Grand Papua Hotel

Rooms and decor

Grand Papua Hotel is a 5-star that opened in 2011 and later joined Radisson Individuals. The building stands on Mary Street in the heart of Port Moresby's Downtown CBD, one of the few good-looking modern buildings in the district. The lobby mixes the clean look of an international chain hotel with Papua New Guinean tribal art and patterns on the walls, telling the story of this land with some taste. The 156 rooms mostly come with a private balcony over Port Moresby harbour and Ela Beach. The palette is warm and contemporary, browns and creams cut with wood, the beds are soft with a choice of pillows, and the bathrooms are roomy with a separate shower and tub. A lot of reviews call the rooms clean and well kept to a standard that is hard to find in Port Moresby, and the thing many guests fall for is opening the balcony door in the morning to the sea breeze and the long blue sweep of the bay. The other detail people single out is the Ladies-Only floor, reachable only with that floor's key card and stocked for women traveling on their own. It is a small touch that shows the hotel actually understands the city it is in.

Food and amenities

The center of the day at Grand Papua is Grand Brasserie on the ground floor, open all day for every meal. The breakfast buffet draws consistent praise across reviews for being generous and good quality, from fresh produce, pastries and tropical fruit to eggs made to order and some Asian and local dishes. Lunch and dinner rotate themed buffets and international a la carte, mixing Western, Asian and seafood pulled from the Coral Sea around Port Moresby, with Indian food on offer too. Vue Bar is the hotel's cocktail and wine bar, and in the evening it becomes the meeting point for business people, diplomats and capital workers, casual enough for a post-work catch-up or a quiet drink before heading up. For facilities there is an outdoor pool to cool off in the afternoon, a 24-hour gym, and an Executive Club Lounge on a dedicated floor for Executive Floor guests, with breakfast, all-day snacks and evening cocktails in a calmer setting than the main restaurant. Meeting and event rooms of various sizes get used so often the hotel has effectively become one of the city's main conference venues.

Location and getting there

Grand Papua sits on Mary Street in the heart of Downtown CBD, the main business district of Port Moresby. Around it are government offices, the embassies of many countries, and the offices of the big firms working in PNG mining, oil and gas. That makes it the most convenient spot in town for getting to meetings. Ela Beach, the in-city beach with activity space and a craft market, is about a 10-minute walk, but in practice hotel staff and every country's diplomats advise taking the hotel car even for that short a distance, because safety in this district is a real concern. From Jacksons International Airport (POM) it is about 11 km, a 25-40 minute drive depending on traffic, and the hotel runs a transfer you should book ahead. For a short business trip to the capital this location works best of anywhere in the city, but if your main aim is diving around Loloata and Bootless Bay or walking the historic Kokoda Track, plan for a fair bit of travel time out of town and arrange a car from the hotel or your tour operator in advance.

Things to know before booking

To help you decide, here it is straight. The first thing to understand is the context of the city, not the hotel itself. Port Moresby is a place where safety has to be taken seriously. Walking around Downtown on your own is not advised, especially after dark or before dawn, and even a 5-10 minute trip is better done in the hotel car or a taxi the hotel calls. First-time visitors are sometimes surprised by this limit, but it is the reality, and it has nothing to do with how good the hotel is. The second point is that food and drink inside the hotel run high against international norms, but since easy, safe options outside are limited, most people end up eating their main meals in the hotel anyway. Look for a package that includes breakfast, or the Executive Floor with snacks and evening cocktails built in, and it works out better value. The last thing some reviews flag is Wi-Fi speed in certain rooms and parts of the public areas, which is not as fast as an international 5-star standard. Anyone doing online meetings or working with large files should plan around it, though for everyday email and web it is fine.

Our take

From reading real reviews and pulling together guest feedback, Grand Papua Hotel is the safest and most convenient central base for working in the capital, Port Moresby. It is no surprise that Australian diplomats and companies treat it as a second home when they are in PNG. If you are a business traveler with meetings in town, a solo guest who wants security and convenience, or a woman traveling alone who specifically wants the Ladies-Only floor, it covers almost everything you would ask for. The morning harbour-view balcony, breakfast at Grand Brasserie and an evening at Vue Bar are the highlights that give each day a relaxed rhythm even on a work trip. But if you are coming to Port Moresby mainly to travel, with island diving or a long Kokoda Track walk as the point of the trip, this is more of a base in the capital than a destination in itself. Overall we give it 8.4/10, best for business travelers and solo guests who value safety and a central CBD location over a beach mood or adventure tours out of town.