Holiday Beach Hotel
Kololi

January 2009

Stayed here for a two week, holiday.
This is my third trip to The Gambia, second stay at this complex.
Stayed in room 111, with a garden view, towards the pool.
As an active wheelchair user, I can say that you need to be able to walk most of the time to enjoy  The Gambia.
Small patio terrace, with two very small (2 inch) steps to
Sliding, Patio front door (threshold a small step)
Main room, 2 twin/doublebeds, dressing table, chest of draws, arm chair, bedside cabinets, mirror, couple of electric sockets (3 pin, 13 amp UK style), large built in wardrobe. Small window, with a dark view of a wall !.
Air conditioning is available in some rooms (not this one)
Bathroom – small step, down.  Toilet, basin, with mirror, shower (small step into, shower area (HOT WATER is VERY HOT!!)
Tiled floor can be very slippery.
Toilet rolls, seem to be RATIONED !!!!
Maid service, every day, with clean towels and bed linen.
During, the first few nights, there was a noise from some branches, scraping on the roof, but was soon sorted by one of the gardeners.

Outside, to the right is the path to the beach, (sea can be cold and pretty rough) with its own section with sun beds.  Also a bar serving drinks and snacks.

Straight in front, of the room, is the pool area, bar and restaurant,- food here is a bit on the dear side, (CHIPS are excellent) but plenty of choice on the “strip”which is only s short walkalong the “Dusty” shell drive.

Power cuts are a frequent occurrence in, Gambia, so take a TORCH

During our stay we ate at a lot of the resturaunts, on the strip, visited most of the local places – Banjul, Serrakunda, Barra, Kairaba Avenue, Lamin Lodge, Jeshwang.

Used Arch tours (Alex and Jane) guides where good, the tour  North to Senegal was OK -- but (Fathala) game reserve was HORRID.

At the time of my visit, the exchange rate was 37 to 38.50 Dalassi to the pound.
Atm`s are few and far between, so are very busy, they, can,  run out of cash very quickly (so use them in the morning) each transaction can be up to 2000D , so many people do multiple transactions, in one sitting.

More photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanroygbiv/

More details at my BLOG http://alanroygbiv.blogspot.com/

Thanks Alan for your travelogue very interesting, Im sure visitors to our site and Gambia will benefit from it, you seem to like Gambia Alan as you have been 3 times, we going to Cuba next cant wait,


Dave N Julie