I have now been and returned and I wanted to thank you for your useful
information.
We stayed at the Fajara Hotel and had a wonderful time. I loved the
Gambia. We ate out at the restaurants near the hotel - Francisco's,
Weezo's and one night at the Kombo Beach Hotel. Other than that we went
into Senegambia - went to the italian and lebanese. We tried the Spybar
on the last night. We also went to Wheels and the Sir Williams Bar -
the band in there were excellent. Our guide also took us to Serrekunda
for a meal! I would recommend the Gambia to anyone and if you get any
more enquiries and want to pass them on to me please do.
Thank you once again! Tracy Jagger. travelspirit@ic24.net
My wife and myself stayed in The Gambia at the Palma Rima Hotel in May 1998.
This has got to be the most eye opening holiday we have ever been on,and
we would recommend anyone to visit this wonderful country full of interesting history
and particularly friendly people.
This will be the holiday of a lifetime , with the lovely hot climate and the colourful people.
We will definately go back to The Gambia when our 4 week old son is able to apreciate the
culture.
Mr. & Mrs. D.Lewin
My boyfriend and I have just returned from the Gambia (Jan 2000) and we had a really good time. We stayed in the Senegambia Hotel on a half board basis, which meant we didn’t eat out while we were there. We met a lot of friendly people, but the bumsters on the beach became a bit tiresome after trying to sell us anything and everything every five minutes. The weather was great and we didn’t see one mosquito while we were there.
I would recommend this destination to anyone who is looking for a different holiday, as the culture out there is very different. A video camera is a must, we have our holiday on video including meeting Charlie the crocodile.
If anyone wants any recent info on the Gambia, I’d be happy to help.
Jo Harrison
jo@harrisons1.freeserve.co.uk
My wife and i have holidayed in the gambia for the past five years and would
highly recommend it to all and sundry.Every part of the place is covered in
friendly people from the bumsters in the streets and on the beaches to the
hotel entertainers and staff. The local restaurants and bars cater for every
possible taste. The colourful markets are the best training grounds in the
art of bartering anyone would wish to find this side of the moon. So far we
have spent ten holidays in the Senegambia Beach Hotel and fully intend to
spend many more. John Carter
john.carter@virgin.net
I have been going to The Gambia for over 11 years ,and go three times a year, I always have a great time in and around serrekunda and in Tanji.
Edward Taylor at :-
eddia@vmvm.freeserve.co.uk
My husband and I have been to The Gambia for two years, in Feb, I hate the winter and would happily stay in the above. W e stayed in the Senigambia Hotel both times, and all I can say is how lovely their staff are and I would deffinitley recomend a visit. We love it there and will be going back, again and again.
Gill & Graham
Thanks, I have found your site so helpful. Have just returned from 3 weeks out there.
It was great. although my husband wasn't so keen. We stayed at The
Senegambia, which I would recommend to anyone. We were out
every night.The garden at Ali Baba's has live music every night. Spy Bar
was good, also went with a Gambian friend to Jokers at Serrekunda. I do
think it is a pity all the shacks have been removed from the beach area
as it is depriving the local population from making a living and
visitors from meeting the locals, although I had no problem at doing
that. The 2 shacks near Senegambia are very good, I used the pink one,
my friend Karl works there, he is very helpful. We
also noticed a lot of the business in the street near the hotel has been
taken over by the Lebanese,are the locals missing out yet again ? If
anyone wants any info please contact me. Jan Howarth
Jan Howarth@tinyonline.co.uk
Well I suppose you must be pleased with yourself, wishing bad luck on Siva
or Sunwing hotel.
Hardly much better for the people of the Gambia is it, to have lost jobs to
all those who were employed at the Siva?
Next time you might want to think a bit before you write such pathetic
rubbish on a site.
By the way its time you updated it.
The old Sunwing has long since disappeared.
Regards from a not very impressed Gambia lover. (No name supplied)
Hi Garth,
I used your site for reference whne I went to The Gambia and thought that
I would supply some more feedback.
The restaurant referred to by Denise (under the Calabash) is Jazziz. This
is run by an indian guy called Arun who was chef at The taste of India in
Senegambia. They have a few veggie options always available and excellent
service.
Also in the area (next door to Luigi's) is Abi's. Run by a dutch woman,
this has a good range of veggie options and again, excellent service in an
intimate atmosphere.
In the Senegambia area there is the Taste of India, authentic indian
cuisine, quite large and worth a visit. Acorss the road is "Al Basha", a
Lebanese restaurant and although there are not really any main dishes to
choose from the choice of veggie starters is amazing. We visited here twice
and shared about 5 or 6 starters in a "thali" style. The food was superb
although the most expensive (2 courses for 2 people and a bottle of wine
coming in at around £25).
The Clay Oven in Fajara is also worth a mention, fantastic service and good
food. Extrememly upmarket with a price to match (similar to Al Basha).
Also in Fajara is Weezos on the Kairaba Avenue. Run by some english people,
it is a mexican resturaunt with lots of veggie choice and excellent
attention to detail in both food and service. definitley made to feel
special at a reasonable price (£25 for 2, 3 course meal). The orange torte
dessert is unbelievable!!
As you can see, There is now a lot of veggie choice in the area and all of
these places are well known by local taxi drivers. I would say that B&B is
the only wise option in the Gambia, whatever you eat as there is so much
choice at reasonable prices.
Hope this helps
Ginge Evans
WARNING
My husband and I have just returned from a holiday in Gambia staying at the Fajara Hotel, although we enjoyed our holiday we had a very frightening experience on our first night when we had money taken from us and a scary journey in one of the local taxis.
A number of the local Bumsters operate outside the hotel one tags on then someway down the road another one pretends to walk past then says he recognises you from the hotel Fajara, it's a long and well practised procedure where eventually there are three of them who demand money. We escaped after giving up some of our money into a passing taxi only to find that one of them jumped into the vacant seat beside the taxi driver and we were taken to an isolated area and more money demanded, only when we convinced them we had none did the taxi let us out some way from the hotel.
This was not an isolated incident a number of other people at the hotel had fallen prey to the same people and one holiday maker there had been to that hotel for the past three years and heard the same story for that length of time.
It is safe to go out of the hotel into the streets but only if you take a hotel guide with you, which costs about 75 pence per hour, the best money we spent all holiday was on our guide called Foxy who was very knowledgable and made our stay a safe one.
Please take heed of our warning, we are well travelled people who are not easily taken in by con-men and we found ourselves in a situation which appeared life threatening at the time.
Janet & Doug De'Ath
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