Kombo Beach Hotel, Banjul Review

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.