By: Marie

Marie — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 09:27:24 +0000

Do you sell the proteas?

By: Sleepless in Seattle

Sleepless in Seattle — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 16:11:34 +0000

Thank you for posting proteas ..available quite a few times at Pikes market,I love thier exotic look and long lasting flower so I don’t fail to get them,they add edginess to my otherwise romantic flowers in my garden.

By: denise

denise — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 15:18:52 +0000

I checked TripAdvisor, and the hotel still gets a lot of complaints. I asked our client and seems they only like it because it is near their offices along the waterfront.

That toilet bowl is nasty! Even the budget hotels here in the Philippines don’t have toilets like that!

By: Marketman

Marketman — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 13:47:40 +0000

denise, perhaps it has improved since, that's always possible (or our stay was one of those outliers of a horrible visit). But I didn't detail the stay when we were there. First, a mix up on arrival on the type of room, and it wasn't ready until much beyond arrival time. The room was tiny compared to all of our other accommodations (on safari, in Stellenbosch, etc.) and certainly the worst value for money. It was filled with group tours of Chinese (nationality is irrelevant, you could replace that with Indian, Pakistani, Mexican, Filipino and it would be the same) and other tourists, some with their feet up on lobby couches, smoking where they shouldn't have been and unable to communicate with restaurant staff in even the simplest manner, resulting in horrible argumentative situations and lines waiting to get into simple breakfasts. There were so many in these huge tour groups, they set up temporary satellite dining areas in other outlets, and much of the breakfast buffet was middling to poor in quality. Our room, was reasonably outfitted, but poorly maintained. I even took a photo of the toilet bowl which had so much dark or black scum on the rim of the bowl it looked like it hadn't been properly cleaned in several days, and certainly without a five star eye for hygiene. We had lamps for paintings with busted bulbs. We had flower vases with water but no flowers in the bathroom and room, bizarre cleaning habits of rooms staff leaving cleaning materials in the room on tables and the television. Sometimes we had things, other nights they were not replenished. There was a dead plant on our terrace table, seriously, if it's dead, get rid of it. And worst of all, since this was the tail end of the trip and we had passports, bags, and other valuables in the room, the room staff left our terrace door unlocked on 2 or 3 out of the nights we stayed there. We called their attention to it and they just shrugged. It's an issue because the terrace connected with several other rooms and people could have easily entered our room while we were away. Do you think the hotel would reimburse for a crocodile handbag stolen or a favorite scarf spirited away, had it happened? I don't think so. Yes, it was a big hotel, yes it was well located, yes it has a a good reputation. But we either had a really bum visit or other guests didn't run into the things we did on our stay. If I published the photo of our toilet grime in any other 5 star hotel, I suspect the head of housekeeping at those hotels would risk getting sternly reprimanded... I have stayed at least 3,000+ room nights in hotels over the past 25 years, living in one hotel for nearly 5 straight years, and I can confidently say the Table Bay Hotel during our particular stay was a HUGE disappointment in an otherwise nearly FLAWLESS trip to South Africa with fabulous stays in several other properties I have already written about. :( If we stayed in the same area again, I would definitely book at the Cape Grace Hotel instead or alternatively, one of the other boutique hotels in other areas of Cape Town. If you want an upscalish big chain hotel feel, then you might pick the Table Bay Hotel. For us, life is too short and jaunts to South Africa so infrequent, that I wouldn't give them a second chance when there are several other nice places to stay in... Arrival screen on our television. Daughter's name incomprehensible "Ms. Madibane" and misspelled our last name. Petty, I agree, but details that would never happen at Singita, Amanresorts or the Peninsula or Mandarin hotels... Beautifully minimalist flower vases with water but no flowers... Mislabelled shower faucets with C being hot and H being cold... Magnify to see the scum in the toilet bowl that remained for all of the days of our stay, despite a call to housekeeping on our first evening. The locks on the door to our terrace were locked every time we left the room, but open three late afternoons after turn down service. Dead cactus on our terrace. Unless they have black hibernating cacti in South Africa, it is otherwise pretty hard to kill a cactus, and they did and didn't bother to remove the pot. Where is the housekeeping supervisor/inspector in all this?! The lamp for the paintings is completely off its hinges and this was over the king-sized bed. If it fell on my head, I would have bopped the duty manager with it. Again, pointed out on our arrival and never fixed. I wish I took photos of the lobby when it was filled with group tours and the breakfast buffet that wasn't worth our getting up for.

By: denise

denise — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 12:20:48 +0000

oh…our client seems to like The Table Bay Hotel..maybe it has changed since?

By: Kasseopeia

Kasseopeia — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 09:24:11 +0000

More South Africa posts! It must be my lucky day.

By: ami

ami — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 00:58:00 +0000

Keep up with the travel posts MM. Hopefully you can also cover your trip to Portugal last year in the next posts.

By: marilen

marilen — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 16:33:12 +0000

Never came across a bouquet of proteas as the local Costco, for obvious reasons, right ?? and Footloose, I like gerberas, the ‘African daisies’, like sentinels all in a row in the garden.

By: Betchay

Betchay — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 11:26:02 +0000

The close flowers are like tulips from afar but I agree with Footloose on the little shop of horrors in full bloom :)

By: Footloose

Footloose — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 20:31:44 +0000

In full bloom, they do give off a whiff of Little Shop Of Horrors vibe so maybe you are just wary they’d need periodic propitiating with burnt offerings. Not to worry then, they would thrive well close to your lechonan.

My neurons actually return gerberas when I hear flowers and Africa and of course, the jacaranda trees in bloom all over Pretoria. Mother planted rows and rows of them (gerberas) year after year and called them African daisies.

Comments on: South Africa 26 — Proteas

By: Marie

By: Sleepless in Seattle

By: denise

By: Marketman

By: denise

By: Kasseopeia

By: ami

By: marilen

By: Betchay

By: Footloose