Kombo Beach Hotel

We stayed at The Kombo Beach in mid March 2020.....watch for the Coronavirus part! This is my 35th time to The Gambia. We have stayed in most of the cheaper to mid range hotels but keep coming back to The Kombo! The cheaper hotels are OK if you take them for what they are, but you find that once you have added a few extra e.g. air con - The Kombo stacks up well price wise as things like air con, fridge and so on are usually included. The position is great - right on the beach, small market and a couple of shops nearby...All of this you can read in other reviews. Super friendly staff, they remember your name! Our cleaner, Rose, we have known for a few years now and she is excellent. Lamin LT the rep (Gambia Experience) cannot do enough for you. It is a mid range hotel and, yes there can be improvements made, but for the price....Improvements? Our room has had the old bath replaced with a shower, The Barracuda restaurant is great. The menu is quite small but very good prices. Our old friend Ibrahim (Ebrima) is brilliant! We miss the Happy Hour at the bar with 2 for 1 cocktails! Not sure why this has stopped but we usually travel as a group with our charity Northampton Trustee Fund so at the end of a long day it was good to relax with a cocktail or two! We went for 14 nights. Here we get to the Coronavirus bit. Although The Gambia wasn't affected at the time after 8 or 9 nights it became clear that there were problems back in UK. Some guests were so rude to the staff (particularly to LT). The staff were clearly doing their best to manage the situation. It was a question of sitting tight and waiting for developments. On our 10th day we visited our Charity's sponsored village of Penyem. On our return there was a notice at reception that we were being repatriated the next day and we were leaving at 0830. Gambia Experience were sending an empty plane (Titan Air) to get us home. Great work! We had no real idea of the chaos back here. Rose, the cleaner, was in tears when we left. The hotel was closing a month early and she would have no income. The whole situation was upsetting for everyone. However, the return arrangements went well. And to his credit the manager Filip(sorry for the wrong spelling) even stood and wished us well at the gate when we left. Kombo Beach....difficult to beat for the money.

Reading the reviews before we booked, we were a bit wary, but, we are pleased we didn't take notice. Yes, the place is 0utdated, needs TLC, that didn't matter, it was kept clean, the rooms were spacious, fridge was a bit dodgy, kettle, cups were provided, tea , coffee, sugar and dried milk was replenished daily. We stayed on a B&B basis, plenty to choose from. The staff were friendly and accommodating, felt sorry for the animation team, not many participants, it was very very hot, nobody had the energy, the pool was very very cold, which was quite strange, considering how hot it was, ok when you took the plunge....lol.... Pool Towels were provided, free, sunbeds a plenty. Overall, very pleasant, and would return.....