Senegambia Beach Hotel, Kololi

I visited The Gambia in November / December 2010. I booked the holiday as a package deal through Hayes Travel. After carrying out lots of research on the internet, we decided to book the Senegambia Beach Hotel.

Location
Senegambia beach hotel is located at the end of the bustling strip in the town of Kololi. I felt the location was perfect as you had the choice of going into the town and taking in some of the Gambian culture but you could also just relax within the grounds of the hotel if you wished to. The hotel also backed onto the beach so it literally had everything you could wish for.

The Hotel
Senegambia Beach Hotel is classed as a four star hotel and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. It is surrounded by 20 acres of beautiful tropical gardens, with loads of beautiful flowers and trees. This hotel is extremely popular with bird watchers and you can see over 100 different species of birds without even venturing out of the hotel grounds. The hotel even provide a bird watching tour, where you can walk around the grounds of the hotel with the staff who are more than happy to point out the various species of birds and name them.

Arrival And Check In
When we arrived at the Senegambia, we were both given a welcome drink and joined a small queue and waited to check in. Check in was very quick and efficient as they had already designated each group of people a key so it was literally a case of filling out a registration form and colleting our key. As we were handed our key, the reception staff told us all necessary information such as what time breakfast was served. From here, we were taken to our room but one of the porters who carried our luggage for us. Overall I thought that check in was friendly and efficient and it left me with a very positive first impression of the hotel.

The Staff
It did strike me just how many staff the Senegambia hotel has. There were porters, room boys, gardeners, plumbers and of course all the usual staff such as waiters and receptionists. All the staff at the hotel exceeded our expectations. They were extremely helpful and very well mannered. They looked very smart in their various uniforms. They all speak a high level of English so there is no language barrier which we found useful when trying to find out

The Room
When we arrived at our room, the first thing we noticed was how clean and spacious it looked. We checked the hotel website several times before arriving in the Gambia and if I am honest, I always thought that the rooms looked very basic. The website really doesn’t do the hotel rooms justice – it was beautiful. The bed was humungous, about 7 feet across and could easily sleep three people comfortably. It was covered with nice crisp white sheets which smelt lovely. The bed had one pillow for each side of it.

In the room there was a fridge, a dressing table, a large wardrobe with a safe inside (charged as extra) and a bedside table either side of the bed, with a small bedside lamp on each one. There was also a small seating area in the room which consisted of two chairs and a little table.

The bathroom was spacious and consisted of a large walk in shower with a lovely power shower inside. There was also a sink and mirror area which was large and had plenty of room to store all our toiletries. The hotel provided us with fresh, clean towels every day and these were left on the towel rail in the bathroom. The hotel run a water saving scheme whereby they will change your towels daily if you leave them on the floor but if you hang them up, they will assume you don’t need them washing and can get more use from them. You are provided with two white towels which are to be used in the room and then two orange towels which can be used by the pool and the beach. My advice would be to save room in your luggage and not bother taking a towel.

Our room had a great little air conditioning unit which came in handy! It even had a remote control. I was pleased to see that the air conditioning unit was fairly quiet when switched on as in some other hotels; the air con can be quite noisy. We found the air con was very useful during early evening when we came in from the pool and needed to cool down. As well as their air conditioning unit, there was also a ceiling fan.

We were located on the first floor and outside the front of our room was a balcony / terrace complete with a table and two chairs. We sat here quite often as it gave us a great area from which to view all the wildlife. Directly outside our room there were vultures and kites which were both nesting and I found it fascinating to watch them.
The rooms are furnished and decorated to a very high standard and I felt that they had a really ‘native’ touch to them with traditional paintings and wall hangings dotted around the room.

The rooms were cleaned to a very high standard and towels and bed sheets replaced every day if you wish them to be.

Restaurant
There are two restaurants within the grounds of the hotel, one of which is called The Flamingo. We actually only ate breakfast at the restaurant and we were staying on a Bed and Breakfast basis. Breakfast was amazing and certainly set us up for the day. Breakfast is served between 7am and 10am and is served in a buffet style. There was so much choice, from cereals, hot items such as bacon, sausages, pancakes and hash browns and a large selection of fresh fruits. There were also a selection of breads and an area for you to toast the bread. There is also a counter where there are chefs behind coking various items fresh. These items included fried eggs and omelettes with various fillings such as cheese, onion, tomato and bacon. There was a selection of fresh juices which you could help yourself to as well as a tea and coffee counter where you could help yourself.
Although we didn’t eat dinner at the hotel, we walked past the restaurant every evening when we ventured out of the hotel and the restaurant looked lovely. The tables were all laid out silver service style. The decor inside was traditional yet still had a modern feel. The restaurant was always spotless despite the fact that many people ate here every day.

The other restaurant is designed mainly for snack style items. The Beach Restaurant and Bar is convenient to use while you are laying by the larger swimming pool as it is located right next door to it. They serve items such as burgers, toasted sandwiches and salads. They also sold a selection of alcoholic and soft drinks. They served a massive selection of smoothies and milkshakes which were delicious, we tried the banana, strawberry and vanilla smoothies which were divine, sipping them while sunbathing. The smoothies weren’t exactly cheap at around £1.80 each but then I didn’t think that was too expensive either.

Bars
There are several bars located around the grounds of the hotel. There is a swim up bar which is located in the larger swimming pool and has little stools which sit in the water. On our second day there we swam over to the bar and had a beer each and relaxed in the sunshine.

There is also a bar located to the right hand side of the smaller pool which mainly just served drinks although you could also order food but there were not any tables near the smaller pool to eat at.

Finally, there is a bar round the back of the reception area where they sell alcoholic and soft drinks. This was a nice area to chill out at in the evenings as they usually had some form of entertainment on such as African dancers. They also had a big screen TV where they showed football matches from the UK if this is your kind of thing. The chairs here were wicker with large soft cushions which made for a very comfortable seat indeed after a long day or sightseeing.

Swimming Pools
There are two swimming pools at the Senegambia hotel. There is a large swimming pool which is classed as the ‘busy’ pool. Here they play music and have an animation team who try to encourage the guests to join in with the various activities such as water aerobics and volleyball. The swimming pool is fairly large and built in a semi-circle shape with the bar at the far side. Across the other side is a little children’s pool where the water is very shallow and allows children to just paddle away from the hustle and bustle of the main pool. The pool s located right by the beach, you can actually see the beach while you are having a swim.

The smaller small is classed as the ‘quiet pool’ which personally, we much preferred. The pool was still of a large size and was surrounded by trees so you were able to relax by the pool and watch the many birds go about their daily business. This pool also seemed to have many more sun loungers than the other pool and there were always plenty of sun loungers to choose from. You could also have the option of having an umbrella over your beds to help block out the burning sunshine which we opted for on some of the days as it was just too hot to lay in.

There are ‘pool boys’ who hang around both pools and will happily bring you over a mattress to put on top of your sun lounger to make it more comfortable. They will also happily take your order for the bar and bring your drinks to you if you are feeling particularly lazy.

Extra Information
As I mentioned earlier, this hotel is surrounded by plenty of land making it a haven for wildlife. The grounds have been carefully designed so that guests are able to walk around and watch the wildlife easily. The pathways around the hotel lead you around vast areas of vegetation meaning you can watch the birds interacting with one another inside the thick plants that surround you. You can also watch the various types of lizards as they bask in the sunshine and run up the trees.

The Senegambia hotel feed the many vultures that live in the grounds of the hotel. Vulture feeding takes place at 11.30 every day on the main lawn. A member of staff brings a massive tray of meat to the lawn and throws it on the floor for the vultures to feast on. This activity also encourages the many kites to come and feed. About 50 kites circle the sky above, looking to grab some food and they are not disappointed as the member of staff throws various cuts of meat into the sky and you can witness the kites swooping down and catching the food mid-flight. The member of staff also gives a little talk about the vultures while they are eating. After they have eaten, the member of staff then walks over to an outside tap and turns it on until a little pool of water gathers in the hole nearby. The vultures come running over and bath themselves in the pool of water. This was wonderful to watch and I particularly liked watching them drying themselves in the sunshine afterwards by spreading their massive wings open to catch the sun.

Within the grounds of the hotel there were a couple of souvenir shops which sold traditional African carvings and little keepsakes such as jewellery boxes. There was also a Spa in the ground which offered massages, pedicures etc. Although we didn’t find the time to have a massage we were impressed with the prices, a 60 minute massage costing only £25. Finally, there was also an African Art Gallery within the hotel which you could simply just admire the art and if you wished to do so, could also buy some.

Another thing I would like to mention is how disabled friendly this hotel is. There were many people in wheelchairs that stayed at the hotel and because the grounds and so well kept, it was very easy for them to get their wheelchairs around.

Summary
I would recommend this hotel to anyone wishing to visit the Gambia. I love the fact that you can stay within the grounds of the hotel if you wish to do so and you still wouldn’t get bored. But, for those of you who, like me, wish to venture further afield this hotel is perfectly located as you walk right outside the front and can find yourself on the busy strip of Kololi. Although we never ate dinner here, I would highly recommend the breakfast as there was so much choice and was served in beautiful surroundings.
You have the option of the two swimming pools so depending whether you want to be active or just relax there is always a spot to suit every taste.
The room and the hotel grounds were simply amazing. The staff could not have been more helpful. On the whole, my experience of this hotel was a very positive one.