Protea Hotel Victoria Junction, Cape Town

Nice looking hotel, with reasonable size rooms. Trendy, lots of bare brick and metal. The wall between bathroom and bedroom is mostly glass block - ok for a husband & wife, not so good for my teenage son & daughter who were sharing a twin-bedded room. And the pillows were awful! Oddly, there were no light switches conveniently situated to the bed. The broadband facility was very fast, but not too cheap. Airconditioning was noisy but efficient. If your room has a pool view it will be quiet, otherwise it looks out on a street with a busy (and somewhat shabby, I thought) nightlife. The pool is a narrow lap pool and it is freezing cold. Towels are supplied at reception and the sunbeds are nice and comfy. The overhead structure looks nice in pictures, but blocks the sun in reality! Drinks/meals can be ordered by phone to be served to you at the pool. Breakfast R70 for continental - it's far better to go down to the V&A Waterfront. The cleaners seem to be over zealous with air freshener or something - every time I went back into the room after housekeeping had been I had to open the windows before I could breathe! Having said that, all the staff were very nice. Bar was pleasant, but more expensive than other places. The shuttle service out the back was really handy and very reasonable. Waterfront is less than 10 mins walk, but there is a gate you pass through that is closed between 4 & 6 pm, and after 6 pm it's not recommended to walk anywhere. So you can only walk there and back before 4 pm. Not too convenient. I'd go back to Cape Town in a heartbeat, but I'd stay elsewhere than Victoria Junction.