Kombo Beach Hotel Reviews

Sarahj100's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Good Points: Great beach, lovely palm trees, good hotel bars and choice of restaurants. rooms good, plenty of hot water and lovely gardens around the hotel. Staff very friendly and helpful, entertainment every evening if you don't wish to venture out.

Bad Points: Very expensive to eat and drink within the hotel. the nearby shops also very overpriced for tourists, including the basics like water. Constant hassle on the beach from Juice ladies etc, going for walks and sight seeing wasn't as relaxing as it could be due to getting constantly approached by bumpsters trying to be your best friend and taxi drivers, market traders etc. Even if you say no thanks, they keep following and pestering.

General comments: Overall Kombo Beach is a great hotel, one of the better ones, good value for B & B and breakfast was great. Eating and drinking there afterwards very expensive though. Outside of the hotel is a mixed bag, a very poor country with what seemed like hundreds of people constantly approaching you for something, trying to get you to come to their shops, bars, restaurants, buy juice, taxi rides, be their official guides etc. We saw the real Gambia though, took some supplies to some schools, and rice etc to the SOS orphanage. Plenty of entertainment in the Senagambia strip, 20 - 30 or so eateries and bars, many of which have live music, proper african style drumming and dancing. yellow taxi's are half the price of green ones so worth a short stroll up the road from the hotel to catch one. Always haggle for the best price. Lamin lodge was amazing as was the monkey park. lovely beach to take long walks on, but once again, you have to keep saying no thank you to all the bumpsters etc offering you their services. the seas pretty rough there, great for surfing, but not for swimming or snorkelling. We got a better exchange rate out there for £'s than back home and you can always haggle with them on the exchange rate also. Worth a visit, stay in the hotel if you want an easy time though, but venture out and see the sights if you have the confidence to deal with the hassle. they are very very poor, there is little work there and they generally mean no harm. you'll meet some real characters, and pretty much everyone is smiley and happy.

stef44's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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It was the best holiday ive ever had. It was just me and my friend, both 20 and girls. you will hear watch out while your there be carefull, but we had no problems. yea you get the guys wanting to talk to you, but their just being friendly nothing rude just all want to make you have a wonderful holiday. I wouldnt stay anywhere else but the Kombo Beach Hotel, always something to do,yummy food wonderful staff. i can not say enough how much i love it there, it wont be for everyone but a great place ...

Km Coleman's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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If you want relaxation this is the place, the Kombo Beach Hotel, spa, pool beach all fantastic. There are sellers on the beach but this is policed they are under control and there are not many of them, be careful of the horses cantering along the beach front.

shirley parke's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Don't expect to leave the hotel and go for a walk or select any other means of transport other than the green taxis parked outside. It was much better to walk up the road and get one with a yellow stripe which was much cheaper or get a bush taxi much cheaper still. You just need to be firm with them, they are only trying to make a living in the holiday season. If you had guests they had to be signed in by a certain time and signed out by a certain time through another gate. This was more akin t ...

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I absolutely loved the Kombo Beach Hotel and would recommend it to anyone. All of the Staff were extremely friendly and the food had lots of variety.

ChanBow 's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Being only 18 and going away for Christmas and new year with the family and to Gambia I was wary... I thought I'd much prefer somewhere I actually knew like Spain... But I can honestly say I'm soooo glad I went!! It's a beautiful country with so many plus points. I and my younger sister have made good friends with the hotel staff and can not wait to return!! I was surprised at how many people return year after year but I can see why... I met some young girls who I became friendly with.. this I d ...

Jeannie Jev's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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With 12 years of visiting the Gambia, I should think that tells you something?. You will either love it or you'll hate it!!!. We love it!! We help a few families, giving what we can, when we can. We have built a Nursery School, and we send boxes of items out, (That's getting very expensive though so might have to stop doing that). We started off with the Hotels, some are better than others, you get what you pay for. We personally like the Kololi area, because we can go out to 'The Strip' at nigh ...

Guest's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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This is about my 6th time to The Kombo Beach and 9th time to the Gambia. The hotel is improving all the time with the introduction of TVs and fridges in rooms. This time I went on business for my charity, Northampton Trustee Fund. There was significant rainfall followed by hot sunshine. The rain was early this year.

Everything was good - if a little expensive due to the poor exchange rate. A beer in the hotel was 55 Delasis a bottle, 30 Delasis in the supermarket next door and 20 Delasis away f ...

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Where do I start... you have to sign for your pool towels which are disgusting, they have holes in them, bath towels in rooms are not always available. Air conditioning is so old that it makes a racket that keeps you up all night, bath tiles need re grouting, absolutely everything in the hotel is priced up. Are we the only people who found Kombo Beach awful?
We would have rather paid a bit more and stayed at the Kariba which is a beautiful hotel and staff are far more attentive than at the Kombo ...

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Excellent hotel and accommodation lots to do day and night - the tours are excellent value for money and the guides are really helpful. The Bumsters are a nuisance approaching you all the time be polite but firm this does help.

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Th holiday (Gambia Experience) was very well organised with transport ready from the airport. I had never been to Gambia before and was shocked by the amount of persistent begging that you are faced with as soon as you reach the baggage hall. Men will literally take your bagagge without permission, then demand payment. Not a good introduction to the country. All before you leave the airport.
The transport to the hotel was efficient, with drinks supplied by Gambia Experience for the trip. On arri ...

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Feb 2008. Just returned from 14 nights. The hotel is as good as we could have hoped for. But after holidays in Kenya and Goa the food and drink prices came as a bit of a shock!. These are reflected in local bars and restaurants who seem to use the hotel as a benchmark for their prices. Anywhere away from the Kotu area was much cheaper. Same rule seemed to apply to taxis we found it difficult to get a yellow bush taxi outside the gate. The bumsters are an absolute pain in the butt and despite us ...

fishingfan's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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having recently returned from a 14 night holiday at the Kombo beach hotel to the wonderful british weather i wish we were back out there. My wife and i have now been to the Gambia 4 times in the last five years and this was our third stay at the Kombo beach hotel. As always our stay at this hotel was superb, the staff always make you feel very welcome the hotel is clean and has a good variety of nice food. We stay b+b as we like to visit local restaurants in Kotu and senagambia. This was the fi ...

jbherbert's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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We were advised to go B&B because there were so many good restaurants within walking distance and this is true. Definitely would recommend this hotel to anyone.

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Overall, we were very pleased with our last minute (booked 36 hours before leaving) holiday.

The hotel is undergoing refurbishment at the moment, but it was not disruptive or obtrusive, though you should expect to find piles of floor tiles, new air conditioning units and bits of wood stored in corridors. There are four blocks of accommodation situated one behind the other, blocks 2 & 3 seemed the best located - we were in block 4. No problem with this, but it seems to be the last to be redeco ...

ejk666's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Kombo Beach Hotel is excellent value for money and it's somewhere different to the obvious holiday destinations of Spain and Greece etc. The hotel more than met our expectations and the hardest decision you make in the morning is beach or pool! Lots of day trips to go on and you can hire bikes from the hotel to cycle around if you fancy. Our only gripe was the locals - they are very friendly but you do get fed up of having to talk to everyone you meet! Just remember if you can't be bothered just ...

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This was our second trip to the Kombo Beach Hotel in the Gambia. The first was great (1st trip was with the Gambia Experience - their rep was fabulous). The second trip was even better, as we knew what we were doing. Good thing too, as the First Choice rep was a right grump. Had full board first time, but having B&B was better for us this time, as we tried local restaurants etc., and we met more people that way. Tourists/reviewers whining about the beach sellers should chill out - all these peop ...

barry1494's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Maybe Half Board would be the best way to go, but I would not like to have to feed a family for two weeks, as I feel the Kombo Beach hotel in the Gambia needs to have a reality check on their pricing.

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Just retuened from Kombo Beach - having stayed there now 4 times. This is an excellent all rounder and should not be overlooked. But please, please, please get out of the hotel to meet the locals. Far too many (understandably) took the travel companies tours when they could have had the personal service of the local official guides who are in uniforms right outside the hotel gate. Use them and your money supports the economy.

zendonian's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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We found the Kombo Beach Hotel in The Gambia to be everything you need on a holiday to the Third world. The staff were happy and helpful, and the breakfast is great, with loads of choice from omelette's and cereals through to freshly made pancakes; all you need to set you up until the evening.

The beach is maned all day by lovely security guards who work 12 hours a day.

Other reviewers may have stayed in a standard room if there was no telephone, as you can get them with a fridge and TV ...