (sometimes it is best to not ask what it is) and found a fallen tree at the edge of the beach to sit at and enjoy a sunset dinner. It’s hard to beat a simple meal like that in a place of beauty. To top it off, another person was selling an alcoholic punch of sorts, which formed a really good way to cap off the evening and the last vestiges of light in the sky.

Beau Vallon Beach

Outdoor Grillin’

I’m Not Entirely Sure What The Meat Was…

The only problem with being in Beau Vallon past sun down was trying to figure out how to get back to the Hilton. I was a little hesitant to walk back up the hill, but I didn’t see any taxis around nor any buses. It’s not a terribly far walk (about 2km), but with it now being night with no shoulder or sidewalk just seemed like a bad idea. I still though without any other option, decided to start walking. I figured that I might luck out and the last bus of the day might pass me before I got too far along and I could ride it for a few stops. Thankfully, a bus did approach not long after I had got out of the village, and so I hopped on for the 5 minute ride the rest of the way and arrived safely at the front gate.

Sunset At Beau Vallon

Around the Island
My second full day on Mahe Island was spent behind the wheel of a rental car. A Hyundai i10 to be exact; provided by a local rental car outfit in Beau Vallon, and arranged for by the Hilton. I figured the best course of action was to do a loop of the Southern half of the Island, as it didn’t look like there would be much of interest on the Northern half (essentially past the Hilton). Unfortunately there isn’t a connection on the Western side of the Island between the North Coast Road and West Coast Road, which makes for having to drive through Victoria each way.

The (Not So) Mighty Rental Car

The traffic around Victoria wasn’t bad and before I knew it I was south of the Airport. From here things started to get more sparse, passing through the occasional small town or village. I didn’t have too much of a goal for driving on this day; I could have gone to a multitude of places, including the Rum distillery, but opted against. Actually, half the attraction was just driving the roads. They may have been of about equal quality to the roads in South Africa, but being on an island the speed limit was set fairly low (40 km/h I believe); when you’re on an island, why would you need to go faster?

What The Roads Are Like In The Seychelles

I didn’t stop until I had pretty much rounded the South end of the road where it meets the Western side of the island. I popped out at Takamaka Beach, to find my first beach of the day. There were maybe two or three other visitors there on the beach, and they left after a few minutes of me standing there. It was a good spot to sit and start thinking about other beaches I wanted to go to as well as where I thought I might want to get lunch.

Takamaka Beach

My plan was to go to Anse Soleil to which there was a small hotel and restaurant. The books and internet had said that this was a beautiful secluded place and that the food wasn’t bad either. This required getting off the main road, which was fine enough. Then I had to turn off the secondary road to go down the hill down what looked like a one-lane driveway. Oh and that it was ridiculously steep. You see, that little Hyundai i10 I was driving already proved to me that it had less-than-decent power to tackle hills, and this had me thinking I was going to get the rental car stuck. After a short distance, I threw it in reverse and decided to inch my way back up.

Faced with that decision, I quickly needed to put into motion a Plan B. Thankfully on the same road as the cutoff for Anse Soleil, is the Four Seasons Resort Seychelles. You might be wondering…why would I be glad that a large luxury resort that I was not staying at is right there? Well, their beach is technically a public beach, and thus they have to let people on to the property for that purpose. It also means that you can take advantage of their restaurant (!) as well as a few other facilities (but not all). The downside is that you can’t drive on to the resort, and unlike the Hilton this resort is huge. As such, you have to park along the road outside the gate, which I happily did. As I started walking down the hill to the main resort, area, I also thankfully got picked up by one of their golf carts that took me the rest of the way.

I headed my way towards Kannel, their more casual restaurant and selected a table outside in the shade. By coming here, I knew that my lunch would likely be more expensive than my dinner that night, and after a few beers and a decent marlin pizza, well I was 60EUR in the hole! I think that took the record for the most expensive lunch that I’ve ever had, but I’m not sure if the quality matched the price. The service was great, but the pizza was just good, just not sure that it was worth the price. From that point, I decided it would be good to check out the beach; as a non-guest you aren’t permitted to use the beach chairs or any of the amenities like the pool, but I honestly don’t know how they would enforce it. I mean perhaps they would notice that as I walked around with a towel from the Hilton? I mean, really I think they are hoping for folks to follow the honor system here.

Kannel – Four Seasons Resort Seychelles

Marlin Pizza With Pineapple At Kannel

I will say that the sand on the beach here is quite possibly the softest that I’ve ever walked on. I mean, almost sink into the sand soft. Plus just in general the beach here is quite beautiful and if you work your way to the ends of the beach you be a bit on your own (it definitely gets crowded around the center where the pool is).

Beach At The Four Seasons Resort Seychelles

After catching a ride back up to the gate, I jumped back in my little Hyundai and kept heading North along the West Coast Road. I took it easy and stopped a few times along the way, but for the most part I just enjoyed the scenic drive. Now, at one point I did have the intention to try to hike a short trail, however as I got into the afternoon clouds were starting to roll in and I wasn’t sure if it would start raining. I opted for the safe bet and decided to take the road back over the mountains to Victoria. However, the Hyundai was really struggling. With the peddle to the floorboard, the car struggled to go up the hill, which only really became scary when a truck came flying up behind me and was clearly able to be in an appropriate gear for going over the mountain.

I weighted the options as to what to do next, and I could have stopped in Victoria to explore, but I decided instead to head back to the Hilton. I gave the front desk the keys to the rental car, and got cleaned up. I was going to go into Victoria, but figured that I would take the bus; so outside the front gate of hotel, I waited for the quite beat-up/run-down bus to come barreling around the corner. After handing over a low five rupees, I jumped on and headed for Victoria.

Going For A Bus Ride

From where I got off, the first site of interest was the Hindu Arulmigu Navasakti Vinayagar Temple; the only Hindu temple in the Seychelles serving the few thousand followers that live there. It’s not huge, but it’s definitely colorful on the outside!

Seychelles Hindu Temple

For the most part, I just walked the streets of Victoria. Most of the shops were closed at this point in the day and there aren’t many things to visit it seemed. One of the few things to see is however the Victoria Clocktower, which is over 100 years old and located in the middle of an intersection as a memorial to Queen Victoria. It kinda helps sums up that when you’re in the Seychelles you aren’t here to see things that are historical, you’re here to be in paradise!

Side Street In Victoria

Canal In Victoria

Victoria Clock Tower

Eventually I found myself what could only be described as a Seychellois dive bar. Foursquare has it listed as ‘Marine Charter’, however I doubt that is the actual name. Heck, it might not even have a name. It’s right at the marina and is not much more than a shack with beer and plastic chairs outside under a covering. I knocked back a few beers as I watched the boat traffic come and go, before eventually heading to dinner.

Boats, Boats, Boats

Like Any Good Dive, The Beer Was Cheap

I headed for The Pirates Arms as it seemed like a place that may be busy and lively based on what I read online. Unfortunately, when I showed up it was anything but that. Plus, I had expected to be somewhat pub-like and it really was just a restaurant. Being a bit underwhelmed by the place, I ordered a beer and a croque maddam which was a bit “meh”, but not really the dining highlight of my trip. I did at least enjoy a table by the window which was opened and let me see how not-busy Victoria is at night after the sun goes down. Note: The Pirates Arms closed in early 2016; apparently the building is going to be demolished and replaced with a modern building which supposedly include the Pirates Arms.

Inside The Now-Closed Pirates Arms

Through The Pirates Arms Window

Wrapping up my day, I had planned to take the bus back to the Hilton, which meant walking to the bus station. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the bus station you could tell that the buses were done running for the day…I was too late! That meant walking back down to the main drag to find a cab. I did manage to catch one back outside the Pirates Arms and found myself back at the Hilton without too much of a dent in my pocket.

Clock Tower By Night

As I wrapped up that full day, I kicked back on the couch and cracked open the tall can of 14% ABV beer that I picked up from a bodega in Victoria. I only managed a few sips though, as it was downright terrible! I thought about heading down to the bar at the Hilton to find something to wash out the foul taste, but opted to just hangout on the patio for a bit and listen to the waves before deciding to retreat to bed. My time in the Seychelles was fast coming to a close!

Do Not Recommend.

The Last Moments
Everything good must eventually come to an end, and my stay in the Seychelles was no exception. It also meant that my trip at this point was “downhill” in that a week while I was only halfway around the globe from Florida, a week from the day of my departure from this tropical isle I would be back home and at work. That weighed on me a little bit and I really wanted to spend some more time on this island!

Because of this I was determined to make my last few hours here to be as lazy as possible, enjoying breakfast at the Hilltop Restaurant one last time at the Hilton before retiring to a hammock in the shade at the resort’s beach. I didn’t want to leave, but eventually a taxi came by to whisk me off to the airport.

The Seychelles really did stand out on this trip. Of course all the locations did in the end for one reason or another, but it was here in the Seychelles where I found myself ridiculously relaxed and not having to worry about anything. I was so relaxed that I didn’t even use my cell phone the entire time I was on the island having decided to skip out on getting a SIM card or paying Verizon exorbitant roaming fees.

I’ve been hard-pressed to find a place with a natural beauty as Mahe Island does. From the secluded beaches to the mountains and everywhere in between, if you don’t find this island to be scenic then I think you have something wrong with you! It’s definitely in my top three destinations for scenic beauty that I’ve visited along with Switzerland and New Zealand. As such, I would recommend a trip here to anyone looking for an island getaway! It may be a little bit difficult to get to depending on where you are located (such as in the US), but it is definitely worth the journey. On the other hand, I kinda hope that not everyone winds up visiting the Seychelles as I think the fact that it isn’t completely overrun with tourists is one of the things that makes the Seychelles a great destination.

Posted in Africa, RTW, Seychelles, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Around The World In 21 Days: Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort

By Robert | Published May 15, 2016

Index:

  1. Introduction
  2. Delta Comfort+ ECP-ATL-JNB
  3. Hilton Sandton
  4. British Airways Economy JNB-PLZ
  5. Conrad Pezula
  6. Knysna and the Garden Route
  7. Westin Cape Town
  8. Exploring Cape Town + Penguins!
  9. British Airways Economy CPT-JNB
  10. Protea Hotel OR Tambo Airport
  11. Kenya Airways Economy JNB-NBO-DXB
  12. DoubleTree Hotel Jumeirah Beach
  13. Exploring Dubai
  14. Kenya Airways Economy DXB-NBO-SEZ
  15. Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort
  16. Exploring Mahe Island
  17. Kenya Airways Economy SEZ-NBO-BKK
  18. W Bangkok Hotel
  19. Exploring Bangkok
  20. Vietnam Airlines Economy BKK-HAN-NRT
  21. Back In Tokyo!
  22. Delta Air Lines Main Cabin NRT-DTW-ATL
  23. DoubleTree Atlanta Airport
  24. Delta Air Lines Comfort+ ATL-ECP
  25. Conclusion

Introduction
First of all…apologies to my very few readers that I have not continued on with updating about my RTW trip! A variety of things popped up, with work keeping me very busy and then taking another big trip, this time to New Zealand which took a lot of planning, much like this RTW. However, I am going to try to get through the second half of this trip over the next month…there’s some great stories still yet to be told and some fantastic hotels!

Actually, one of those fantastic hotels is the Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort. The Hilton Northolme, located on the Northwest Side of Mahe Island, is one of two Hilton Resorts (plus a DoubleTree Resort) within the Seychelles. There’s also the Le Méridien Fisherman’s Cove, which is part of Starwood. Basically, I had a number of options at my disposal between properties with my two primary chains that I stay at. There are many other resorts across the island as well, so there really are options. It’s hard enough deciding between the four various properties, but I’ll let you in on how I essentially came down to the Hilton Northolme.

For starters, the DoubleTree Allamanda Resort is located on the Southeast Side of the Island, which while features a lot of beaches is a good bit farther from the main city and capital of Victoria. Furthermore, it’s more the traditional resort/hotel layout, and just didn’t seem ‘special’ enough considering the fact that I flew half way around the world. Then there was the Hilton Seychelles Labriz Resort & Spa, which looked amazing, but it was on another smaller island and I would have been somewhat captive to the resort. Which, hey may not have been a bad thing, but I couldn’t have easily spent the time doing some of the things that I did. I mean really though, the Hilton Labriz really did look like a fantastic resort! The Le Méridien, looked like a good resort and is just down the hill from the Hilton Northolme, in the village of Beau Vallon; the only problem was that their rates weren’t that good for me and I was out of starpoints with some of my other stays coming up. Since my work travel mostly involves staying at Hilton HHonors properties, I rack those points up much quicker.

But what was it that made the Hilton Northolme jump out otherwise – I mean I really could have stayed at any of the other resorts and been happy. Part of it was the size – the Hilton Northolme is a rather small resort (although while I was there they were increasing the number of villas, so maybe less so now). Another part was the villas. They have two categories of villa, Hillside and Oceanfront, which both offer views of the water, with the Hillside located on the hill behind the Oceanfront Villas. I had booked a Hillside and hoped for the best that an upgrade would occur. On another note, it appears that the new construction are a new category of villas: The Grand Oceanview Pool Villa.

Arrival
After a cab ride from the airport and over the mountains, I arrived at the entry to the Hilton Northolme. Curiously, since the resort is sandwiched between the hill the road is on and the water, vehicle access is rather limited. In this case, there is a small parking lot and drop off spot right inside the gate of the property. There’s a small reception in a building here, but there was no one there when I arrived. I wasn’t worried or anything, and two minutes later a fellow showed up to grab my bags and take me down to the reception.

The reception is located in the main building/area which also houses the two restaurants and bar and is located more or less outside. I mean, we are in a tropical island paradise, why have things all cooped up inside? Unfortunately, upon reaching the front desk my villa wasn’t quite ready yet, but with the sunset already in progress it seemed like a mighty good idea to head over to the Oceanview Bar to wait with the sunset. I sat, relaxed on the patio drinking the local beer and feeling relaxed and ready to enjoy the next few days of not doing much at all!

Reception

First Sunset At The Hilton!

The Room
The really great thing I had found out the day before was that I had been upgraded to the Oceanfront Villa…I was excited! I’m sure I would have been happy in the Hillside Villa, but the Oceanfront Villa was almost like winning the lottery. I may have jumped around a bit in excitement the next morning when the sun came back out and I could appreciate the view.

King Oceanfront Villa

View From The Villa – West

View From The Villa – Southwest

The interior of the villa was exceptional! A nice large and very comfy king bed with netting should you choose to sleep with the doors and windows open was the main focus of the main room. Here, the staff had left me a welcome message on top of the bed, not in the form of a printed note, but of arranged plant clippings. Definitely a more unique way to do it, and definitely would you would expect at a resort where you might be having a romantic getaway (or you know a solo-traveler who just likes luxury hotels!). There was the typical ‘Welcome to our hotel’ note that I often get as a result of being a Hilton HHonors Diamond member (even if I was in between Diamond status at the time and only Gold – they’re systems I guess hadn’t updated since I had made the reservation several months earlier), laying out hotel benefits and amenities. Also waiting for me on the table in the living room was a welcome snack. I would have figured for a resort on an island for it to be fresh fruit, but it was instead scones and honey if I recall correctly.

King Bed.

How Romantic!

Welcome Snack

The living room emptied out to the patio via the double doors, which since they are also inline with the bed, it gives you a great view to wake up to! Also connected to the patio was the large bathroom, featuring a large tub and large shower that were located next to the doors, giving one an opportunity to shower with an oceanview, you know if you don’t mind being slightly exposed.

Living Room

The Very Large Bathroom

Can You Start Your Day A Better Way?

Dining
I did not make to each of the restaurants during my stay. I had breakfast each day in the Hilltop Restaurant, which was either included with my stay or was part of my status – something that I wasn’t clear on. Either way, I didn’t have to pay, and I would have considering that they put out a pretty good spread! Plus there was champagne/sparkling wine available as well, so how could you hate that? Like the rest of the hotel, it featured great views out over the water and was opened up to the outdoors. Considering that there was fantastic weather each of my mornings here, I don’t think you could ask for a better way to start the day. Plus, the service was top notch, even considering it was serve yourself for the most part. I don’t think I ever had a problem with a beverage being low, and that was dangerous considering how many glasses of the sparkling wine I had gone through! But again, no complaints!

Definitely No Complaints!

The Birds Also Enjoyed The Breakfast

Other than the Hilltop Restaurant, I had frequented the Oceanview Bar and Restaurant. While, I believe I only wound up eating one meal here on my first night, I came back almost every day for a few drinks in the evening. The staff here was excellent and typically engaged in a little conversation as well. It never once got busy, and life just seemed to move a little slower while on the bar deck with a beer in my hand.

Dinner, First Night

A Beer + A View? Always Fantastic.

I know That I wasn’t In The Caribbean, But A Mojito Felt So Right.

Unfortunately, I never did make it to fine dining option at the resort, Les Cocotiers. I guess there is always next time, right?

Amenities
Despite being a smaller resort, the Hilton Northolme has all the amenities that you would expect, but the best part is that you are not competing with many other people for use! There was the required, if slightly small, pool that had a fantastic view of the water, chairs to lay out on, fitness center, spa, and a beach with all the gear you could need.

Not A Bad Place To Cool Off After A Day Of Relaxing

My first morning at the resort, I had walked down to the spa after breakfast to inquire about scheduling a massage after breakfast. One of the benefits of staying at a smaller resort is that you aren’t going to have to fight over anything, and this meant getting a massage at practically any point. Consider the fact that I figured that I would probably find some way to get a sunburn sooner rather than later I had opted to go ahead and just get a massage right away since they had availability. I was invited into the treatment room which featured large glass doors looking out to the ocean and the coast. There was a little bit of a language barrier between the therapist and I, but once she got going I melted away into the massage table. Why can’t more of my days start out with a massage?

To be honest, that first day really was all about being lazy and seeing everything that the resort had to offer. So, after my massage, I headed back to my villa to change into clothing more appropriate for water activities. There’s a small beach located in the shadow of the main building that contains all the waterfront amenities. Here you are not going to find jet skis and overpriced rental kayaks; being a small resort they have most of what you would want right there, although perhaps not the jet skis (thankfully!). There’s a few lounge chairs up above the beach and a hammock in the shade which is the perfect place to sit back, relax, and watch the waves come in. There are plenty of snorkels and masks available, which is great as the water is crystal clear and is home to a number of fish, just a short distance in! They also have a kayak (which I never saw more than one, but never saw anyone ‘fight’ over it either), which I took out into for some paddling that afternoon. It was a little bit difficult as the waves were up just a bit, unlike when I try to normally go when the water is flat on the bay back home. The important thing is that I didn’t flip the kayak!

Gear On The Walkway To The Beach

I’m Glad These Were In The Shade – A Very Relaxing Spot!

The Beach At High Tide…Look At That Clear Water!

Nighttime At The Beach

The hotel staff will also happily arrange you any number of activities as well. Given my short stay, all I arranged through them however was a rental car for my second full day on the island. Despite being relatively last minute they were able to get me a car from down the hill in the village at a not too terrible rate of 50EUR. The rental car company delivered to the hotel and for a return, I just gave the keys to the front desk…talk about easy!

Overall Impressions
Wow! The Hilton Seychelles Northolme really is a fantastic property! Seriously, this may have been one of the best hotel stays that I’ve had and I’ve had some pretty awesome ones over the years. The small resort setting turned out to be fantastic, and definitely helped me feel relaxed. I didn’t feel crowded in and to be honest, outside of the main building I rarely saw other guests. I mean you would see maybe a group of five at the beach at any one given point, but that was mostly it. You do feel like you’ve escaped to an island in the middle of nowhere!

Then we get to the staff here at the resort, to which every one that I interacted with was just great! I may have only been here for three nights, but they had made me feel like I was an ‘old regular’ my first day there. Granted, I was probably the easy guest to remember, given that I was probably the only person staying at the resort who was not there with anyone (I really do mean that). The first day or so I kept getting questions like “will your significant other be joining you?”, to which I also got a bit of a amused look half of the time when I explained that I was not their “typical guest” and there on my own. Perhaps being the one solo guest made me stand out a bit more to the staff, but I don’t think that would have had any impact on their service. I really can’t say enough about how everyone here was just “on point” for the duration of my stay.

If I were to find myself back in the Seychelles, which I do hope happens again, I would enthusiastically stay at the Hilton again; after this stay it definitely moved on to the list of my favorite hotels in the world. If anything I need to make a return visit to check out the new additional villas that have opened since my stay here last year!

Posted in Africa, Hilton HHonors, Hotels, RTW, Seychelles, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Around The World In 21 Days: Kenya Airways Economy DXB-NBO-SEZ

By Robert | Published March 13, 2016

Index:

  1. Introduction
  2. Delta Comfort+ ECP-ATL-JNB
  3. Hilton Sandton
  4. British Airways Economy JNB-PLZ
  5. Conrad Pezula
  6. Knysna and the Garden Route
  7. Westin Cape Town
  8. Exploring Cape Town + Penguins!
  9. British Airways Economy CPT-JNB
  10. Protea Hotel OR Tambo Airport
  11. Kenya Airways Economy JNB-NBO-DXB
  12. DoubleTree Hotel Jumeirah Beach
  13. Exploring Dubai
  14. Kenya Airways Economy DXB-NBO-SEZ
  15. Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort
  16. Exploring Mahe Island
  17. Kenya Airways Economy SEZ-NBO-BKK
  18. W Bangkok Hotel
  19. Exploring Bangkok
  20. Vietnam Airlines Economy BKK-HAN-NRT
  21. Back In Tokyo!
  22. Delta Air Lines Main Cabin NRT-DTW-ATL
  23. DoubleTree Atlanta Airport
  24. Delta Air Lines Comfort+ ATL-ECP
  25. Conclusion

Introduction
As with all good things, my time in Dubai came to an end before I even knew it. I tried to cram much into that last night, including my visit to Barasti, but eventually that night I had to go back to my hotel to finish packing and then checking out. Much like my arrival into Dubai which was in the middle of the night, my departure would be the same – Kenya Airways turns around their aircraft here with minimal delay. That’s right, I would be flying Kenya Airways again, due to their excellent route network across Eastern Africa and of course being the only way for me to get to the Seychelles while being on a SkyTeam carrier. Really, my fate was kinda locked in because of my destinations, but these next two flights gave me even more opportunities to see what Kenya Airways was all about, and on this leg, get to try the other Kenya Airways lounge in Nairobi – the Pride Lounge.

Check-In
Having used a taxi to get from the airport when I arrived, I figured taking one to get back would probably be best. Especially with some of the lost Uber drivers I encountered in Dubai (although to be honest, I’m sure they can all find the airport)…

I made it to the airport in relatively no time with my driver dropping me off in front of the terminal. Perhaps I thought the terminal would be a bit more grand, but I have to admit it was not as modern as I thought it would be. I’m sure the portion Emirates is housed in is, but those of us flying the ‘lesser’ airlines, it wasn’t a terminal to right home about.

Thankfully at the the least, I was able to get a luggage cart for my ridiculously heavy and awkward duffel; the one thing I had learned at this point on my trip was that backpack straps be damned, there’s just no good way to carry that bag.

The Kenya Airways counter was easy enough to find, being at the end of one of the rows of check-in desks, and I made my way into the Sky Priority lane. None of the lanes were moving exceptionally quick, but I was here plenty early so there wasn’t much rush. As it was my turn, I was dealt with quickly; bags tagged, boarding passes issued, and an invitation for the KLM Lounge. It was then through immigration and security which was quick and then I was on my way to the concourse and the lounge.

Kenya Airways Check-In Dubai

KLM Crown Lounge Dubai
Since Kenya Airways had issued me an invitation to the KLM Lounge, I had decided to head there. One thing I always find interesting is when airlines in the same alliance will issue an invitation to business class and frequent flier members for the purposes of the lounge that is run by another airline in the same alliance when in reality, I should be able to get in with my boarding pass or elite status alone. It was rather interesting back in 2014 where KLM had to issue me an invitation to visit the Delta Sky Club in Santiago when I was a Delta Platinum Medallion flying in KLM World Business Class back in 2014.

Before entering the lounge though, I made sure to stop by the airport branch of Emirates Post – the post office of the UAE. I send postcards back to myself in the US during my visits overseas as it makes for an interesting and cheap souvenir. During my stay though in Dubai, I had almost forgot to do this very important task! Luckily, the Post Office was open and it was also a good way to get rid of a few dirhams left in my pocket.

KLM Crown Lounge Entrance

Upon entering the lounge, I was greeted by the one agent working, who took my invitation and welcomed me inside. The lounge, I must say was on the small side, and at this point in the evening I was the only one in here. Actually, I would be the only person in here for quite some time.

KLM Crown Lounge

KLM Crown Lounge – Bar

As it approached closer to my departure time, I decided to go and walk the terminal for a bit, check out the duty free, spend a few more dirhams in my pocket before I made my way to the gate. I didn’t really find anything of very much interest, and only wound up buying a bottle of water, so that I would have one for my flight south.

Much More Modern Than The Ticketing Hall

I admittedly got the gate area much sooner than I probably needed to, and wound up hanging out in the gate area for about a half an hour before boarding. There were a few missteps when it came time to boarding – I think everyone was anxious to board as the minute someone came on the PA system, everyone stood up. Somehow I managed to make it on during the Sky Priority boarding group…

Kenya Airways #311
Dubai, UAE (DXB) to Nairobi, Kenya (NBO)
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Depart: 2:50AM Arrive: 6:55AM
Aircraft: Boeing 777 Seat: 12D (Economy Class)

Just as with the flight up to Dubai, what was supposed to be a flight on the brand new 787, turned out to really be a 777. And my seat wasn’t that much different either; I was in the same row as the inbound flight, but on the opposite aisle. That being said, there was no appreciable difference between the two flights in terms of comfort or in-flight entertainment. To be honest, on this sector, all I wanted to do was to do the impossible: sleep in economy class. I struggle with the sleeping while sitting up thing, but somehow I had managed to get a few hours of shuteye as we headed south. It probably wasn’t the best quality sleep, but it would let me keep on going! In fact, I think I even managed to sleep through the meal service!

On The Ground In Nairobi

Kenya Airways Pride Lounge
As with my other inbound flight to Nairobi we found ourselves parked at a remote stand and taking a bus from the plane to the terminal. The process was pretty much identical – disembark via stairs, cram on to bus, get dropped off, clear through security (was just as much of a breeze as previously), and done. With nearly 5 hours between flights on this leg of my trip, I made my way to the Pride Lounge, since I had previously visited the Simba lounge. The Pride Lounge, as I understand it, is the newer of the two and is most definitely much larger, much brighter, and has more amenities. Much like the Simba lounge, it’s on the level above the main terminal, meaning a short elevator ride up.

Kenya Airways Pride Lounge Entrance

Upon entering the lounge, I was quickly checked in and informed of the details of my connecting flight. I then made my way down the corridor to the main lounge to start scoping things out. Kenya Airways did a fantastic job with breaking up the space and offering multiple different seating areas. With places to lounge, an area with tables and chairs for eating, a quiet/sleeping room and other spaces that were more secluded that would be good for working they really did well with the space. Add in the fact that there is a ton of natural light thanks to the large windows lining the one side of the lounge.

Kenya Airways Pride Lounge

Kenya Airways Pride Lounge

Dining Area

First order of business was to get some breakfast! Kenya Airways had a pretty decent spread on display, offering both hot and cold options that surely everyone could find something to satisfy their hunger. I will admit though that the waffles were a little bit of a miss, but everything else was fairly decent. I will say that they also did a great job of making sure that everything was well stocked as well. I don’t think I saw any food that was ever completely out.

Food And Bar Area

Breakfast Of Champions

After I enjoyed my breakfast, it was time to move on to freshening up with a shower. Inquiring at the front desk, there did not seem to be a waiting list or otherwise for a shower. Basically, you have to catch the bathroom attendant and let him know that you’d like to take one; at least on the men’s side there were two shower rooms that were available. If one is available they’ll let you in, or in my case I was told to check back in 15 minutes or so.

The shower room itself is large enough and they provide you with everything you need. The one thing that did seem interesting is that it appears that they provide what must be the Business Class amenity kit in the shower room. I can’t think why I would need the socks though! Water pressure was decent, the temperature of the water was nice and hot, and the towels were fluffy. I pretty much can’t complain! It always helps to get that shower on these long international travel days – nothing refreshes you better.

Pride Lounge Shower

The Towels Were For The ‘Wrong’ Lounge…

After the shower, I made my way towards the quiet room to kick back while thumbing through my Seychelles guide book. Interestingly enough though, I did find an error in the book – I think Lonely Planet did a copy and past job for an element in a page layout, because the quick facts for the Seychelles actually matched up with Mauritius…

Quiet Room

Seychelles Or Mauritius?

Soon enough, as always my extended stay at the Pride Lounge would end and it would be time to head towards the gate of my next flight.

Flights Going All Across Africa

Kenya Airways #250
Nairobi, Kenya (NBO) to Mahe Island, Seychelles (SEZ)
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Depart: 11:30AM Arrive: 3:39PM
Aircraft: Embraer 190 Seat: 12J (Economy Class)

Having expected that the gate situation would be similar to my flight to Dubai, I decided to leave the lounge a bit later. Upon making my way to the lower level gates, I found that most of the gates weren’t actually miniature holding pens. Of course, since I left close to what was identified as the boarding time, I wasn’t going to spend much time there anyways.

The load heading out to the Seychelles was pretty light based on the number of folks that were in the gate area, and that is even taking into account that the flight was operated with an Embraer 190 aircraft. Once boarding was called, it was out to the bus, and then out to the remote stand…

Boarding For Mahe Island

Apparently, Row 12 and I are the best of friends when it comes to Kenya Airways, as on this leg I found myself in seat 12J; which is also an odd number/letter to see on an aircraft that size! I’m assuming that Kenya Airways has standardized seat numbers across all their aircraft, which is pretty smart. In this case, I had a window seat, as I had wanted to be able to take in Mahe Island as we approached, although for most of the three hour flight there isn’t anything to look at except the Indian Ocean.

With the light load on the flight, I was able to spread out a bit. Seat comfort was generally decent and legroom was about what you would expect as well. Not tons of it and not digging that deep into my knees.

Embraer 190 Legroom

Interestingly Enough, This Was The Boeing 777 That I Flew From Dubai On

It wasn’t long after take off that we were out over the Indian Ocean and above scattered clouds. From about this point, the flight attendants came through and started the service, which was done in the same order as on my Johannesburg to Nairobi leg several days prior.

At Cruising Altitude

The lunch was about as good as mystery meat can be – I believe they said that it was lamb, but you never really can tell with a lot of in-flight meals. Even being the mystery that it was, it actually wasn’t terrible and the cake for the desert was actually moist. In short, it was a heck of a lot better than the fish I had on my flight from Johannesburg.

Kenya Airways Economy Class Lunch NBO-SEZ

In-flight service was pretty decent throughout the flight with the flight attendants passing through the cabin a few times throughout. In the last several minutes of the flight, there started to be signs of life below. First boats and then followed up by the islands! The flight made a fantastic approach into Mahe, and I had correctly picked the best side of the aircraft as we came around the North side of the island and then entered the pattern into the airport on the East side of the island. I got a fantastic view of it all from above!

Getting Close!

Passing Over Northern Mahe

Landed!

Arrival
Once on the ground, I disembarked and made my way across the ramp towards immigration. Because I was on a flight from Kenya, they wanted to see proof of being vaccinated against Yellow Fever before I could proceed to immigration. While I technically didn’t need it as a result of having been a transit only passenger, I’m sure if I had not been vaccinated and didn’t posses a yellow card, it would have made things more interesting for me. Thankfully having that card meant quickly getting through the health inspection and to one of the immigration officers.

On The Ground In The Seychelles!

The good thing about the Seychelles is that nearly everyone can enter without a visa for short term stays. What this does mean however is that the immigration officers go into probably more detail than you’ll find in most countries. Make sure you have a copy of your itinerary and proof of when you are leaving, as when your passport is stamped (with their unique stamp, I’ll say), it will be annotated as valid only through your departure date and not a generic 30/60/90 days, as with so many countries. That being said, it really was relatively painless, and customs was a breeze as well.

After a quick stop at the ATM in the open air arrivals and departures hall, I found my way to the taxi stand to make my way to my residence for the duration of my stay – the Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort & Spa.

Posted in Africa, Dubai, Kenya Airways, RTW, Seychelles, SkyTeam, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Around The World In 21 Days: Exploring Dubai

By Robert | Published March 6, 2016

Index:

  1. Introduction
  2. Delta Comfort+ ECP-ATL-JNB
  3. Hilton Sandton
  4. British Airways Economy JNB-PLZ
  5. Conrad Pezula
  6. Knysna and the Garden Route
  7. Westin Cape Town
  8. Exploring Cape Town + Penguins!
  9. British Airways Economy CPT-JNB
  10. Protea Hotel OR Tambo Airport
  11. Kenya Airways Economy JNB-NBO-DXB
  12. DoubleTree Hotel Jumeirah Beach
  13. Exploring Dubai
  14. Kenya Airways Economy DXB-NBO-SEZ
  15. Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort
  16. Exploring Mahe Island
  17. Kenya Airways Economy SEZ-NBO-BKK
  18. W Bangkok Hotel
  19. Exploring Bangkok
  20. Vietnam Airlines Economy BKK-HAN-NRT
  21. Back In Tokyo!
  22. Delta Air Lines Main Cabin NRT-DTW-ATL
  23. DoubleTree Atlanta Airport
  24. Delta Air Lines Comfort+ ATL-ECP
  25. Conclusion

Introduction
Dubai – It’s easily one of the most interesting cities in the world, if anything for how quickly it went from a small spot on the coast in a desert country to a massive city that attracts the craziest projects and some of the wealthiest people. It’s given the world the largest mall, the tallest building, an indoor ski-slope, beaches, luxury resorts, and so much more. But really, all of Dubai isn’t about the glitz and glam that the more recent build-out of the city is all about. There is still the central core of the city, along Dubai Creek, that is very much not high rises or glass-walled buildings. Granted, the “old” Dubai has become more or less just another one of the tourist attractions for the city, but it at least at times feels like the you’re in the Middle East. My experience isn’t as varied as some, having been to only Dubai and Bahrain (several years ago), but you still get that feel. For most travelers, I think that is what they will like about Dubai – it’s safe, it’s modern, but still allows you to have that Middle East experience. Plus, despite the pricing, you will have a good time when the sunsets!

Initial Exploration (Of The Malls)
Having arrived in Dubai in the middle of the night on Kenya Airways, I slept in fairly late at my hotel for my stay, the DoubleTree Hotel Jumeirah Beach. I wasn’t sure at first about what I would try to do on this first day, and since I had two other days to partake in activities, I didn’t feel a lot of pressure to rush around. Besides, as I walked out of the DoubleTree that first day late in the morning, the heat really hit me! Of course, I was in Dubai in June, which is probably the exact time of the year where you would think would be the worst time to visit. Thankfully the distance to the tram station was really no worse than a 10 minute walk, but even in 100F+ temperatures, you feel it quick.

Given the outdoor temperatures, I decided to spend most of the day checking out the absurdness that is Dubai’s malls. Starting small, I found myself at the Dubai Marina Mall, which conveniently had a tram stop. This mall was definitely small on the “Dubai Scale”, however it would still rank as a fairly large mall back here in the US. Most of the stores were fairly normal too – the one that really stood out though? Borders. The bankrupt bookseller still soldiers on in the Middle East (I do get that it is more than likely a licensee who is continue to license the brand from whomever bought up Borders when they shut down). I did not spent a very long time here, but I did find myself having to buy a new razor here after realizing that I left mine somewhere in Africa…thankfully the Gillette Mach 3 can be bought anywhere!

Dubai Marina Mall

Borders?

Up next was the Mall of the Emirates, of which I headed towards from the Dubai Marina Mall in the back of a taxi. This proved to be cheap enough and fairly efficient and best of all from having to take the tram to one of the nearby metro stops. The Mall of the Emirates is properly impressive. The Mall itself is amazingly massive, and I’ve been to large malls here in the US (Looking at you Mall of America). Plus this is where you find Ski Dubai, the world’s most unlikely ski-slope, which I’ll get into a bit later. The first order of business though at this mall was getting a local SIM card from the Etisalat shop. The process of getting the SIM was fairly painless, as well as the pricing; for AED55 I was able to get a very good amount of data as well as a little tiny bit of call time in the event that I needed to make a quick phone call.

I found myself watching life-size Monopoly for a bit being played in one of the atriums, amazed at finding a Vertu store (Google it, if you don’t know what it is), staring through the windows at the frozen winter wonderland at Ski Dubai, and just walked as much as I could before realizing I was going in circles.

Giant Monopoly, Anyone?

Mall Of The Emirates

From the Mall of the Emirates, it’s very easy to use the Dubai Metro system to the world’s largest – the Dubai Mall. Just in case the Mall of the Emirates wasn’t large enough for you, there’s this place, which is somehow even larger! In fact, it will probably be the largest for a good long while, as it appeared that they were adding even more space by adding a new wing to the Mall! Dubai, really is the perpetual construction site. I will say that arriving via the metro was interesting in that the metro station is quite the hike to/from the mall. One must traverse a series of sky bridges that make you feel like you walk a mile before you actually enter the mall. It could be worse though; it could be all outside.

Once inside the mall I did as what I did with the other two malls – walked around and just took it in. I browsed at a few shops (almost buying things in the process), watched the sea-life swim around in the very large aquarium, checked out the multi-story indoor waterfall, had a snack, and plotted my next move.

Indoor Aquarium

The Indoor Waterfall

Mall Exterior

What was that next move? The Burj Khalifa of course! The world’s tallest building is conveniently located at the Dubai Mall, or more appropriately the entrance for the observation deck. I had pre-purchased a ticket, so there wasn’t too bad of a wait and even the line wasn’t that bad to get through. Just a lot of corridors as you snake your way from the mall to the base of the Burj and then up to the top.

It’s A Tall Building…

It doesn’t take long to reach the observation deck on the 124th floor, but once there you can make your way to the relatively small observation deck that faces northward and and spans roughly about 90-degrees in either direction. Large glass panels are there for safety, although there are cut-outs in the glass, so you can get a photo of Dubai, minus the glare. I did spend a good bit out here, although one couldn’t make out really any of the famous landmarks due to a haze. I was able to see a little bit of “The World”, though.

Observation Deck

“The World” Islands Off The Coast Of Dubai

Dubai Cityscape

Looking Up – Still Plenty Of Floors To The Top

And Of Course, There’s Me!

Souqs and Dubai Creek
On my second full day within Dubai, I made sure to see the “old” side of the city, away from all the modern and recent developments. Getting into the old city was easy enough; I was able to take the metro all the way from my hotel to a short walking distance to museums, the creek, and shops. My first destination was to walk the 15 minutes or so from the Al Fahidi Metro Station to the Al Fahidi Fort, which houses the Dubai Museum. Walking these streets definitely reminded me of my first experience with the Middle East, Bahrain, in 2012. Unfortunately unlike when I was in Bahrain, I was here when it was the middle of the summer.

This Feels More Like The Middle East

It Would Be Interesting To See How Much Is Spent On Keeping Grass Green…

The museum made for a good refuge from the sun for a bit, and after touring the exhibits (nothing super notable, but does go into the history of Dubai especially, pre-oil) I made my way for Souq #1. The Textile Souq, which is located right along side Dubai Creek, is a more modern outside corridor with shops lining each side selling primarily woven products. Sure, none of the items are probably made in Dubai, and everything is probably marked up significantly, but if you like to haggle it can be fun. I know I did when I passed back through in the afternoon, and walked away with two scarves. As always with places like this, you will have the vendors try to do everything possible to get you into their shops; you just have to remember that you can keep walking and if you go in and don’t like anything, you can always walk away. Don’t get trapped!

Inside Al Fahidi Fort

Textile Souq

One is also afforded the possibility of crossing Dubai Creek using an abra, which is a small wooden boat that features two benches running along the centerline for people to sit for the short crossing of the creek. This is considered public transit and is very cheap, coming in at something like 1AED (or roughly US$0.25). If you’re doing the Souq circuit, then the water taxi is good from going from the Textile Souq to the Spice Souq, which is more or less right across the water.

Abras Making Runs Up And Down Dubai Creek

Riding An Abra

When I walked up, I saw crowd after crowd of tourists on tours, so I quickly started walking elsewhere, by going down some of the back alleys and passageways and getting away from the crowds. Did I find anything too surprising? No, but you do get to see everyday people go about their life and no one really tried to lure me into a shop. It was nice!

Look! Tourists!

In The Back Alleys

I walked around for a good bit, more or less walking along random city streets and eventually wound up at Naif Souq, which wasn’t anything too remarkable other than it was indoors. From there it was to the Gold Souq, which aside from just being interesting at looking at all the gold in the windows (although I wonder how much of what was on display was real). The only annoyance here is that several times as I walked through did people trying to sell me beverages approach me to buy something. As with anything like that, it’s usually best to just keep on walking.

Gold Souq

That’s A Lot Of Gold…

Ski Dubai
Skiing. Dubai. You’ve probably heard before that Dubai has an indoor ski-slope in one of the malls, and I’m here to tell you that it’s very true! The Mall of the Emirates, features this indoor winter wonderland, and I knew that I just had to go and do experience this first hand. Especially after spending the previous day out in the heat, I knew that this would be a great way to cool down!

Paying my entry fee, I changed into the appropriate winter gear that they provide – snow pants, a jacket, boots, and gloves. Obviously, the average resident or visitor to Dubai isn’t going to have these things when it is 108F outside! Once you kit up and stash everything else in a locker, you can proceed “out” into the the snow. Now, to actually go skiing, you have to first demonstrate that you are proficient before they will let you go down the slope, which means there aren’t many folks actually skiing or snowboarding. They do offer lessons, but on top of all this there are plenty of other activities to keep people happy. You can ride the chair lift all the way to the top and back down (or get off halfway and enjoy a snack at a cafe), there are snow activities to keep you otherwise occupied, although for me the star attraction was the…Penguins!

Chillin’ Out On The Slope

Yes, Ski Dubai features a number of penguins that live at the attraction. They are a mixture of Gentoo and King penguins, and throughout the day they do multiple shows for the visitors to the attraction. However, one can also book various encounters with the Penguins in between those times. I, of course, had to do this! I opted to go with the cheapest option, which at 175AED came out to about $50; not that I could have purchased one of the more expensive options as most were fully booked! Either way, when you do the Penguin Encounter, you meet near the entrance and one of the staff members will lead you through a few corridors to watch a video. It’s basically Penguin 101 and a safety message; apparently you shouldn’t try to startle them…

Penguins!

From there, they take you into the encounter area, which is a small area for your group to sit around while they bring some of these awkwardly awesome birds out. The group is small – mine had maybe 7 people in it, so you definitely are crowded in. The King Penguins were brought out, two of them, for us to interact with. There was the “usual” show the animal off bit, before we started our encounters. First they had people sit on a “rock” in their groups (Ha! I was a group of one!) while the penguins hopped around you and stood on each side of you. Naturally, this was a photo-op for their photographer. Once everyone had been through that, it was time to “hug” the penguins.

I got the opportunity to try this with one of the penguins, while the other unfortunately wouldn’t stop preening the entire time. That’s fine by me, I now know what a penguin feels like! In case you were wondering, it’s a little greasy…

Basically, in the end, it may have been one of the happiest days of my trip!

Food and Drink
Dubai, as a global city, won’t disappoint you when it comes to dining and drinking. Well, maybe the prices for drinking, but some places make up for it! While I did eat at the DoubleTree for some of my breakfasts and a dinner, I made sure to try some other places as well throughout Dubai.

Sure, I could have gone and went to a Texas Roadhouse or any other established American chain restaurants (because they really are everywhere), but what is the point of that when you are traveling? I always try to avoid those as much as possible, although usually a McDonald’s makes it through the cracks. In this case, that meant getting a McArabia Chicken in the Mall of the Emirates after spending time at Ski Dubai. At least it’s a menu item that they don’t have in the US!

It’s A Menu Item I Wish We Had In The US

Starting with the most important meal of the day, Breakfast; the one morning that I did not eat the generally good offerings at the DoubleTree was when I walked about two blocks down the street from the hotel to PAUL Bakery and Cafe. It turned out that PAUL is a chain of French bakery-cafes, featuring table service versus the counter service that you might find at a Panera Bread or Corner Bakery Cafe in the US. I had ordered the Eggs Benedict, which is what I always use to judge a place on their breakfast/brunch, and it pretty much did not disappoint. It also wins on location, as it was only a 5 minute walk from my hotel – making it easy to escape eating at the hotel.

PAUL Bakery and Cafe

Down on the creek, I had decided to visit the restaurant Bait Al Wakeel, which was noted in many places, but with that comes knowing that you’re at a tourist establishment. That being said, it does provide fantastic views of the Dubai Creek, and in the shade! That alone is probably the most important part of this restaurant when it is over 100F outside. I kept my meal light and for the most part focused on figuring out how to consume as much water as possible. Also, while this place is pretty touristy, when I decided to stop by in the early afternoon, it wasn’t busy at all, with only a few tables occupied. This meant I was able to secure a table right up next to the creek and be able to watch all the water traffic!

Dubai Creek from Bait Al Wakeel

At the Mall of the Emirates on my first day, I tried the restaurant Al Hallab Restaurant & Sweets. This place is one of the many food court areas within the mall, although this food court was primarily sit down table service establishments with both “indoor” and “outdoor” seating. Lebanese food is the name of the game here, and the service is quick. I believe I had tried the Arayes – because why wouldn’t I get something that included lamb and pita bread?!?

My final night in Dubai, since I had limited time and wanted to get one last night in before getting on my middle of the night departure back to Nairobi, I decided to head to Barasti Beach. Part restaurant, part club, part beach front bar, Barasti is definitely one of the most well known places to imbibe in the city as well as probably one of the largest. Located the Le Meridien Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina, it was very easy to get to from my hotel via the Dubai Tram and alighting at Mina Seyahi Tram Station (located right across the street). Here, I kept it simple: burger and fries. Yes, how very American of me right? Well when you come here, you aren’t going to find “local” food on the menu. Plus, word was they did a decent burger, so I went for it. I was not disappointed. The other thing that didn’t disappoint? I showed up and it was happy hour still! Hooray for marginally cheaper beer!

And that is the thing with Dubai, if you choose to drink, it’s going to be expensive. Why is this? Well, keeping in mind that the UAE and Dubai are for the most part fairly conservative and that means alcohol is viewed as less-than-favorable. However, unlike some Emirates within the UAE, Dubai decided to allow for the establishment of bars and serving of alcohol, just with some caveats. For starters, you won’t see any being served outside of a hotel – this is the only place where bars can be established. On top of this the Government levies high taxes/tariffs on alcohol as well leading to abnormally high prices. While I’m used to paying US$5 for a so-so beer here in the Florida beach town I live in, for example you can find yourself paying over US$10 for a single Stella Artois. And don’t even think about mixing drinking and driving – even the slightest bit in your system will be considered drunk driving! Be smart and and make sure you use a taxi, Uber, or take public transit…It’s easy enough and you won’t run the risk!

That being said, I definitely checked out several bars during my stay. Going back to Barasti at the Le Meridien, after I had finished dinner I made my way down to the sand to watch the sunset with a beer in my hand. There were plenty of lounge chairs and really this was the best way to end my time in Dubai. Of course, I’m a complete sucker for sand, sunsets, and a beer. Barasti though is properly massive with multiple different areas. I rotated around to a few of the different bar areas spread around the property. Of course with the restaurant, multiple bar areas, and the club aspect, it really reminded me of an establishment in my town, Spinnaker. It was the Spinnaker of Dubai…

Barasti Beach

Other nights I visited a number of other establishments including Girders & Girders Garden, The Underground, and McGettigan’s. Girders & Girders was an easy choice as it was just a block away from my hotel at the Ocean View Hotel. Located on the second floor, it’s accessed via stairs on the outside of the property. Hardly anyone was sitting in the outdoor portion, and nearly everyone was inside where there was some live music happening. The place itself gets pretty loud, and judging by the crowd this definitely seems like a popular spot. I only stayed for a few drinks before requesting an Uber to check out another spot.

Given the number of British expats who live in Dubai, as well as those who like all things British, it’s no surprise that you will find a “British pub” in Dubai. In my case, I made the trek to The Underground, located in the basement of the Habtoor Grand Beach Resort & Spa which itself it located on the North end of the Dubai Marina. It was a little tricky to find as there was not any signage upon entering the hotel lobby, but with asking a staff member, I made my way downstairs and through a few corridors before I wound up at the “pub”. Now, given the name of the place, I think you can guess how it is themed. The bar itself is inside what I think is supposed to be an “underground car”, although part of me thinks they just painted a camper trailer to look like one. Service was a bit of a miss and aside from the band playing (who set up shortly after I got there and I’m pretty sure was the band that was playing at Girders earlier in the evening!), this place just didn’t feel like it had a great vibe. Almost felt a little cold, but I still hung around for a few pints while I enjoyed the music.

Live Music At ‘The Underground’

Finally, we get to McGettigan’s, which as you might guess is an “Irish Pub”. Although in reality it’s only that in name only, as there isn’t anything too ‘Irish’ about the place. It didn’t have really any of the traditional Irish Pub decor, and it was separated into two areas one darker area that had live music and a brighter area that seemed to be more for the casual drinking with friends type of night. Overall, there was a pretty good crowd, but the night ended what seemed all too soon; only able to get a single pint in before last call was sounded. Really the only problem that I had with this place was getting to here and back to my hotel in a Taxi. The drivers in both cases didn’t really know where they were going and despite me trying to show them on Google Maps, well let’s just say I more or less round up taking very circuitous routes in both cases. Another reason why Uber is so great…and they do have it in Dubai! The only reason I didn’t that night? The wait times for an Uber coupled with surge pricing.

Conclusion
I’ve got to say, Dubai definitely lived up to my expectations. Everything was pretty much over the top; the malls, the buildings, attractions, and even the temperature. I was glad that I was able to see some of the “old city” and although it got a bit touristy at times, it’s always good to see how the true majority of locals live versus the life of the Western expats. The one thing that did surprise me though about Dubai was just how easy it was to get around at times. Between the Dubai Metro, Tram, Taxis and Uber, I was pretty much able to get around everywhere in the city without too much hassle – and minimal time outside. Granted it still isn’t as easy as say somewhere like Amsterdam for getting around, but I think part of this is also just how spread out Dubai is – even my middle of the night taxi ride from the airport to the hotel took a good while. There is really only one thing that I would do differently if I were to go back anytime soon to Dubai: go in the winter. Seriously, going in June was a little bit of a mistake since it gets way too hot way too early. Having been to the region before in January, I can say it is most definitely better to go then when it can actually get slightly cool outside. On the plus side, the hotels are a bit cheaper in Summer and it makes Ski Dubai seem that much more worth it!

Posted in Dubai, RTW, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

My 2015 Travel Year In Review

By Robert | Published January 24, 2016

With 2016 now very much underway, I think it’s time to look back on 2015 and recap my travels from the past year! Of course one trip pretty much dominates the year with my three-week Around The World itinerary that I took in June. This marked several firsts, including my first time to many new places (and a continent at that!), but also had several repeat appearances. My work took me back to familiar ol’ San Diego for extended periods of time, so I got to spend more time in that great city; and there was even a super impromptu road trip to Atlanta and a weekend in Orlando catching up with an old college roommate and friend.

Oddly enough though, outside those two road trips and my RTW trip, there really wasn’t any other personal travel. I wish I had been able to do more, but I just remind myself that I had the equivalent of many years worth of trips all rolled into the RTW – so I don’t quite feel like I missed out or stayed home all year! In fact, by my estimates, I spent somewhere over 25% of the year away from home.

As the year ended, I also found myself in a situation where I had to do a status run in order to maintain my Delta Gold Medallion status. Since my RTW was an award ticket, all my trips were work trips so I didn’t have the usual cushion from personal trips to help round out keeping status. I wasn’t going to let myself drop to Silver Medallion (Even fewer upgrades! No Sky Priority! No International Lounge Access!), so in mid-December, I flew out to Los Angeles for a one day trip. Which gave me just enough to bounce my MQM total over 50,000 and give me a little bit to start 2016 out with.

In terms of other elite statuses, I was able to re-obtain Hilton HHonors Diamond status which due to very little work travel in 2014 I dropped to Silver in April, got back to Gold in May and Diamond in October. SPG Gold I easily re-qualified for and I think may have been the first time I qualified based on Nights versus stays. I’m waiting to see what happens with the announced SPG-Marriott merger, and may be adjusting my hotel elite status strategy in 2016. I also still have Hertz President’s Circle (thanks to my Delta Platinum Medallion status that I had through Jan 2015), and Avis First Preferred Plus.

If I had to pick the big highlights from my travels this year they would be:

  • Flying Around The World – I mean how could it not be #1 on the list?
  • Seeing the Penguins at Betty’s Bay outside Cape Town…then “hugging” one in Dubai.
  • Blowing the tire of my rental car in South Africa, within the first two hours.
  • Finding myself very carefree on Mahe Island, the Seychelles for a few days.
  • Catching up with an old friend from high school who now lives in Bangkok as I was passing through.
  • Impressing the people of Tokyo with my singing abilities in that basement karaoke bar.

Flights:
Number of Flight Segments: 45
Number of Airlines: 4 (Delta Air Lines (35), Kenya Airways (6), Vietnam Airlines (2), British Airways (2))
Total Miles Flown: 62,168
Time Spent in the Air: 6 days, 6 hours, 37 minutes
Average Flight Distance/Length: 1,382 Miles / 3 hours 20 minutes
Longest Flight: ATL-JNB (Atlanta, GA to Johannesburg, ZA) – 8,439 miles, 15 hours 21 minutes
Shortest Flight: LAX-SAN (Los Angeles, CA to San Diego, CA) – 109 miles, 51 minutes
Aircraft Flown On: MD-88 (8), 737 (6), 717 (5), A319 (5), 767 (5), 757 (5), 777 (3), E190 (2), 747 (1), A330 (1), A321 (1), 787 (1), CRJ900 (1), E175 (1)

Definitely Not As Much Flying In First Class As I Am Used To!

Airports:
Airports Flown Into/Out Of/Through: ATL, ECP, SAN, NBO, JNB, LAX, DTW, NRT, HAN, BKK, SEZ, DXB, SEA, ORF, CPT, PLZ
Number of Connections in ATL: 16

2015 Flights Completed

SkyMiles Earnings:
SkyMiles Status: Gold Medallion in 2015 | Gold Medallion for 2016
Total Medallion Qualification Miles Earned: 52,519
Total SkyMiles Earned: 94,675
Total SkyMiles Redeemed: 0

Travels:
Countries: South Africa*, Kenya* (Transit Only x3), United Arab Emirates*, Seychelles*, Thailand*, Vietnam* (Transit Only), Japan
Cities: Atlanta, Orlando, San Diego, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Knysna (ZA), Dubai, Victoria (Seychelles), Bangkok, Tokyo, Norfolk, Los Angeles
Number of Trips: 10
Days “On The Road”: ~100 Days
* = “new” countries

2015 Trip Reports and Reviews:

Ok, So the Trip Reports section is rather bleak this year and I’m still working on the RTW trip. That darned day job likes to get in the way! But that being said, really my RTW trip was the only notable one in 2015 that wasn’t for work. Yes, I drove to both Atlanta and Orlando, and yes I probably should have written up at least about the hotels (Hilton Atlanta, DoubleTree Orlando East-UCF), but I didn’t. I’ll make the annual promise to do better this next year…

And that folks, was my 2015. 2016 isn’t going to have as epic of travels as my RTW trip, but as things stand now I am going to New Zealand in the first half of the year – cashing out nearly all my Delta SkyMiles (160,000 of them!) on a business class award that will also allow me to spend a day in Seoul, Korea. That trip will include flying in the upper deck of one of Korean Air’s 747-8I aircraft with their new Presige Suite business class product. I’m pretty excited about that right there as I’ll be able to finally check that off my travel list!

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Around The World In 21 Days: DoubleTree Hotel Jumeirah Beach

By Robert | Published December 20, 2015

Index:

  1. Introduction
  2. Delta Comfort+ ECP-ATL-JNB
  3. Hilton Sandton
  4. British Airways Economy JNB-PLZ
  5. Conrad Pezula
  6. Knysna and the Garden Route
  7. Westin Cape Town
  8. Exploring Cape Town + Penguins!
  9. British Airways Economy CPT-JNB
  10. Protea Hotel OR Tambo Airport
  11. Kenya Airways Economy JNB-NBO-DXB
  12. DoubleTree Hotel Jumeirah Beach
  13. Exploring Dubai
  14. Kenya Airways Economy DXB-NBO-SEZ
  15. Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort
  16. Exploring Mahe Island
  17. Kenya Airways Economy SEZ-NBO-BKK
  18. W Bangkok Hotel
  19. Exploring Bangkok
  20. Vietnam Airlines Economy BKK-HAN-NRT
  21. Back In Tokyo!
  22. Delta Air Lines Main Cabin NRT-DTW-ATL
  23. DoubleTree Atlanta Airport
  24. Delta Air Lines Comfort+ ATL-ECP
  25. Conclusion

Introduction
Dubai…it really does have more lodging options than you could shake a stick at. With all of the major brands having many multiple hotels in the city and surrounding areas, you won’t find a shortage of any type of property; whether you want a beach resort, towering luxury hotel, or a basic budget accommodation, there’s plenty of rooms available. To that end, that meant that deciding on a hotel was going to be a little bit difficult for me. There are 13 hotels affiliated with Hilton HHonors while 18 are affiliated with SPG within or surrounding Dubai (each brand has several new properties in the works on top of that set to open in the future). Also considering that I was going to be visiting in the middle of the summer, most of the room rates did not seem super terrible. It was after all the point of the year where temperatures during the day hit triple digits regularly, making it even a bit hot for the beach, in this Floridian’s opinion. That being said, the options were quite wide and varied and with many hotels have both points and cash + points availability this complicated the decision-making process further.

As I looked over my options a thousand times, I had eventually narrowed my options down: Grosvenor House Dubai, Conrad Dubai, Hilton Dubai Jumeirah Resort, and the DoubleTree Jumeirah Beach. Obviously, you can tell which one I picked based on the title of this post, but why did I pick a DoubleTree over the others, especially with one Conrad property and one SPG Luxury Collection property in the mix? The answer in the simplest of terms was that, by booking the DoubleTree I could guarantee a large suite and at a rather low cash and points rate of 238AED + 16,000 Hilton HHonors points. That right there was a steal as far as I was concerned. Considering that I also was going to be landing in Dubai after 1AM, and leaving likewise in the middle of night I thought it might be good to book the room for both of those nights. This way I could check into the hotel and get a few hours of sleep before tackling my first day in Dubai and allow a place for me to wash up after a full day of walking around in the heat prior to going back to the hotel. The other options would have all cost me more and there would not have been a guaranteed suite for me. The Grosvenor House was going for just under $300/night at the time which would have been silly to pay for the two partial nights and the Conrad likewise was going to be a few hundred more for that privilege. Considering the length of my trip, it seemed prudent to find a few savings here and there.

Arrival
With my flight having arrived just after 1AM, the long queues at immigration, and the long taxi ride to the hotel, it was after 3AM by the time I reached the hotel. As one would expect from an arrival at this hour, I was the only person wanting to check-in, which certainly made that a breeze! The agent who took care of me was able to get me processed and actually thanked me for putting a note in my reservation about my planned late arrival (which I thought was odd, but hey if that made things somehow easier for them…). Even at that hour there was porter on hand and given how tired I was I did not put up a fight when they offered to cart my bag up to my room for me.

One thing that I will go ahead and note here is that the entrance to the hotel is through essentially the car park in the base of the building, without there being a well signed exterior entrance on the ground level. Arriving by taxi or car isn’t an issue as they will drive up the ramp to the car park entrance, however if you are walking around it may be a little tricky. Either walk up the car ramp, take a cut through the residential towers (one security guard let me do this, another didn’t) or find the side entrance near the restaurant on the side (not signed at all). That may be really the only thing I can say that is negative about the hotel – especially considering that being at the end of “The Walk” you’ll probably want to be able to easily walk to the various shops and restaurants nearby.

Hotel Entrance Off Of Car Park (With Compulsory Ferrari)

The Room
I reserved a “King One Bedroom Suite With Balcony” which promised 947 sq ft, views of the marina, and more. My room was located on the end of the hallway, giving me all that plus at least a corner. Being in the middle of the night and slightly jet-lagged, I wasn’t sure what my room exactly opened out to, so I just checked out the interior before collapsing in my bed.

Upon entering the room you find yourself in an entry way which splits into the living room and over to the bedroom. Between the bedroom and the entry way there is a small bathroom that I assume would be for any guests that you might have over as it lacked a shower.

Half Bath Off The Entry way

The living room featured plenty of space to sprawl out, a decent sized dining table, and all the other usual hotel room amenities. With the room being on the corner, the living room featured two walls that were floor to ceiling glass; one of which faced the patio.

Living Room

Living Room TV

Dining Table + Exit To Patio

The one thing that I was glad to see was a Nespresso machine, however they were extremely stingy on Nespresso pods. I think they left 2 or 3 for free and if you wanted any more you had to have housekeeping bring up more for a charge. I should note that after my first use it was not refilled either.

Over on the bedroom side of the suite, after passing the guest bathroom is the entrance to the closet, main bath, and vanity. The bathroom wasn’t super spacious or overly luxurious (unlike some other suites I’ve stayed in, including the DoubleTree San Diego Mission Valley’s Presidential Suite), but more than satisfactory for my needs.

Full Bathroom

Vanity Outside The Main Bathroom And Bedroom

In the bedroom, there was a King Bed, sofa/lounge, TV mounted to the wall, and more floor to ceiling window action. The bed was perfectly comfortable, although not quite as comfortable as the W Bed…but it could have been as hard as a rock and I would have fell asleep that night!

Bedroom

Bedroom

Bedroom TV

The next morning when I woke up I discovered what a view I had from my room! Off my patio I had views of other adjacent buildings and hotels so not overly scenic. Out the bedroom there was a view of what must have been an oil refinery just on the other side of a canal. Not quite the best view in the world, but considering what I paid as well…

Scenic Industrial Zone

Dining
The DoubleTree offers a few options for dining on the property, although there is plenty within walking distance as well. These options range from The Kitchen Table, to the outdoor poolside Areia Beach Bar & Grill, the upscale Al Maeda, and the off-lobby Maiya Lounge which never seemed open. I myself had tried the first two options, but not the second two. I ate breakfast at each of the mornings at the Kitchen Table, which had a a pretty decent spread covering all the various tastes of breakfast. From American to European to Asian, it was all represented. The breakfast was free, which I am unsure if it was because I had selected that as my on-property benefit for being HHonors Gold at the time or if it just happened to be included in my award rate (I also got the 1,000 points so…). My only complaint about the Kitchen Table is that getting service for a drink top off could be a bit spotty. Trying to flag a server could prove tricky, especially if you sit outside as I had one morning (there’s plenty of indoor seating as well). Overall the food was pretty decent.

As or the Areia Beach Bar & Grill, I opted to have dinner here one night as I just wanted “the easy choice”. I can’t say I remember much about the meal (I think it was Duck?), but I can say that I do remember the $10 beers. Of course that is relatively par for the course in Dubai considering how heavily alcohol is taxed.

I Want To Say That It Was A Duck Breast…

The Beach
Odds are that if you are staying at a Beach resort property in Dubai, you’re more than likely there to take advantage of the beach. The DoubleTree is located at the south end of Jumeirah Beach and “The Walk”, which consequently is also where the beach ends. At the time of my visit, there was also a massive effort to reclaim land off the beach, so that perfect beach view was interrupted by the sight of dump trucks and this tall structure that I assume is there for the sucking up of sand from the sea floor to make new land from. So, not quite a majestic beach view. However, they have taken to putting out a variety of chairs and covered lounges out on the sand, which is great. Even mid-morning when I went down after breakfast it was beyond toasty and at least having the shade of the cabana was definitely welcome.

Empty Beach

Unfortunately, This Was The View

There also was a number of beach activities including jet ski rentals from the sands. I only saw a few people partake in these and even in terms of lying out there was hardly anyone else out there with me. I did notice slightly higher number of people at the adjacent resorts and beach-front properties, but really not overly much so. The beach was very much in the sun, while the pool area with many, many lounge chairs was mostly in the shadow of the building in the morning. Many more were enjoying laying out there, and had I wanted to spend lots of time lying around, to be fair, I probably would have joined them. The pool area was actually quite nice…

Plenty Of Lounge Chairs

Pool Area Is Shaded By The Two Buildings

Conclusion
Was the DoubleTree Jumeirah Beach able to become my most favorite hotel? No, not quite. As usual though, I found it to be a pretty decent hotel – it had its shortcomings as all properties do. But was it absolutely good for the value? Absolutely! The size of the room, which was larger than my old apartment was definite a winner. Was the breakfast good in The Kitchen Table? Absolutely! Did I get solid service from the property staff? Again, I did. Really the big hold-up with this hotel for me is location. The lack of easy access for walking up to the hotel and being on the far end of The Walk, puts it on the edge of the action versus as being in it. Some people may prefer it, as it would probably be quieter and perhaps easier for families. You’ll be further away from the airport and the malls and most attractions. After all it did take about 30 minutes of racing through the dead night to go from the airport to the hotel. I think on a future trip I would like to try out one of the luxury properties that I passed up, that are more centrally located. But if you are looking for a solid mid-range property that is spacious, but are on a budget, I would definitely say to stay here.

DoubleTree From The Walk

Posted in Dubai, Hilton HHonors, Hotels, RTW, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Around The World In 21 Days: Kenya Airways Economy JNB-NBO-DXB

By Robert | Published December 12, 2015

Index:

  1. Introduction
  2. Delta Comfort+ ECP-ATL-JNB
  3. Hilton Sandton
  4. British Airways Economy JNB-PLZ
  5. Conrad Pezula
  6. Knysna and the Garden Route
  7. Westin Cape Town
  8. Exploring Cape Town + Penguins!
  9. British Airways Economy CPT-JNB
  10. Protea Hotel OR Tambo Airport
  11. Kenya Airways Economy JNB-NBO-DXB
  12. DoubleTree Hotel Jumeirah Beach
  13. Exploring Dubai
  14. Kenya Airways Economy DXB-NBO-SEZ
  15. Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort
  16. Exploring Mahe Island
  17. Kenya Airways Economy SEZ-NBO-BKK
  18. W Bangkok Hotel
  19. Exploring Bangkok
  20. Vietnam Airlines Economy BKK-HAN-NRT
  21. Back In Tokyo!
  22. Delta Air Lines Main Cabin NRT-DTW-ATL
  23. DoubleTree Atlanta Airport
  24. Delta Air Lines Comfort+ ATL-ECP
  25. Conclusion

Introduction
When I was planning my Around-the-World itinerary, it was always easy coming up with potential destinations; the tricky part was always trying to find a way to connect those dots. Especially as Africa, specifically South Africa, was considered a must on my list. So how do you leave South Africa to go to other African or non-Africa destinations? The first through to most US-based SkyTeam fliers would be to fly via Europe perhaps on KLM or Air France, both of which maintain a large number of African destinations and have large global networks. Thankfully though, that isn’t required! Kenya Airways, which joined SkyTeam back in 2010, offers a very convenient hub in Nairobi, Kenya with flights to more than just destinations in Africa. There are flights between Nairobi and Europe, Asia, and the Middle East and is constantly growing, adding many new aircraft and routes.

Availability on Kenya Airways was very good when I was looking for my itinerary. For each of the six legs I flew with Kenya Airways, I was able to find award seats on the days that I wanted using various tools out there, as Delta.com does not offer flights on Kenya Airways for award searches. For this leg specifically, I was able to choose an option with a long layover in Nairobi versus a relatively short one. Considering that I would have needed a visa to enter Kenya, I didn’t see too much of a reason to schedule the longer layover to barely see anything in a short amount of time or just to wind up spending more time in the airport.

Check-In
After being dropped off by the shuttle from the Protea Hotel OR Tambo Airport, I made my way into the terminal to try to find my way to the Kenya Airways counter. I made my way through Terminal A, and low and behold the Kenya Airways counter was practically the opposite end of where I was dropped off, or at least it felt that way carrying my bag around! They had a SkyPriority lane available, so I made use of that, however the counter wasn’t busy at all. It didn’t take long to get my bag checked, boarding pass issued, and a lounge invitation for the Air France-KLM Lounge.

Immigration and security checks were pretty painless and I was through much quicker than I had anticipated. With several hours to kill, I checked out a few shops, trying to find a way to burn the last little bit of Rand in my pocket. I didn’t see anything too particular, so after awhile, I just went to the lounge.

Air France-KLM Lounge Johannesburg
In Johannesburg, Kenya Airways makes use of the Air France-KLM Lounge. I was given an invitation based on being SkyTeam Elite Plus (Delta Gold Medallion), and it happens to also be the only lounge available for SkyTeam fliers that I am aware of in Johannesburg.

Air France-KLM Lounge Entrance

Upon entering, I handed over my invite at the reception and made my way into the lounge to find a chair. I don’t know why I was expecting it to be busier, but this lounge was empty! Ok, so there was maybe 2 other people in here who weren’t lounge staff, but if I hadn’t walked around I probably never would have seen them.

The lounge itself is a quite large and offers plenty of seating – something that I am sure comes into play when you have an Air France and KLM flight departing at roughly the same time at night. Also, one thing I noticed is that this lounge is very much in the style of Air France. I wouldn’t be surprised if at one point KLM and Air France had separate lounges in Johannesburg and decided to consolidate with the Air France lounge. Although, I’ll admit that while I have been to both Air France and KLM lounges around the world, I had never been to one of their combined lounges. It could be that the combined ones all use the Air France styling for all I know…

Air France-KLM Lounge Seating

Air France-KLM Lounge – Looking Towards The Dining Area

There was a limited food spread out this morning, not quite as good as what I found in the SLOW Lounge, but wasn’t the worst I had seen. Additionally, they have multiple drink stations throughout the lounge for both hot and cold beverages, although I think all the liquors were at the bar/food area. Obviously, it being still the morning, I was after coffee, not beer.

This Machine Kept Me Quite Well Caffeinated That Morning…

Apple Cake Thing + Cappuccino

One thing that was nice was that the lounge features a lot of natural light. The only downside? The windows don’t look out on to the ramp, but face back towards the landside of the terminal. You get a good view of a rooftop, parking and roads in the distance…

About 30 minutes before boarding was scheduled to begin, I decided to make my way to the gate, if anything to just stretch my legs. It didn’t take long to reach the concourse, which also was fairly quiet. I guess that these gates must be used for longer-haul international flights, which obviously aren’t going to be in the middle of the day. Actually much like Atlanta’s Concourses E and F during the same period of the day, only a handful of flights makes it relatively quiet.

“A” Gates – Johannesburg

With time to kill, I walked up and down the concourse, getting a few glimpses out the windows, at one point spotting three A380s parked next to each other. Besides that, I finally found away to spend all by 40 Rand in my pocket and bought a little souvenir before heading to the gate for my flight.

Looking Back Towards The Main Terminal Building

Kenya Airways #761
Johannesburg, ZA (JNB) to Nairobi, Kenya (NBO)
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Depart: 12:35PM Arrive: 5:45PM
Aircraft: Boeing 737 Seat: 12G (Economy Class)

Judging by the number of people in the gate area, this wasn’t going to be a very full flight. Which is also why boarding probably didn’t quite start on time either. They didn’t really make use of SkyPriority for boarding either, but then again, it wasn’t a super full flight and I wasn’t going to be in Business Class, so I wasn’t really concerned.

Kenya Airways 737-800

Today’s flight would be operated by what must have been a quite rather new Boeing 737-800. The inside was very clean and bright, and featured the new large-screen IFE system that Delta and many other airlines are installing these days. I settled into my seat, an aisle, and very quickly realized that I would not have any company for the flight. A slight win for sure! Being able to spread out across the row and have easy access to both the window and aisle for the flight is always a win when in Economy Class! On the legroom front, that helped out a little bit, as while Kenya Airways doesn’t have the worst legroom that I’ve encountered, it isn’t exactly the best either.

Kenya Airways 737-800 Legroom

A short while later, the aircraft pushed back on time and we were heading up into the skies of Africa. Once airborne, I started to check out the IFE system, which actually had a decent selection of movies and TV shows. Although I will say that I’m not sure if I would consider “Dodgeball” to be a classic movie…

Your Classic Film Selections…

I should also mention that they provide headsets to all the passengers, however you can equally use your own as well.

Kenya Airways Headset

Shortly thereafter, the flight attendants began coming through the cabin to start the meal service. Starting out with drinks and a snack (nuts), they came through the cabin. Following this, was the main meal service which consisted of two hot options. Up for offer was beef or fish.

Drink Service

I’ve rarely seen fish served in Economy Class as a meal option, and thinking of the movie Airplane, I actually opted for the fish. Yes, I know that sounds sketchy, and to be honest the fish was a little sketchy. I mean, it was some super generic white fish, covered in a cream sauce and served with mashed potatoes, vegetables, a pasta side and what was some sort of cake. Part of it was that it was super bland and the other part was the texture. Although the pasta and the vegetables weren’t all bad…

Kenya Airways Lunch

Throughout the flight I primarily sat there and enjoyed a few movies whilst sitting back and relaxing. I also spent a good deal of time just looking out the window and enjoying the view of Africa below. At one point we got an exceptional view of Mt. Kilimanjaro, passing it as we started the turn towards Nairobi.

It Was A Perfectly Clear Day

Passing Kilimanjaro

Mt. Kilimanjaro

It wasn’t long after passing the mountain before we were landing in Nairobi for an on-time arrival.

Welcome to Kenya!

A couple of years ago there was a fire that ravaged the terminal at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. As a result, they have been extensively rebuilding while also modernizing the terminal, which also creates situations where there aren’t enough gates available for all the aircraft. Even for flights that pull up to a gate, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll use the jet bridge. In my case we pulled up to the gate, but deplaned via stairs and taken by bus to a terminal entrance.

Deplaning In Nairobi

Being on the first bus, I was able to make it to the transfer level quickly and with no lines made it through security very quick. They did have a SkyPriority line for the transfer security check, however as it wasn’t very busy at that time, so it wasn’t very necessary.

Kenya Airways Simba Lounge
My layover wasn’t going to be a very long one, based on the boarding time indicated on my boarding pass, so I opted to hit the first lounge I came across, the Kenya Airways Simba Lounge which was on the second level right after clearing security.

Simba Lounge Entrance

After checking in with the lounge agent, who reconfirmed my gate, I headed for a chair up next by the window. It’s not a very large lounge, or at least from what I could see, but since I didn’t have much time…well having a beer and a quick snack was a higher priority.

Always Trying The Local Beer Options

The Simba Lounge had a both hot and cold food offerings, although it wasn’t a wide selection. I’ll chalk it up to being a fairly small lounge as to why there wasn’t much available. That being said, I tried a few things quickly before turning back around to head towards the gate for my flight to Dubai.

Simba Lounge Buffet Area

Drink/Bar Area

Watching The Sun Set Over The 737 I Flew In On

Kenya Airways #310
Nairobi, Kenya (NBO) to Dubai, UAE (DXB)
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Depart: 7:15PM Arrive: 1:19AM +1 Day
Aircraft: Boeing 777 Seat: 12F (Economy Class)

Had I known how the gate areas were in Nairobi, I probably would have stayed in the lounge longer. Much like Amsterdam, each gate area is an individual holding area where they scan your boarding pass when entering. Unlike Amsterdam though, since you clear security there isn’t a security check at the gate. However, just like Amsterdam, once you are in the gate area you are pretty much stuck in there. Sure, there’s a restroom, a few TVs, and I think a vending machine along with the chairs. It’s very boring and a rather terrible place to spend time when I could have been relaxing in the lounge. In fact after 20-30 minutes of being in the gate area (and already pass the published boarding time), I started to see a few passengers from the lounge start to come in.

As one might expect, boarding was a bit chaotic. I think the only way I was able to board when SkyPriority was called was due to the fact that I had positioned myself near the door to the jetway. Once they announced boarding was about to begin, everyone swarmed towards the door.

Kenya Airways 777 – Mount Kilimanjaro

Once onboard, I made my way to my seat fairly quickly as I in the center of row 12, which is the second row of Economy on the Kenya Airways 777. You could tell this plane was a little bit dated when it came to the interiors. Almost thought I was having a flashback to an Air France flight I had taken ten years prior. Legroom, was well, tighter than on the 737 that I flew in to NBO on. And the IFE, it had a decent selection, but the system was an older one that was a little bit slow at times and featured a much smaller screen.

Kenya Airways 777 Legroom

Kenya Airways 777 In-Flight Entertainment

About an hour or so into the flight, the meal service began. The dinner option I had decided to go with was lamb with rice and vegetables. It was a pretty average economy class meal, and at the very least it wasn’t mystery fish.

Kenya Airways Dinner – NBO-DXB

The rest of the flight was fairly non-eventful. I kept switching between various movies, TV shows, and airshow. I didn’t even try to get a little bit of sleep, as I knew I would want to make sure I could pass out without any issue once I got to my hotel that night.

Approaching Dubai…

Arrival
The flight pulled up to the gate in Dubai at more or less on-time, getting me into the terminal at just a little past 1AM. Unfortunately, we were at one of the very last gates in the terminal which also meant there was one very long walk to Immigration and Customs. I think it took at least 15-20 minutes to get to Immigration, and once there I was in line for another 30 minutes or so before I reached one of the Immigration officers. With no problems there, I claimed my checked bag, went through Customs, and found myself in the arrival hall. I hae to say, that it was quite crowded in each of these places, with long lines to match. I figured that I would try to pick up a SIM card from one of the local carriers at the airport, however, after waiting in yet another line, I was told that the computers were down…

After pulling out a few Dirhams from an ATM, I decided with it being already past 2AM that I would just get a taxi to the hotel. Thankfully, Dubai has a decently looked after airport taxi stand and you can choose between a regular cab or a black car. I didn’t see the need to pay any extra, and the attendants were able to relay to the driver my hotel. Considering I was pretty well tired, all of this definitely made it easy. Of course I could have tried to use Uber as well, but you really never know how pickup at airports can work out. Plus without a local SIM in hand, I didn’t have a way for the driver to get in touch with me anyways.

Conclusion
This was my first time flying Kenya Airways, and it wasn’t certainly going to be my last, with still four more segments with them on this trip. Overall the first impressions were that this was a decent airline. The 737 on my JNB-NBO leg was very brand new with a very friendly crew and the the 777 on the NBO-DXB leg was older witha less energetic crew, but by no means terrible either. In both cases, I got where I needed to go on-time without any major hiccups, and sometimes that’s all you can ask for. Then there was the Simba Lounge which wasn’t bad, although I do wonder if it will become a larger lounge once the terminal construction is completed. Overall, the first impressions of Kenya Airways were that the airline is really trying to improve their product and perhaps become the ‘premium’ airline in East Africa. Of course with several legs yet still to be flown, there was plenty more to find out about this airline…

Posted in Africa, Kenya Airways, RTW, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Around The World In 21 Days: Protea Hotel OR Tambo Airport

By Robert | Published November 15, 2015

Index:

  1. Introduction
  2. Delta Comfort+ ECP-ATL-JNB
  3. Hilton Sandton
  4. British Airways Economy JNB-PLZ
  5. Conrad Pezula
  6. Knysna and the Garden Route
  7. Westin Cape Town
  8. Exploring Cape Town + Penguins!
  9. British Airways Economy CPT-JNB
  10. Protea Hotel OR Tambo Airport
  11. Kenya Airways Economy JNB-NBO-DXB
  12. DoubleTree Hotel Jumeirah Beach
  13. Exploring Dubai
  14. Kenya Airways Economy DXB-NBO-SEZ
  15. Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort
  16. Exploring Mahe Island
  17. Kenya Airways Economy SEZ-NBO-BKK
  18. W Bangkok Hotel
  19. Exploring Bangkok
  20. Vietnam Airlines Economy BKK-HAN-NRT
  21. Back In Tokyo!
  22. Delta Air Lines Main Cabin NRT-DTW-ATL
  23. DoubleTree Atlanta Airport
  24. Delta Air Lines Comfort+ ATL-ECP
  25. Conclusion

Introduction
With a nearly 10PM arrival to Johannesburg and a noon departure the next day towards Nairobi and Dubai, I just didn’t have it in me to find a hotel in the city and have to deal with getting there and then getting back to the airport with absolutely zero time to do anything. As a Hilton and SPG elite member that meant that given the airport hotel options, I wasn’t going to be staying “within the family” with somewhere that I had points or status at. There were a few IHG choices, a number of independent hotels, and a good few options that were part of the Protea Hotels brand. Protea Hotels had been acquired semi-recently by Marriott and thus was now part of Marriott Rewards. While I didn’t have status with Marriott, I figured that I would at least stay at one of their properties and earn either a small amount of points or SkyMiles. Plus, in looking, the Protea Hotel OR Tambo Airport actually looked pretty decent for a basic airport hotel, and for just under 1400 ZAR, the right price! I made my reservation through the Marriott website, which coincidentally, had better rates that the Protea site.

Arrival
I arrived at the hotel via the complimentary shuttle from OR Tambo Airport that they provide. I did have to wait a little bit longer than I would have thought, but the ride between the airport and hotel didn’t take very long at around 10 minutes.

The driver unloaded all of our bags into the lobby of the hotel, which was actually pretty neat…the floor was an enlarged aeronautical chart! Actually the entire hotel is aviation themed which I thought was pretty awesome being the aviation buff that I am. Heck even the TV behind the front desk was looping a DVD of takeoffs and landings.

Lobby Floor

I got in the relatively short line to check in, but it took relatively forever to finally get to me. First of all, the agents weren’t exactly the fastest. I don’t know if perhaps they were having computer issues or something else, but the average check in seemed to take 10 minutes per guest. On top of this, when I was next up, some jerk decided he was going to cut me and step up to next agent (curse me for looking away from the desk for a moment). Probably about 20-25 minutes after arriving I finally was up to be helped by an agent who was able to check me in pretty quickly. Honestly this surprised me considering how long it took to process all the other guests. I mean, perhaps I just had bad luck and all the other guests in front of me had reservation issues, or credit card issues or something. Not really sure on that one…

The Room
I was given a room on the 5th floor away from the elevators, which suited me perfectly. I opened the door and was presented with a basic, although somewhat stylish hotel room. Obviously given the layout (and the fact that it primarily for people going to/from the airport) you can tell they tried to maximize the number of rooms on the property. Since to me this was nothing more than a bed/crash pad, not having a lot of extra space wasn’t a really big deal. In fact, despite being on the smaller size, it was plenty spacious for my quick overnight stay.

Welcome To Room 512

Upon entering the room you had the toilet immediately next to the entry door followed by the sink, bathtub, and shower. The toilet was the only thing that was physically separated from the rest of the room, making this less than idea for two people traveling together who aren’t…close. They did have the thought though to put a curtain along the glass wall next to the bed that so that you can at least kinda hide (but I wouldn’t count on it!). The shower was pretty small, but definitely functional. It wasn’t like trying to squeeze into a shower in my basement room at an easyHotel in London back in 2009…

Room Entrance

Shower + Tub

Bathroom

Once past the bathroom, you’ll find yourself in the bedroom, where there is (obviously) the bed, a small desk, small closet, and a TV. In other words, basic hotel amenities. What was a little disappointing was that the window which is behind a curtain is nowhere near as large as the curtain. In fact it was a little square window about shoulder height off the ground. It looked out to a parking lot though, so I guess I wasn’t missing much of a view.

A Fairly Comfortable Bed

Yep, Not Much Of A View…

Restaurant
I had contemplated getting a drink in the hotel bar after getting to my room, but by the time I threw down my bags and took a shower, all I wanted to do was be lazy and lay back on the bed and watch TV. That means, I never did try their dinner offerings or bar service, but I did go downstairs for breakfast the next morning.

I’m not sure if there was a set menu that you could order from or not, but there was a pretty decent spread of a breakfast buffet. Upon entering the restaurant, I was directed to sit wherever I pleased. I picked a table near the back that was free and made my way towards the options. Everything was pretty standard fare breakfast with a good selection of fruits, breads, meats, and an omelette station. The one thing that was lacking though was service. There were people busing tables, but no real servers up and about. Thankfully there was juice available at the counter, but it really would have been nice to get some coffee. Overall the food was fairly decent, but the lack of service just sucked. Although, I will say the man working the omelette station was very friendly and engaged with patrons in conversations while they waited for their eggs to be ready.

When it was time to leave, and considering that I had not been successful in finding a server, I just went to the hostess station at the entrance. They printed me a bill which I signed there – I didn’t see anyone else do this, so maybe I was just the unlucky one who couldn’t get a server? Either way, it could have been worse!

Departure and Conclusion
Check out, unlike check-in, was a breeze taking no more than two minutes to be processed. From there it was right outside to jump on the waiting shuttle bus back towards the airport. During my ride, I chatted with a pilot who flew for Mango, which is South African Airways low cost subsidiary. As always when it comes to friendly flight crews, it was an interesting conversation that touched on his profession and the trip that I was in the middle of. Of course one can only touch on so much though when it comes to a single 10 minute van ride.

Overall, the Protea Hotel OR Tambo Airport works well as a crash pad if you have an overnight layover in Johannesburg. While the service left a lot to be desired, the room itself was more than ample for this purpose and it was a very clean property. If I was back in the area with the same situation I would certainly consider staying here, however I also might consider staying somewhere else if anything just to try to get better service. I also realize that it could have been a fluke, I just don’t know. Perhaps someone else out there can try it out and let me know how that goes…

Posted in Africa, Hotels, RTW, Travel, Trip Report | 1 Comment

Around The World In 21 Days: British Airways Economy CPT-JNB

By Robert | Published November 15, 2015

Index:

  1. Introduction
  2. Delta Comfort+ ECP-ATL-JNB
  3. Hilton Sandton
  4. British Airways Economy JNB-PLZ
  5. Conrad Pezula
  6. Knysna and the Garden Route
  7. Westin Cape Town
  8. Exploring Cape Town + Penguins!
  9. British Airways Economy CPT-JNB
  10. Protea Hotel OR Tambo Airport
  11. Kenya Airways Economy JNB-NBO-DXB
  12. DoubleTree Hotel Jumeirah Beach
  13. Exploring Dubai
  14. Kenya Airways Economy DXB-NBO-SEZ
  15. Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort
  16. Exploring Mahe Island
  17. Kenya Airways Economy SEZ-NBO-BKK
  18. W Bangkok Hotel
  19. Exploring Bangkok
  20. Vietnam Airlines Economy BKK-HAN-NRT
  21. Back In Tokyo!
  22. Delta Air Lines Main Cabin NRT-DTW-ATL
  23. DoubleTree Atlanta Airport
  24. Delta Air Lines Comfort+ ATL-ECP
  25. Conclusion

Introduction
As I mentioned earlier in my write up about my other leg on British Airways/Comair within South Africa, I did have two options. I really had been intending to fly the competition and book one flight on South African Airways, for at least the sake of being able to compare the two. However, once I had that newly minted Air Berlin Gold status, I think we all knew that I would stick with a Oneworld airline so that I could take advantage of the perks that come with Oneworld Sapphire status. Plus, it just seemed right to be able to check out another branch of Comair’s SLOW Lounge! So, without hesitation I booked the last CPT-JNB flight of the day at an affordable 1300 ZAR

Check-In
After dropping off my rental car with Hertz (which went surprisingly smooth), I made my walk towards the terminal. It was easy enough, especially with a luggage cart to take the load off my back from my duffel bag, but it can be a little bit of a hike.

Trekking To The Terminal

Terminal Entrance

Upon entering the terminal I made my way immediately to the British Airways counters which easy enough to find. The agents here weren’t busy at all and were pretty great; everyone for some reason had to see my Air Berlin card! Perhaps they had not seen one of those before! With my bag tagged and boarding pass issued, I made my way through security and to the airside of the terminal.

The Walk To Most Gates Isn’t That Bad

I decided to look through a few of the shops (always after yet another model airplane), but soon enough was walking into the domestic SLOW Lounge.

SLOW Lounge – Cape Town Domestic
The lobby of the lounge was very much the same as the one in Johannesburg – walking in I presented my boarding pass and Air Berlin Gold card, which was quickly checked and then allowed to proceed inside. The lounge has the same design styling as the lounge in Johannesburg, however what is different about this lounge is that it is a two story lounge and features a large window that spans both floors in the part that is open.

SLOW Lounge Cape Town

SLOW Lounge Cape Town

Large Windows For Watching Ramp Activity

The downstairs seating seemed to be the busiest, so I made my way past the food spread and chairs there and headed up the stairs to find myself a little corner of silence. There was ample seating, with options to look out the windows, sit at the bar, or overlooking the lower level of the lounge. Due to the presence of screens over the windows, I opted to sit with a view of the lounge down below, finding myself a comfortable oversized chair. I should also add that like any good lounge, they did ensure that there were ample outlets for powering up devices, and thus I made sure to get a charge on everything that I could. I didn’t want to get to the hotel that night and find that I had only two outlets to charge all my devices.

Food
I had high expectations for the food that would be served in the lounge. Based on what they had for a spread during the breakfast hours in Johannesburg, I knew I was going to get something much better than I would in one of Delta’s Sky Clubs in the US. Let me just tell you, I was not disappointed!

I Tried To Get As Much Food Into One Picture

There was salad, soups, kebabs, pasta, breads, and more. Plenty of desert options to take care of your sweet tooth and all the beverages that you could possibly want. While beverages such as water, soda, beer, wine, and coffee were self-serve, you could also have drinks made by a bartender, especially if you were inclined to enjoy

Loo With A View
Ok, now this takes the award for being a little bit different. This lounge features a few toilets that come complete with a floor to ceiling window that looks out to the runways and the top of the terminal building. I spot for contemplation? And if you are worried about anyone seeing you, well there is a screen, but I wonder how visible you are are night…

Loo With A View

Loo With A View – Other Side of The Screen

Of course if you aren’t comfortable with that, they do have several that do not feature any windows to the outside world.

British Airways #6404 (operated by Comair)
Cape Town, ZA (CPT) to Johannesburg, ZA (JNB)
Monday, June 8, 2015
Depart: 7:45PM Arrive: 9:45PM
Aircraft: Boeing 737-400 Seat: 10A (Traveller/Economy)

Although I had been keeping an eye on the departure board, I had opted to go ahead and head down to the gate a little on the early side prior to my flight. If anything, it was to stretch my legs, plus knowing how boarding went in Johannesburg and that this is probably the busiest domestic route in South Africa, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to be down in the gate area. Unlike in Johannesburg 1) There wasn’t anything to coral the queue and 2) they actually did priority boarding for elites. I was one of the only of maybe a couple of folks who made their way to the front of the line, actually being the first one to board this flight. I figured surely that this would be a full flight, but that was hardly the case! At most, perhaps only half the plane was filled with passengers. This meant that I would have the entire row to myself.

Looking Out The Window In Cape Town

Now, when I picked my seats, I had thought that I had booked an exit row. Well, I guess not, as I was seated in the row before the exit row. This resulted in significantly less legroom compared to my JNB-PLZ flight a few days earlier. For a two hour flight that was hardly full, it was at least easy enough to manage!

Economy Legroom

Departure was on time and a quick take off, and as we reached cruise altitude the flight attendants came through to offer the meal options. Again, just as with the flight to Port Elizabeth, there was a full meal service with a choice of entrees, of which I had opted for the chicken and pasta. Now, I am not going to go on and on about how this was the best airline meal ever, but it filled the spot since I wasn’t planning to eat dinner once I landed, but that desert was pretty darn tasty.

Basic Dinner In Economy

After the meal service though the flight attendants were pretty much non-existent. Not really a problem since it was at worst a 2 hour flight and by the time the meal service was done, we were over halfway there. I enjoyed the rest of the flight looking out into the night while listening to Spotify.

Arrival
With an on-time arrival, I made my way towards the domestic baggage claim where I only waited a few brief moments before seeing my duffel making the rounds. From there it was fun schlepping it to ground transportation – the hotel shuttles seemed to be further than I would have thought and given the weight of my bag, made me wish I had just hailed a cab from arrivals! Of course in getting to the hotel shuttle pick up, there were a number of “helpful” helpers who would tell you when the shuttle bus for your hotel was due to arrive, carry your bags, and want to talk with you. Of course, this is all part of a ploy for a tip, they are by no means official, or at least it did not appear that way. It didn’t seem very nefarious, but I suppose your bags could easy be stolen if (as I watched) you let them take the bag to the back of the hotel shuttle bus to be tossed in and you board before seeing it get stowed. Does it happen? No idea, but why not just be safe and keep control of your bags?

Another British Airways/Comair 737 In Johannesburg

Conclusion
Overall, I was very, very happy with my two flights on British Airways/Comair within South Africa. Elite recognition was good as a Oneworld Sapphire member (I really do owe Air Berlin a thanks on that for matching my Delta Gold Medallion status!), the SLOW lounges were phenomenal for a domestic lounge (beats practically any Delta Sky Club that I have been to) or just for any airline lounge really, flights operated on-time with no delays, crews were courteous with decent enough service. Of course some of that is from the fact that I was in Economy versus Business, which I had considered for booking on at least one of my flights as those prices were very affordable.

Really, for the average short flight time for most domestic South African routes, you would be hard-pressed to actually pay for Business over Economy. Perhaps if you are traveling during peak days or seasons, there might be an advantage or if you don’t have Oneworld status that gives you access to the SLOW Lounge. To be honest, I think the difference in fares for the two classes was around $50, so it wouldn’t have been a stretch. I think if you are used to flying domestically in the US, you’ll find yourself generally happy picking British Airways flights operated by Comair. I know that if/when I make it back to South Africa, I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to fly with them again.

Posted in Africa, British Airways, RTW, South Africa, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Around The World In 21 Days: Exploring Cape Town + Penguins!

By Robert | Published November 8, 2015

Index:

  1. Introduction
  2. Delta Comfort+ ECP-ATL-JNB
  3. Hilton Sandton
  4. British Airways Economy JNB-PLZ
  5. Conrad Pezula
  6. Knysna and the Garden Route
  7. Westin Cape Town
  8. Exploring Cape Town + Penguins!
  9. British Airways Economy CPT-JNB
  10. Protea Hotel OR Tambo Airport
  11. Kenya Airways Economy JNB-NBO-DXB
  12. DoubleTree Hotel Jumeirah Beach
  13. Exploring Dubai
  14. Kenya Airways Economy DXB-NBO-SEZ
  15. Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort
  16. Exploring Mahe Island
  17. Kenya Airways Economy SEZ-NBO-BKK
  18. W Bangkok Hotel
  19. Exploring Bangkok
  20. Vietnam Airlines Economy BKK-HAN-NRT
  21. Back In Tokyo!
  22. Delta Air Lines Main Cabin NRT-DTW-ATL
  23. DoubleTree Atlanta Airport
  24. Delta Air Lines Comfort+ ATL-ECP
  25. Conclusion

Introduction
Cape Town, I barely had enough time to visit you. As I touched in my previous post about my stay at the Westin Cape Town, the ~24 hours that I had in the city were barely enough to dig deeper than surface. So many sights, and not anywhere near enough time to visit them all. As such, due to my short time here, I missed out on what I think people will tell you are essential places to visit – like Robben Island. In fact, I had planned on being able to visit there as well as spending more time at Table Mountain, but back-tracking in the morning to the East to visit something else out, kinda threw some of my plans out the window.

The First Night (And Only Night)
Arriving in the evening to the Westin, I was equal parts tired, hungry, and ready to explore. Seeing as I didn’t have a good lay of the land from not just having time to explore nor did I do much research in advance, I figured my best bet would be to head towards the V&A Waterfront for dinner, drinks, and whatever else.

Instead of having the hotel hail a cab, like in Johannesburg, I used Uber to pick me up and take me the mile or two. Sure, I could have walked it, but what can I say, I just wanted to get my evening started! Upon arrving, I spent the first bit just exploring the area – it’s really more or less a waterfront shopping center, but there are plenty of variety of places to eat, both indoors and out. I walked, and walked, and walked, and almost a little bit felt like I was back in Sydney – it reminded me a little bit of the area around Circular Quay.

Shopping Mall Complex

Everyone Has An Observation Wheel These Days…

Eventually after enough window shopping, menu-looking, and people watching, I settled on Karibu, as it was labeled as “South African Dining”. Considering that most of what I had ate thus far on this leg was probably far from local cuisine/style, I figured this might give me some options…and really the prices were pretty good. I mean, you’re in the touristy area, and this seemed like a nice enough restaurant, but I got out of there for about $35 according to my AMEX statement! That being said, I had pretty sure two glasses of a South Africa wine, the springbok carpaccio as a starter, and the springbok shank. I didn’t really intend to order two Springbok dishes, but it wound up happening. I probably should have tried another meat, but in the end both were pretty good. The outdoor seating was nice (heaters were present to keep you warm), and service was attentive. Can’t ask for more than that!

Springbok Carpaccico

Afterwards, it was time to partake in the nighttime, so after walking around for a bit more, I settled on Mitchell’s Scottish Ale House. There was a small(er) and lively crowd in here, so I settled in drinking several beers taking it in. The only downside is that I had initially sat right in front of the door and to be honest it was a little chilly that night (and had left my jacket at the hotel), so I relocated further inside to warm back up.. The beer selection was decent and were mostly reasonably priced. This was my only stop for drinks that night though, as I had to call my one and only night in Cape Town fairly early so that I could get up at a decent time the next morning. Why, you ask? Well…

Penguins!
Odds are that if you know me in person, you know that penguins are kinda my favorite animal. And, if you remember last year when I visited Ushuaia, I kinda flipped out when my three-hour boat tour encountered a group of penguins in the water while leaving the harbor. Luckily, South Africa happens to be home to the African Penguin and there are a few colonies in the Cape Town area. The most popular one is at Boulders Beach, which is also the closest one to Cape Town city center. This also means plenty of tourists, but supposedly you can go on the beach and “swim with the penguins.” That is not what I opted for. I headed back eastwards to Betty’s Bay (~100km from Cape Town’s center), which is less visited and provides raised walkways over the rocks so that one can get close to the penguins without interrupting their habitat too much.

But first, let me tell you, the drive to Betty’s Bay and back was absolutely stunning. Once you get out of the sprawl of Cape Town (pretty much once heading east on the coast road from Gordon’s Bay), you’re going to be in for a treat of epic scenery. Just take a look for yourself…

Coast Road (Looking Towards Gordon’s Bay)


Be Mindful Of The Falling Rocks…


In The Direction Of Betty’s Bay

Thankfully, once you hit Betty’s Bay, which is a small almost entirely residential community it seemed, there will be small signs pointing you in the directions of the penguin colony and the Stony Point Nature Reserve. It’s easy enough to follow and you’ll reach a small parking lot. Thankfully, with it being the winter and being further out from Cape Town meant that there were only a few others here. And one of the groups that was here was actually a film crew (for what, who knows, but they had quite the setup).

There’s a small fee that one pays before you can enter the area of the rocks where the colony is. This is a small nature reserve run by the Western Cape Government, but the fee is very reasonable at R10 for adults and kids. Once you pay, feel free to walk the boardwalks and take as many pictures of penguins as you possibly can and watch them! I won’t lie, I got a lot of enjoyment out of this, especially with only a few others there doing the same thing!

Penguins!


What Are You Looking At?


There Were A Good Few Penguin Chicks As Well Present


Sunbathing Penguins On The Rocks


Three Penguins Off To A Very Important Penguin Meeting

The only downside is that since I had still wanted to go to Table Mountain before I left on my flight that evening meant that I didn’t have much time to hang around and fully take it in. If I could have, I probably would have hung around the area for a few hours and looking for spots outside the main colony where I could have gotten up and close with more penguins. However, it wasn’t meant to be, so it was back in the car to head back into the city.

Table Mountain
It’s probably the most iconic landmark of Cape Town, but that’s just because it towers over the city. Getting there though is very easy…just follow the signs! With it being such a visited landmark, road signage is very good if you’re driving it appeared that there were options to get to the main cable car station via public transit or tour bus as well. Parking can be a little bit interesting as there isn’t a large parking lot, so you’ll probably park along the main road that leads to the cable car. Like many places in South Africa, there will be an attendant who will keep an eye on your car while you are away, and as such it is customary to provide a tip for this service.

Thankfully, again being that this was not the peak tourist season, there was no line to purchase a ticket and the only wait I encountered was for the cable car to come back down from the top of the mountain. There were other tourists, but the good thing is that everyone was able to be able to look out the windows as we ascended to the top of the mountain. Also, one plus that I think is great as it keeps from anyone being able to “hog the window” with the best view is that the interior of the car rotates 360-degrees. This ensures that no matter where you are standing, you’ll get your opportunity to get a good view.

Waiting To Head To The Top

About Half Way To The Top…

Once you reach the top, you exit the cable car station and can then proceed to the cafe/restaurant, gift shop and the large outdoor patio/seating area, or you can start roaming about the top of the mountain.

Listen For The Hooter

There are paths everywhere across the mountain top and plenty of spots that provide you opportunities to look out in all directions! The view of Cape Town are great, and given the weather on the day I was there, it was just absolutely phenomenal! I spent over an hour exploring the trails and the views (and getting close up to some rock ledges!). I also had a grabbed a small meal at the cafe and enjoyed eating a slice of pizza and drinking a beer with the awesome view looking out to the ocean.

Looking Out At The Atlantic Ocean From The Top

Not A Bad Spot To Take In The View With A Beer

Just In Case You Wondered Why It’s Called Table Mountain – It’s Very Flat!

Looking Back Down To The Center Of Cape Town

I Later Learned That This Majestic Mountain Rat Is A Hyrax (Or Also Known As a Dassie In Afrikaans).

Unfortunately, though due to time constraints, I was not able to do what I had planned on doing – hiking back down the mountain back to my car. I felt like I would want to budget a few hours for that, but at this point it was mid-afternoon and I still needed to get back to the Westin to gather up my bags and then make my way to the airport for my flight that evening.

Conclusion and Thoughts
Well, Cape Town, you managed to be a very good host for my very short stay. The weather was incredibly fantastic, the people friendly, and the traffic not that bad (well, until I decided I had to head to the airport!). It’s a great shame that I didn’t have that much time to spend here, which is totally my own fault – I could have added a few days to my trip for sure. You see, I think if I had spent a few days here Cape Town would easily be on my list of favorite cities in the world. There was a certain atmosphere that was fantastic and a good deal of history as well. That being said, I by no means had a terrible time in Cape Town; I think it just means that I need to make it back to South Africa again in the near future. It would be good for me to spend time in Cape Town as well as the Johannesburg area. While I flew back to Johannesburg at the end of my day in Cape Town, I stayed at an airport hotel before catching my flight to Nairobi and Dubai the next morning. Add on that my one night in Johannesburg, although I stayed in Sandton, due to flight times there wasn’t really any time to do anything at all.

Between these two whirlwind stops and everything else that I did in South Africa, despite being here longer than any other leg of my RTW, it almost seemed to go by the quickest being always on the go. There was only one day that I sat still in Knysna; every other day was driving or flying somewhere. So, despite my 6 days in the country, I really could have spent two weeks and had a much more relaxed time. Do I regret that I didn’t give myself that much time to go everywhere that I visited on this leg? By no means! What I think it did though was give me all the better reason to make my way back here in the next several years and spend a proper vacation in this country.

Posted in Africa, RTW, South Africa, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment
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