Protea Hotel Kruger Gate – a Marriott Rewards Sweet Spot

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Update 7/26/22: I was very disappointed to learn yesterday that the Protea Hotel Kruger Gate is leaving Marriott Bonvoy as of 9/1/22 as reported by Katie Genter on Twitter. Unfortunately, I think this means you’ll only have until then to redeem rewards and stay at this incredibly well-located property. I currently see dates in August available for either 14,500 or 15,000 Marriott points per night. Unfortunately, it looks like the hotel is not accepting reservations for award stays beyond September 1st. I don’t know whether existing points reservations beyond September 1st will be honored. I expect that cash rate reservations should still be honored, though a message on the Marriott website indicates that elite benefits will not apply once the hotel leaves the program on September 1, 2022.

This is a major bummer as I stayed at this hotel in early 2017 and posted this review. While the award price increased since this post was originally written, this has remained a fantastic value using Marriott points for a hotel that is literally just outside of the Paul Kruger gate to Kruger National Park. While few people are probably planning a safari on a month’s notice, I thought it was worth publishing this for anyone who might have missed this gem previously. The original post follows.

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Long before discovering points and miles as a method to travel, my wife and I had a shared dream trip: a safari. I think it’s the child within — the chance to see lions and leopards and elephants in their natural habitats rekindles the amazement of seeing them on TV for the first time as kids.

It’s hard to describe the difference between watching Animal Planet and finding those scenes play out in real life in front of your eyes, but suffice it to say that after two trips the magic hasn’t died.  Last month, we returned to Kruger National Park in South Africa for the second time and felt like kids in a candy store as we drove ourselves around the park watching for wildlife and snapping photos along the way. I am no J.M. Hoffman, but the diversity in Kruger park is wonderful and makes it hard not to take a few pictures you like.  You can see elephants playing in the water:

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Or lions…..lying:

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Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot

Or maybe even stumble on a leopard:

Safari, South Africa

Sightings are abundant.  With a few days, some patience, and a good eye, you’re likely to find a little bit of everything.

Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot, Safari, South Africa
A warthog playing with the kids at the pool

Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot, Safari, South Africa

Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot, Safari, South Africa

Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot, Safari, South Africa

Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot, Safari, South Africa

Safari, South Africa

Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot, Safari, South Africa

Safari, South Africa

Safari, South Africa

If you’ve looked at safari packages before, you’ve probably assumed that it would be a major expense.  And it can be — luxury safari packages can easily run in the thousands and may be the right choice depending on your budget and desires. On the other end of the spectrum, you can rent a bungalow in one of the many rest camps within Kruger National Park for just about $100 a night (or camp for quite a bit less).  Bungalows are simple and typically clean enough, though on our last night this time around we did find a scorpion in our bathroom in the middle of the night:

scorpion, Safari, South Africa

And that led us to find an opportunity to enjoy everything Kruger park has to offer while sleeping cheap on points: The Protea Hotel Kruger Gate, a Category 1 Marriott Rewards property.  Sitting just 100m from the Paul Kruger gate, the location of this hotel can not be beat. All of the photos taken above were within a day’s drive from the hotel.

Cash rates at the Protea Kruger Gate can often easily exceed $200 a night, making 7500 Marriott points (or 2500 Starpoints converted to Marriott) a great deal. (Note that this property increased in category a couple of years ago and as of 2022 award rates are typically around 15,000 points per night, still a great value redemption).

Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot

The lobby looked very promising — completely open-air:

Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot, Safari, South Africa

As this hotel sits literally 100m from the Paul Kruger entrance gate, it is surrounded by animal life and includes a nice nature walk:

Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot, Safari, South Africa

You can get a spa treatment under one of roofs to the left, listening to monkeys swinging in the trees or watching zebra pass by.

There are monkeys playing in the nearby trees/structures:

Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot, Safari, South Africa

And sometimes even running across the dinner tables as they set up:

Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot, Safari, South Africa

You can’t see any running across the tables here, and when we were eating dinner an hour later, we were happy to be in denial as well.

The room itself looked decent:

Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot, Safari, South Africa

But the problem here is that each room opens to the outdoor hallways, and the two rooms we saw both included a gap between the door and frame that can allow something like, say, a 3-inch spider into the room. To be fair, we only found one such spider and the hotel offered to have the room cleaned again. We took them up on it and didn’t see another insect while we were there — but in a Malaria zone with venomous spiders and scorpions, I would expect a $250-a-night hotel to have doors that close a bit better.

Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot, Safari, South Africa

Another potential disadvantage to the Protea would be that your access to the park will be about an hour behind those staying within the park (camp gates open earlier than park gates).  Still, the ability to self-drive within the park means that you can choose your own path and adventure in search of the wildlife you hope to find.  While some say that the crowds at Kruger can detract from the experience in comparison to some lesser-visited safari locations, we didn’t find this to be the case during our two trips. In fact, we drove for hours at a time without seeing anyone — though lion sightings do tend to draw a handful of cars.

In the end, the biggest surprise for me on this trip was having access to the wild world above while staying at a Marriott Rewards property. The Protea Hotel Kruger Gate may not be perfect, but I found it to be perfectly well worth 7500 Marriott points. Better yet, convert Starpoints to stay for just 2500 Starpoints per night.  The current signup bonus on the Amex SPG cards would be enough to spend two weeks on safari at this property.  While that’s probably not what I’d do with all of those Starpoints, it’s a pretty strong value nonetheless.

One thing the Protea Hotel Kruger gate did reasonably well: dinner. The Protea’s dinner buffet was large, diverse, and pretty tasty even if a bit expensive compared to the restaurants within the park (neither breakfast nor dinner are included when redeeming points):

Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot, Safari, South Africa
Grilled meats, including Kudu, pork sausage, chicken, etc.
Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot, Safari, South Africa
Pasta Station with various sauces
Safari, South Africa
Dessert Station

And the wildlife viewing in Kruger National Park is amazing. We will definitely be back again (this was our second trip to Kruger in 13 months), and when we go back we will likely use Starwood/Marriott points to stay at the Protea Hotel Kruger Gate.  If your travels take you to South Africa, check out what Marriott has to offer — Protea may surprise you!

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brteacher

I have been informed that my points booking for January will be honored, so I’m very happy about that, as using points is really the only way that Kruger National Park is affordable to me.

Justin wagner

Hi Nick, I appreciate you sharing a post specifically about this hotel property. I actually booked it several nights ago based on you 3 card 3 continent update concerning aeroplan dream redemptions. Though you were talking about the Protea Livingstone property in that article. Your original article failed to mention that breakfast was not included in the points rate, and of course, I only have marriott gold status. Even worse, EVERY SINGLE cash rate does include breakfast, even booking through third party websites like booking.com only show rates with breakfast. I bought marriott points through storefront to take advantage of what I though was significant savings on the rate. But actually, when you account for the price of breakfast here, $22.50 per person, there is virtually no savings booking with points instead of cash. No rewards earned either on storefront purchases. Especially if you buy the points through the storefront. Their rates are misleading and the community needs to know to double check the rate fineprint. Hyatt never does that, free breakfast if you pay cash but not included with point award redemption.

First and last time I stay at a Marriott property.

Last edited 2 years ago by Justin wagner
NoHohh

stayed at this hotel 2 months ago. The standard rooms at the 400 section seem recently renovated (or newly built) and it was super nice.

Gene

@ Nick — Awesome photos! I especially love the cats.

Michael Tarlow

Going on safari, at least for me, was a life changing experience. Sounds corny but it truly was. On our trip we stayed at Protea hotels at Kruger, Zambia and Dar Es Salam. They were all inexpensive and very nice properties. It is unfortunate that Kruger will no be a Marriott property but I strongly agree with you re staying in the park. Perhaps more important than the overnight facilities is that people staying in the park have access to extraordinarily inexpensive morning, afternoon and night salary drives ($20‐$40 before Covid]. And everything can be booked online at the Kruger website. There are also early morning Bush walks. One of the most memorable moment of my trip was standing about 300 feet from a black rhino. As you said you can’t compare a safari to Animal Planet. Let me tell you, you can’t compare watching wild animals from a safari vehicle to being at ground level with them with nothing between you and them except some brush and a park ranger with a rifle.

Last edited 2 years ago by Michael Tarlow
DancingPandas

Oh no! We just left there 4 weeks ago. 5 nights, 51K total, Titanium. Room 440 with a huge deck in the newer building, closest to the bar/pool. (No gaps around door). We were definable going to return next year. What a great experience. Nick’s pics are amazing

Jules

I recently cancelled a 5-night points booking for May 2023. Even if they honor the reservation (which they probably won’t), not having any elite benefits recognized kills the value proposition for me. I’ve now decided to search for alternative accommodations in Kruger to avoid the hassle of driving in/out everyday.

Jimmy

On points does the stay include breakfast ? At an early hour !

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Boobaholic

Have been looking at IC Mauritius (although seems very remote) and combining it with some time in Kruger. Despite having gone up one category level to Level 2 now this Marriott property still seems good value (10k Marriott points but 5th night free) however I had thought the points cost would include breakfast 🙁
That is a bit of a let-down. I doubt we’ll be sitting for a sumptuous breakfast feast every morning so the cash price for breakfast won’t be worth it for us. Therefore we’d just grab something at a cafe outside or inside the park.

Do Marriott Gold members (matched from SPG thanks to AMEX Plat) get any benefits here ? On points stays ?? I appreciate that things will be changing with the merger too 🙁

I visited Kruger a couple of years ago and stayed inside the parks at the SANPark accommodations and found them to be decent enough and a good bonus was being able to enter the park earlier each day and from different locations (if you moved between the camps). I am surprised and shocked at the gaps in the doors at a Marriott property !!

I recall my first day entering the park was quite a queue and that would eat into your visiting time too (I could see that being an hour if you were unlucky) not just the one hour addition to the opening times at the outside gates vs internal accommodation gates.
How long did you find it took you to gain entrance each day ?

Thinking this might be quite a good use of some SPG points I have saved up (only 40K = 120K Marriott !).
Being from the UK we don’t get the huge numbers of points you guys do from credit card signups so have top earn them the hard way 🙁

RS_WI

Reviving this thread with a specific question: Can anyone speak to the internet at the Protea Kruger Gate Marriott? We’re going to be there in May/June 2018 and SO just got an invite to participate in a very prestigious panel. She can do it remotely, but not so much if the internet/wifi stinks.

Any insights from recent guests?? Reliably stayed connected? Speed was acceptable? (not looking to stream Netflix.. just to be able to participate in discussion). Is there cost? (Marriott Gold, if it matters)

Thanks!

IRIS

HELLO

WE WOULD STAY AT THE PROTEA KRUGER ON AUGUST.
DID YOU TAKE GAME DRIVE / TOUR FROM THE HOTEL OR SELF-DRIVING ONLY ?

DO YOU REMEMBER BREAKFAST / DINNER HOURS ?
THANKS
IRIS

IRIS

thanks for the detailed answer 🙂

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