As part of our South African Safari trip, we first spent a week in the amazing Kruger National Park, and then we spent a week touring the Garden Route, culminating in a few days in cape Town. And with that, our trip came to an end, and it was time to fly back home, to New York. We’d be flying back from Cape Town on Ethiopian Airlines’ Cloud9 business Class, but not before visiting the two lounges that our business class ticket gave us access to: Bidvest Premier Lounge 1, at Gate A3, and then the Bidvest Premier Lounge 2 near the B gates.

Here I’ll be reviewing the Bidvest Premier Lounge 2 near the entrance to the B gates. I previously reviewed the other Bidvest Premier Lounge, near Gate A3.

Briefly, this is a nice lounge to spend some time in before the flight. It’s quite a bit larger than the Bidvest Premier Lounge 1 by Gate A3, but has more or less the same design aesthetics and food and drink selection. There are plenty of seating options and they are all quite comfy, though access to outlets is not as good as in its counterpart by Gate A3. All things considered, my preference goes to this lounge between the two due to its larger size.

Hours and Location

As per the website, the lounge is open daily from 5AM until half past midnight (0:30AM), so it only closes overnight.

The Bidvest Premier Lounge 2 is in the international departures area, past security and passport control. Right when you get through, you’ll bump into signage. This is a little confusion because the only Bidvest Lounge sign points to the right: this will bring you to the Bidvest Premier Lounge 1 (Gate A3), which I previously reviewed.

To get the the Bidvest Premier Lounge 2, you’d need to turn left. Continue along the entire length of the terminal, passing all the duty free shops and gates A3 through A1.

As you get closer to the end of the terminal, you’ll come upon the Bidvest Premier Lounge 2 on your left, one floor above the main concourse level. Continue, and you’ll see a staircase around the corner, just in front of the British Airways Lounge. Go up the staircase to get to the entrance of the Bidvest Premier Lounge 2.

At the lobby you’ll find a reception desk, staffed by 1 or 2 people who will scan your boarding pass or swipe your Priority Pass card, depending on how you’re gaining entry. We were promptly welcomed into the lounge after our boarding passes were scanned for eligibility.

Access Requirements

The Bidvest Lounge network has many locations across Southern Africa (besides only South Africa), and all have similar access requirements:

• The Bidvest Premier Lounge is used as a contract lounge for premium passengers of many airlines flying in and out of OR Tambo’s domestic terminal, including Airlink, FlySafair and CemAir. Since Ethiopian Airlines sends its business class passengers to the Bidvest Premier Lounge, this is how we were able to enter.
• There are many lounge memberships that will grant access into the lounge, typically 2 hours in advance of your flight’s departure time. This include Priority Pass (which is what we used, courtesy of my husband’s Citibank Strata Elite credit card), Lounge Club, Lounge Key and Dragon Pass, plus a host of local South African cards issues by Amex, Diner’s Club and various regional and local banks. Full list of partners are on Bidvest’s website.
• You can buy a pass, either in advance or as a walk-in. The rates are around 700ZAR (~$40) for a 4-hour walk-in pass before your flight’s departure, or 45 ZAR per 15 minutes for early check-in.

Seating and Design

The Bidvest Premier Lounge 2 is essentially one large, rectangular room. Most of the room has various kinds of seating, including communal tables, lounge chairs setup in twos or quads, or swivel lounge chairs by the windows. Then to the right is the bar and buffet, restrooms and also a shower suite. The design is similar to the other Bidvest Premier Lounge at CPT, but it’s kind of cool to see the structure of the terminal’s roof be part of it as well.

To the right is a small extension with additional seating. Here are a few comfortable chairs with low coffee tables inbetween, and a communal table with seating towards the back. I do like the color palette being used here. The upholstering of the chairs complements the colors of the walls and flooring quite nicely.

Otherwise, this first section of the lounge has another communal table, with outlets at its center. To the front, near the windows, is additional seating, including additional lounge chairs arranged in pairs. not all of these have easy access to outlets unfortunately.

Along the windows is a large part of the seating available in the lounge, and various types are on offer. The swivel chairs are setup at the windows, and these include ottomans to rest your legs. Outlets are installed as a single strip along the windows as well. There’s a variety of stationary lounge chairs as well, in different forms and their placing configured in different ways. Many of these have coffee tables in-between, and some of these also have outlets installed in them.

Over to the other side of the lounge is a bar and buffet. The buffet consists of 3 islands with cold options, hot options, and dessert. A lot of the food was similar to what was on offer at the Bidvest Premier Lounge 1, but some things were unique to this lounge it seemed.

Walking deeper into the lounge, the section to the back is exclusively for further seating. Much of the seating here is of the same sort as in the front section of the lounge, which more lounge chairs, lower coffee tables but also some cafe-style seating.

Note that the windows don’t have much of a view. Because the lounge is set back in the terminal, most of the view is actually of the duty free area and the gates, with a glimpse of the aircraft further away.

Finally, there are some ‘privacy pods’, at the front of the lounge, by the entrance. There are several of these, and each have a rather narrow table, outlets and some chairs. Because the tables are so narrow, I don’t see this as an effective place to work, since I’m not even sure how a normal-sized laptop would fit on these. But, it could still be a good place for a phone call.

Overall, I do really like the design and layout of this lounge, and I probably prefer it to the Bidvest Premier Lounge 1 that’s over by Gate A3. Since it’s a single long room, it feels more spacious. The color palette that was chosen, with the generally darker colors for much of the walls, ceiling and floor standing in contrast to the white marble chosen for walkways. I think it’s a sensible design that feels modern and clean, and makes for an inviting space to relax in.

Food and Drinks

As mentioned, the dining part of the lounge consists of a bar and a buffet, spread over three islands. The buffet is in the front, whereas the bar is further back.

The first of these islands holds all the cold options, which includes various salads that rotate throughout the day. It was lunchtime when we got here. The salads on offer included a fruit salad with melon, as well as egg and vegetable/faro salad. Admittedly I thought these were a little bit strange. For example, the egg salad was a mix with bread, which seemed rather heavy. But to each their own. Then on either end of the island was a selection of breads with some dips.

The next island had a variety of different things, including a variety if whole fruits, sliced bread and buns, some waffles, pastries and muffins, and condiments to go with that, such as jam, all presented quite nicely.

The final island showcased the hot options on offer. Like bat the other Bidvest Lounge at CPT’s international terminal, this consisted of 8 dishes, and these mirrored almost exactly the options at the other Bidvest Premier Lounge. These options included dishes such as Cape Malay Chicken Curry, Spicy Meatballs, soup, and various carbs, like rice or potatoes. Overall you should be able to get a hearty meal out of this. I also thought the food was generally tasty, though some dishes were a bit salty.

Last but not least is the bar, against the back wall of the lounge. This was continuously staffed, as it should be given that you barely can get any drink at this lounge through other means. As you can see, there is dispenser for orange juice, but other than that you’ll need to ask the bartender/barista if you’d want coffee, tea or anything alcoholic. They will be happy to oblige. In terms of alcoholic options, there’s all the normal choices, including various local and international beers, South African wines, and a selection of liquors, on display behind the bar.

Overall, the food selection is quite solid. While the salads were a little odd, the hot options should satiate most. A larger selection of desserts may have been nice, but I thought what was available was pretty good.

Restrooms and Showers

To the right of the bar is a hallway that will bring you to both the showers and the restrooms. Go through and you’ll find the shower suite straight ahead, and the hallway will continue to the left with access to several gender neutral restrooms that each have a sink as well.

There was a single shower suite, and it was nicely designed and appointed. While I didn’t take a shower here, I was able to take a peek, given that the door was ajar. Its a big space and has all necessary amenities, including a toilet, a good-sized sink with a spot to place and open luggage to get out any necessities. Soap and such was wall-mounted, and I didn’t see any towels. I suspect you’ll need to register at the reception where they might provide such items, or instruct staff to prep the shower suite for you.

Then in the back is the shower stall, with a door that closes firmly and your choice of w all-mounted or handheld shower head that can be adjusted more easily.

The restrooms are essentially the same in layout as the shower suite, with pretty much the same toilets, sinks and facilities, but minus the shower. You’ll notice the sink area is idential to the one in the shower suite, just with less space to the toilet.

The restrooms and shower suite were all generally clean, though I noticed some toilet paper on the floor and such. It seemed to me that these were frequently being cleaned, so on a second visit all of that had been cleaned up.

Overall, the restroom and shower facilities in this lounge are solid. They were nicely and practically designed and appointed, and were kept pretty clean throughout our stay.

Summary

All in al, I enjoyed my time in the Bidvest Premier Lounge 2 at Cape Town’s International terminal. The lounge consists of a single large, nicely designed space, with a pleasant color palette. There is ample comfortable seating, sporting various kinds of chairs and seating configurations, and access to power outlets is okay, though not amazing. The buffet is solid, consisting of hot and cold options and breads and desserts. It’s a ncie spread, though nothing earth-shattering.

Considering that we entered this as business class passengers of Ethiopian Airlines, I’d say that this lounge is pretty good and has all amenities you’d want from an average business class lounge. However, if you enter this lounge as a Priority Pass holder, I don’t think you’ve got anything to complain about, given that I’d consider this to be above average for a Priority Pass lounge.

Finally, given that there are two Bidvest Premier Lounges at CPT’s international terminal, I’d consider the one reviewed here (by the B-gates) to be the better of the two. I say that because the lounge is bigger and feels more spacious, but in most respect the lounges are honestly quite similar. Feel free to do what ew did: go to one, see how you like it, then visit the other, and decide which one you’d prefer to stay at.