Banjul Highway, Palm Grove Hotel

I have to say there are far to many nice places to go in the world than the Palm Grove hotel. If you like terrible food a crabby lagoon and the same dance entertainment all week then this is the place for you. Did I mention the bumsters ?. One bumster even offered the services of his sister and was shocked when I told my wife. I would rather not go anywhere than go here again. Air conditioning that rattles all night is fantastic too.

just got back from a two week trip and was disappointed, the hotel is old and badly needs a re-furb. programme.

the pool is tiny and water cold. the beach outside the hotel is black at low tide and the sea itself is dirty with mud. little crabs running everywhere.

relaxing location as its well off the main tourist areas and costs 300 dalasis to banjul (return) and 600 to serakunda (rtn.) where the shops are so budget for this.

After reading some of the reviews on the Palm Grove I was slightly worried about the hotel but I did keep a open mind, and glad I did. The holiday was great, the hotel was great and the staff were really helpfull throughout the holiday without expecting a tip all the time. The selection of food for breakfast and evening meal was great, and it was so nice not to see chips every single day on the menu. If you have a sense of adventure with your taste buds the food was really nice and you will have a lot of the local dishes on the menu. The hotel is close to Banjul market and you can walk along the beach to get to it. There are bumpsters on the beach but not that many and they don't hassle you that much as long as you are firm. You can walk across to the main beach from the hotel when the tide is out. You will see lots of crabs but the moment they see you they dissapear, so do not worry. The hotel is quite far out from the other hotels but I preferred this as after seeing where the hotels were, there was a lot of bumpsters. The other hotels are good if you like going out in the evening a lot, but if you are going for a nice relaxing holiday Palm grove is best. The pool bar food and drink in the hotel and out could be quite expensive, the Bachas bar along the beach was quite good for prices though. The water pressure in the Gambia is a problem so do not blame the hotel if you do not get hot showers all the time all the lack of water. The Gambia itself has a lot of poverty so be prepared for a lot of begging from the kids and also the way most of the people get by is by tips. If you tip I would say give them very small tip i.e 25p as they all add up. If you are looking for a holiday that serves all English food and reminds you of England but with sun, do not go to the Gambia stick to Spain. If you want to experience different cultures then get booking now.

We were so disappointed after spending last year at the Sene Gambia that we found fantastic, but thought we would like to try another location, thinking standards would be the same, hygiene was terrible my husband was so ill and had to get a doctor in the middle of the night. I needed to wake up staff at reception who wanted me to wait till 9am after insisting he eventually managed to get hold of our rep who contacted the doctor to come. When he arrived he was not too pleased and told me I should have called earlier or in the morning if we hadn't paid extra for private transfer to the airport it would have been an even worse nightmare in general a run down dirty shabby hotel

i would never go back to the palm grove hotel again and i would never tell any of my friends about it eitherit is in the middle of nowwhere you had to get a taxi every where the prices in the hotel doubled when we got there i didnt go to gambia to spend so much on taxi's, but there is one thing for sure it wont happen again as i dont think we will go back.

This hotel was awful and what I consider to be essential items in Gambia such as room fridge and air conditioning were extra and would have cost us an extra £250 for our two weeks. We immediately transferred to the Senegambia at Kololi where aircon and fridge were included making a much finer hotel actually cheaper. I would recommend the Senegambia to anyone but the Palm grove to no one.

For me personally 7 days is long enough for me at any one time. I cannot However, I can't fault the service of the hotel as entertainment was provided each night, juggling acts, dancers etc. Although it was our first time to Gambia and we didn't know what to expect it was much better than we had expected. We had read up on reports before we went and one of the suggestions were to bring books, pencils and sweets, which we did and this really went down well with the children, it brought tears to our eyes to see how appreciated this was.

We really enjoyed the food and we were half board. I would however, like to try Senegambia another time, this is by recommendation but would want to visit the Palm Grove just to see the staff again. We also struck up relationships with other holiday makers, who we will no doubt keep in touch with. Thank you also very much to the staff, as they really looked after us.

On a final note, there is something about Gambia which made us feel drawn to come back again and I know that we will.

We love Gambia as a country but will not stay at this hotel again, if you like a bit of life, stay at Senegambia Hotel, which we will do from now on, I have stayed there many a time, our friends booked us in at Palm Grove this time, they didn't know how good it was.

We went to the Palm Grove Hotel in the Gambia for the sun.

We will be going back because of the wonderful African people we met.

I have never had a bad holiday at Banjul Highway, Palm Grove Hotel - the thing I love about it is that once you have been and returned, the staff and people in general never forget you. They know you by name and the service only gets better.

I wouldn't go through the tour operators for excursions - hire a guide and a taxi/jeep for the day and explore the real Gambia and people - very safe and worthwhile.

The Gambia will be the next hot-spot - Cape Verde is already up and coming and property is very cheap. The prices will go up though now that there is investment by the Americans - The Sheraton Hotel at Brufet opposite the new estate and the investment by Kuwait in the infrastructure. If you want to eat out at all try the African Queen and Yok, they are absolutely fab restaurants. I am going back to Palm Grove on Easter Monday 9 April for one week with my family.