Premier Hotel, East London

Last weekend Mr John and I flew off to East London for one night. He had a gig at the local party venue and I was keen for a relaxing night in before heading off to Kwantu Game Reserve (more about that later). Not having been to the city before, I Googled the best hotels in town and found the Premier Hotel East London, which looked like the perfect place to stay while visiting the city.

Premier Hotel - East London - Map

We flew up on Friday morning and found our way to the hotel. The Premier Hotel in East London is HUGE! In fact, I think it might have been the biggest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. It has 3 wings and over 200 rooms, all set along the coastline of the city.

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There was ample, secure parking and the kind members of staff greeted us upon arrival. It was lovely to chat to the them and find out where they were from; they were all really friendly and I enjoyed their positive attitude. We were shown to our room in the hotel, with winding passages, I think you could get lost but funnily enough, we didn’t.

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The room that we stayed in was on the 9th floor so we had a great view as well as lots of space. I’m making this up but I find that a lot of the smaller rooms seem to be lower down in hotels as they probably have to be cleaned more frequently, with longer stay rooms or larger rooms higher up. I could be talking absolute rubbish! But that’s what I’ve found in my time staying in hotels. So our room was sizeable and it really felt like home away from home.

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I had thought of joining Mr John at his gig, but the hotel room was so relaxing that I ended up just staying in! We had a beautiful view from our room and I would watch the lighthouse shine over the ocean, boats go by…I didn’t see any whales or animals but it was pretty none the less.

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The bedroom was really lovely too. Sounds like a funny thing to say, but it felt clean. I 100% can not STAND if I go to a hotel room and feel like the bed has already had someone in it. I will literally ask for another room if I have to! But this bed was really big and very comfy. Later in the evening, the ladies came in to turn it down. Add a mat, water and some choccies, just to ensure everything was in order for the evening ahead.

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The hotel room was also en suite, which is fine if you’re a couple as there wasn’t a door on it LOL! Mr John had a shower and said it was one of the best showers he’d ever had! (Not seen below, unfortunately.)

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Mr John and I decided to order room service and have a Master Chef marathon on our computer. I had a chicken strip basket and I loved it! I adore chicken strips and it’s so hard to find them! Unless you actually go to a pub and order it and even then, a lot of pubs don’t have it. It’s my comfort food to the max and this basket was really good.

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Mr John had a chesee burger, plain with chips. I think he also enjoyed his. Oh, it came with salad which I was meant to eat if I got hungry, but that didn’t happen after the waffles!

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We ordered waffles and ice cream and they sent us two desserts! What I meant is that I wanted my waffle with ice cream, not cream, but they misunderstood and sent us both. It really wasn’t a train smash because who can say no to extra ice cream? Plus it allowed us to have chocolate sauce on our waffle too!

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The only negative is that they weren’t able to charge it to our room to settle in the morning (maybe we’d want seconds!) but the good news is that they had a card machine so we could pay for it right there and then and when we checked out in the morning it was smooth sailing.

The hotel also provided some snacks were really helpful as there’s nothing worse than being hungry in the middle of the night in a hotel.

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As night fell, I decided to use the second of the hotel room’s TVs – one in the bedroom. While Mr John went to work I had a chick flick fest and watched Sex and the City 2 as well as Trevor Noah.

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The following morning we went to breakfast in the hotel. Once again we were greeted by the professional and friendly staff at the restaurant. The hotel is next to the East London Convention Centre so it has more of a corporate feel than personal touch, but is warm, clean and functional.

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They had a wonderful, full buffet breakfast as well as continental breakfast options.

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It’s only been while travelling overseas that I realise how fresh fruit is a bit of a South African thing, with fruit always available opposed to the odd dodgy apple on your breakfast tray. This fruit was varied and prepped for easy eating. Dried fruits for cereals were also included for the more healthy visitor.

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With an egg counter so you can order them how you like them. I know this is becoming more and more popular in hotels, which really is the best way to not be wasteful. Naturally I went full English because, you know, I’m from English decent and this was a lovely offering:

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Considering we had a 4 hour drive (which we thought would only be a 2 hour drive) to Kwantu, this was a great start to the day.

East London is a funnily little place and I feel like I perhaps didn’t really see it for all it was. My Mom had said it was one of the prettiest little towns she’d ever gone to. Well, I can’t say that about it now! It definitely has an industrial, small harbour town feeling to it, but I also get the impression that I didn’t really see the city for all it is. It seemed like a town, but people say city – so I guess I really didn’t see all of it. I still liked driving through none the less.

5 STARS: Things I Loved

Space – it’s nice to to have to sit in your bed to feel like you have room.

Desk – a HUGE desk! YES YES YES! Bloggers and DJs need place for our tech. Well done Premier!

Shower – Mr John said it was the best shower he’d had.

Room Service – Really good prices for the quality of the food.

Snacks – Sometimes you don’t want to go for a 10 minute walk for a refreshment. This was a great touch.

Fridge – We could put our waffle ice cream in so it didn’t melt while we had dinner.

Bed – Nice size and very comfortable and warm.

Privacy – The room was very quiet and we were not disturbed. We liked this.

1 STAR – Things I Didn’t Love:

Finger prints – Unfortunately, the bathroom door frame needed a little wipe down with Handy Andy.

Mess on chair – One of the green bedroom chairs had a HUGE red wine or red liquid stain on it. As a premier hotel, I think this should be reapolstered, dry cleaned or thrown out, as unfortunate as it is.

In Closing…

The Premier Hotel in East London is available at a really good rate. Booking.com has rates of about R1100 per night for this suite. That’s a charm compared to prices we’ve been paying overseas (I know it’s not the same but my bank account is!).

Thank you to the Premier hotel for having us. I loved the food, view, peace and quiet! I would definitely stay there again and hopefully I will be able to when I next visit East London again. Check out the Premier Hotel on Booking.com

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