Tag: South Africa Hotels
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England Gets Cleaned Out in South Africa, In More Ways Than One
Before the World Cup started, Team England was full of optimism but firmly dedicated to the task at hand.
No-nonsense coach Fabio Capello banned WAGS from attending the group stage games and even promised to spy on his players to make sure they were not goofing off in their hotel rooms. Injury forced David Beckham off the pitch and onto the sidelines in a three-piece suit but there was still plenty of faith in Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard.
Unfortunately, nothing really went well for England. There was that unfortunate goal their keeper let slip through against USA (yay!), the embarrassing nil-nil score against Algeria and the final exit by German who defeated them 4-1.
Making matters worse, the staff at their hotel, Royal Marang Hotel allegedly filched some items from the players room.
World Cup Hotels / South Africa Hotels / Jock Jam Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
Was There Really a Shooting at the England Team's Hotel?
Drama in the England camp for the World Cup! Not only has their manager threatened to spy on the lads’ behavior, but now the Sun is reporting that the boys had their sleep disturbed by a shooting outside their hotel.
The lions were shacked up at the Royal Marang Hotel at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Campus in Rustenburg, when the incident happened last week. Apparently there was a car chase that ended in the cops getting trigger happy – and the culprit was none other than a drunken policeman.
Although the cynic in us is thinking, hmm, the lengths some people will go to to invent an excuse for their shoddy performance against the yanks on Saturday. Not sure if we’re buying that one.
World Cup Hotels / South Africa Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
Six World Cup-Worthy Hotels in South Africa
If you’ve decided to fly to South Africa and support your favorite soccer team (psst..take a look at Jaunted’s World Cup coverage!), you’ll need a place to stay. We’ve done some homework for fans looking to lay their head down in between matches and copious amounts of South African wine.
The good hotels may already be taken by flashy footballers but there are still plenty of South African hotels to go around. And even if you aren't headed to South Africa for the World Cup, you should store these hotel suggestions for a future trip. After all, the World Cup only lasts a month but hotels last forever.
Out in Cape Town, four new hotels have opened here this year alone, bringing the tally to 14 new properties in the last two years. This means there are plenty of beds, from budget to swank, available during the games.
A road trip from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth is quite doable when you take the scenic Garden Route. Another option, after the games at Nelson Mandela stadium, fans can drive 190 miles south to the seaside town of Wilderness for whale watching excursions on the Western Cape. There are several key towns along the way, all offering a low-key pre-or-post game retreat and a different side of Africa.
World Cup Hotels / South Africa Hotels / Jock Jam Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
The Pezula Resort is Even Too Flashy For Footballers
If you thought the English team had it bad for the World Cup, what with being spied on by their coach and all, wait till you hear about the French, who’ve just had a roasting from the government over their hotel being “too flashy”.
According to the Guardian, Rama Yade pointed out that the spoilsport Spanish team had shacked up in university accommodation, and said about the French team’s hotel:
Personally I would not have chosen that hotel. I had asked football authorities to show decency. In times of crisis, you need to think about it.
The hotel in question? The Pezula Resort on the Western Cape, which bills itself as “Africa’s most luxurious resort estate”.
World Cup Hotels / South Africa Hotels / Fabio Capello / Jock Jam Hotels / Hotel Technology / Geek Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
England's Coach To Spy on His Players Using Hi-Tech Hotel TVs
The 2010 FIFA World Cup is almost here and we plan on giving you the full low-down on where fans should hotel it up during the matches. But first, we have to applaud this most excellent use of hotel technology by the England team's coach--Fabio Capello.
Word is Capello plans to spy on his players at the Bafokeng Camp Royal Marang Hotel by using hi-tech hotel TVs to ensure they are getting proper sleep and are not engaging in amorous behavior with any WAGs (aka wives and girlfriends.)
The Daily Star reports:
The tellies have been installed at the team’s £327 million base camp in Rustenberg. But the news has not gone down well with the stars. A source close to the squad revealed: “It’s going to be like Big Brother. “The hotel rooms used to be the place we all escaped to, now they’re not safe!”
As it turns out, Capello probably had these sneaky spy TVs planned for about a year.
World Cup Hotels / Hotel Openings / South Africa Hotels / Fairmont Hotels / → All Tags
Fairmont Is Catering to Soccer Fans By Opening Another World Cup Hotel
Aren’t those World Cup fans lucky? Not only do they get a nice holiday in South Africa on the pretence of following the beautiful game, and not only do they get to actually follow the beautiful game, but now Fairmont have opened up a new hotel especially for them.
The Fairmont Zimbali Resort opened on Tuesday near Durban (one of the Cup host cities) and 15 minutes away from the new King Shaka airport (which presumably footie fans will be flying into).
It’s not the only property in the area – at 154 rooms, it’s playing big brother to the existing 76-roomed Fairmont Zimbali Lodge. The lodge is slap bang on the beach, and the resort is sandwiched between the sand and a 700-hectare forest reserve – though you can see the sea from the pool, according to the renderings.
World Cup Hotels / South Africa Hotels / Hotel Security / Jock Jam Hotels / → All Tags
Where the U.S. is Shacking Up for the World Cup in South Africa
While Jaunted takes you on a tour of the 2010 World Cup Stadiums in South Africa, we're interested in where the football players are spending their nights. And for the U.S. team, it's the Irene Country Lodge, just north of Johannesburg in the village of Irene.
The lodge has only 74 rooms (25 of which are new) and the decor is "English Country Manor." Rates start around $170 USD a night and rooms are equipped with wireless internet (for a fee), minibars, 24-hour room service and DSTV satellite television, although we did spy some chunky box TVs in armoires in one of the room photos.
But perhaps the players won't need to use the TV, not when they've got a lake to look out onto and a herd of cows to observe. (Hmmm...but we hope they brought their iPods and laptops just in case.)
Hotel News Briefs / South Africa Hotels / Nelson Mandela / Hotel Hype / → All Tags
Coming Soon, The Nelson Mandela Boutique Hotel?
We really hope this hotel plan isn't all hype. News reports out today say that the land where Nelson Mandela spent his last days of freedom before spending 27 years in prison will be turned into a boutique hotel that will accompany a historical museum already on the land. The Daily Mail reports:
As South Africa prepares to celebrate 20 years since Mr Mandela's release on February 11th 1990, three acres of land on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, north of Johannesburg, are set to be developed into a 75million rand hotel (around £6million).
Construction on the 48-room hotel is likely to begin in June and the property is scheduled to open in September 2011.
We're adding that to our Hotel Openings list right now.
Here's what else is going on in the hotel world:
· The Chambers Hotel in downtown Minneapolis is now a Le Meridien. [TwinCities Biz Journal]
· Cruise Ship Hotel for the Vancouver Olympics sinks...in theory [Victoria Advocate]
· The Problems with Condo-Hotels from the condo owners side of coin [NY Times]
· Cougars Hunt Cubs and vice versa at the Clarion Hotel in Millbrae, Calif. [Mercury News]
South Africa Hotels / Hotel Renovations / Hotel Reopenings / → All Tags
Durban's Oyster Box Hotel Opens Again, Better Than Ever
We've been waiting for the big renovation of Durban's iconic Oyster Box Hotel to get finished up in South Africa – and now the wait is over. Last week the new Oyster Box was unveiled with an 800-guest party including all the local celebrities, with at least one prince and one king along for the fun.
The Oyster Box is often described as an "architectural treasure" of Durban, so the new owners (the Red Carnation group) have been careful to leave all the good historic bits of the place intact. That includes murals, paintings and antique furnishings, and to complement all that they use natural timber and stone features in a lot of the décor – and the result looks pretty impressive.
Hotel Openings / Radisson SAS Hotels / Radisson Blu Hotels / South Africa Hotels / Johannesburg Hotels / → All Tags
Johannesburg Not Blue About Getting a Radisson Blu
Complete with the sassy new Radisson Blu branding, the former Radisson SAS chain has a new hotel in South Africa. The Radisson Blu Hotel Sandton has just opened in Johannesburg and it sounds cool enough to go with the "Blu" title.
Big flat-screen LCD TVs for all, complimentary WiFi for all, and a big wine bar and lounge, this hotel sounds great except for one not-so-cool (well, to us) feature. As part of its ONEwellness Spa and fitness center, it's got this:
an indoor/outdoor jogging course that snakes in and out of the hotel’s public areas.
So they want us to jog, sweaty and puffy, through public areas of the hotel? The hotel designers obviously have a lot more self-confidence in their jogging styles than we do.
Right now rooms are going for 1600 Rand ($180) for a standard room and from 2450 Rand ($270) for a one-room suite including breakfast. Public exposure to your jogging is included for free.
Hotel Design / Inclusive Design / Wheelchair Accessible Hotels / South Africa Hotels / → All Tags
Inclusive Design: Makaranga Lodge Leads the Way
There’s a new wave trend in the hotel world. It’s quite a small wave currently – more of a ripple in the distance – but it’s set to become a veritable tsunami.
It’s called Inclusive Design, and its pioneers are those who believe hotels should welcome all guests equally, regardless of any disability they might have.
Inclusive Design – or Universal Design – is an ocean apart from the wave of "design hotels" that appear on the scene of any tourist mecca. Their "design" stops short at pretty colours and shiny gadgets. How many of you have shelled out a lot of cash to stay in a design hotel, then found that you can’t reach the plug sockets, that you can’t find the switches for the funny luminescent lights, that the shiny bathroom gets a soaking from the shower’s hydromassage jets or that you can’t attract the staff’s attention away from the mirror for long enough to book a taxi?
No, Inclusive Design aims to please everybody.
Reader Reviews / Safari Hotels / Luxury Camping / Glamping / South Africa Hotels / → All Tags
Inside the Marataba Hotel in South Africa
Every so often we feature a hotel review from one of our readers that we feel should be shared with the rest of you dear hotel guests. These reviews are highlighted because they are timely, about cool hotels in cool places and are relatively level-headed. Think you can submit one just like this? Send it in. Today we have a totally awesome review from a Friend of HotelChatter about one of those exotic safari hotels in South Africa. We also love our friend and her review because she gave us so many pretty pictures to look at. Enjoy.
We went on safari at the Marataba Hotel which I definitely recommend over the Krueger National Park hotels since it is a private game reserve and there are NO other groups or tours allowed on the property.
We could see elephants and giraffes from our room and warthogs hung out by the pool. At night, we had to be escorted to our tents so lions didn't attack us as the place is not fenced in.
The food is amazing, everything is scheduled perfectly and the staff is awesome.
