Having decided on The Gambia for our winter sun holiday, we chose the Corinthia Atlantic Hotel in Banjul for its location away from the more crowded beach resorts along the Atlantic coast in spite of some rather negative reviews we had read. First impression was one of drab brown, beige and dark corridors and a similarly dated room with cigarette burned curtains sagging from missing curtain hooks, brown bedspreads and brown floor tiles. Everywhere was dark from too small energy saving light bulbs. The bathroom was rather dated, and evidently the Gambians are not great at tiling and grouting.
However, having said that, the overall atmosphere at the hotel was friendly and easygoing, it was spotlessly clean, and after a day we never noticed any of it again. The staff was so extremely friendly and smiling and did everything possible to help us with anything. The buffet restaurant food for both breakfast and dinner was varied, plentiful and well made. At the beach bar however, even the same dish varied quite a lot from day to day depending on who made it, but still quite good. Considering the poverty you see all over the country, prices in the hotel were not cheap and almost like UK prices.
The Hotel has its own spacious beach which had been was reinstated a few years ago after serious erosion, and was now quite wide and clean and was patrolled 24 hours a day to keep the "bumsters" at bay. The local boys operate Juice bars on the beach right next to the hotel and at half the price they are worth trying, if only to provide them with a little income.
Some of the locals we spoke to were resenting the fact that the Hotel was now Libyan owned, and that the profits were not reinvested in the country, but repatriated. A recently arrived new manager also seemed to unsettle the staff a little, but as far as guests were concerned, most things seemed to work well. They ran out of marmalade for a few days, they ran out of white wine for a few days, and they ran out of ham for their ham sandwiches, but as always, there were alternatives.
We were originally told that the Hotel no longer accepted credit cards, but they actually did. All charges were made in Sterling though and converted at an exchange rate 20% below the rate available in the banks in Banjul, and it was the same situation when changing money, so my advise is to take the trouble and go into town to change.
The hotel no longer accepts cash payments for any purchases in restaurants and bars, but charges everything to the room.
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at The Atlantic, and although in my opinion it is not a 4 star hotel as claimed, it provides for a great holiday, and we would certainly come back again.