Sunset Beach Hotel

A great hotel in the Kotu area. I have been travelling to The Gambia for 15 years staying in many different hotels and areas. This is by far the best for location, quality and value. Staff were all so welcoming and could not do enough to make your holiday experience the best. I highly recommend this hotel.

We stayed from October 31 until November 6. I must say that the location was good and safe, the atmosphere, room, cleanliness, services, atmosphere and amenities were all great. The chefs and food was outstanding. Everything was great.

This hotel only has 3 stars and that is probably the correct grade for it, however the staff make up for any short cummings to ensure your stay is the best it could be, special thanks to Sana our bar and restraunte waiter, nothing was to much trouble for him. First of all we were told by our doctors what vaccinations we needed, only one was available on the NHS we had to pay for yellow fever and malaria tablets, total cost over £200 for my wife and I. We were told that due to our age (over 60) yellow fever was not advisable due to possible side effects, but we could not get into Gambia without a certificate, so we both had the vaccination. At no point were we told you could get an age related exemption certificate for free and as it turned out we did not even need the certificate to get into Gambia. (if you intend to travel to Senegal to go on safari you will need the yellow fever certificate to get into Senegal). The Malaria tablets were also unnessary as it was the dry season (October - April) and the insects that spread malaria are not active, they become active in the wet season only (May to September) Our accommodation was a bungalow, a novel change, it was very clean but was getting a bit rough around the edges, consisted of twin beds and bed side lockers, a walldrobe with about 18 inches of hanging space so my clothes had to stay in the case, TV above a dressing table with 4 chanels which the reception was that bad they were unwatchable anyway, managed to get BBC World news for a couple of hours only during our 10 day stay, very hit and miss, but not the end of the world, we are on holiday in the gambia, not there to watch TV. The rooms were cleaned every day and towels and bedding was changed when you requested it. The resort itself is quite small with only one restraunte, one small swimming pool and a todler pool. Sun beds around the pool area were always availoable with probabley 30% never being used at all, service around the pool / bar area is excellent. The hotel is right on the beach, but this is a public beach and there is the fact that there is a small river running between the hotel and the beach itself, it is full of old buildres rubble and rubbish prevents easy access to the beach as you have to wade through the river and its contents. I believe there are two types of travelers, those that visit a country and get to experience every thing it has to offer, good and bad and those that only leave the resort once to get back on the coach for the airport, thankfully my wife and I fall into the first category and thoroughly enjoyed everything The Gambia and Senegal had to offer, yes ferries are very busy and they do occasioinaly break down, you may have to get out of your taxi and push it for a bit but its all about the experience, soak it up and enjoy life. If you do get out and about you will witness extreme poverty with partly built houses, mud roads, litter every where, kids in bear feet using rags rolled into a ball

We really enjoyed the hotel. If you are looking for 5 star luxury then this is not the place for you. That said we could not recommend the Sunset Beach enough. We had a 10 day family stay. It is better than the 3 T's Tui give too. The room we had was very clean and comfortable. The sound of the waves from the beach was so relaxing. The pool area was great, no problem with getting sunbeds or sunshades. The pool guys always got what you needed at any time of the day and spotlessly clean. The cleanliness was reflected all over the complex, the staff worked so hard to ensure this was maintained al all times. The restaurant was light and well laid out with a sea view, the food was excellent, tasty, varied and lots to choose from. We did have to wait for a dinner table on a couple of occasions due to the larger tables being taken by couples using them, but we had another drink while we waited. We found that the stream issue was never a problem for us. The beach was fine and we had a great time helping the local fisherman land their nets. We would also recommend Aladdin's juice bar. a perfect juice smoothy for £2. The bird feeding close by was also brilliant and the canoe trip along creek was amazing. In all a perfect break away for our family, thankyou to everyone involved, the staff are are a credit to the hotel.