Sleek and stylish, the Protea is one of the best business hotels in Kampala. Unusually for a capital city hotel, it has spacious rooms, good amenities, and there’s an excellent breakfast buffet that will fill you up for the whole morning.

The lobby, furnished with comfortable sofas, extends towards the glass elevator shaft and the outdoor terrace restaurant. The low-level building feels light and airy, with bright white walls and soft lighting. Upstairs, carpeted corridors lead to soundproofed, well-spaced rooms. We opted for a rear-facing standard double, which was huge and looked out over the manicured parking lot. The view wasn’t fantastic, but the windows were enormous and let in plenty of light.

The emphasis on space extends to the Protea’s bathrooms, which all come with enormous glass showers. The bedrooms have desks, plenty of closet space, great lighting, flatscreen televisions and all of the usual extras, including sturdy safes. Our air-conditioning unit cooled the room in seconds, although we’d recommend that light sleepers ask the porter to regulate the output; ours switched on and off constantly throughout the night.

The breakfast buffet here is not to be missed. It includes everything from healthy fruits and cereals (think fresh passion fruit and pineapple) to steaming hot fried breakfasts, eggs on demand and even jugs of watermelon-infused bloody mary cocktails. There’s a good selection of freshly-squeezed virgin juices, too.

The service inside the restaurant is better than that at reception, but this hotel is a popular choice and staff appeared very busy. We’d recommend it highly, not only for its high-quality rooms but for its location, too: not far from Kampala’s brand new Acacia mall, and within spitting distance of some great restaurants.

Perhaps the last word belongs to one happy businessman we spotted on his way out of the hotel. “Thank you,” he shouted out to the staff as he left, “for looking after me so well here.”