Ocean Bay Reviews

Travel Date: February 07

Submitted in February 2007 by: Andy Davidson - Manchester

Operator: Other

Got back from Gambia on Friday 16 Feb.Had fantastic time.Stayed at Ocean Bay in Cape Point.Lovely hotel,great beach,v friendly people.

Hotel is q expensive for food and drink but plenty of restrs nearby or a short taxi ride away.

I highly reco...

Travel Date: February 07

Submitted in February 2007 by: Andy Davidson - Manchester

Operator: Other

Got back from Gambia on Friday 16 Feb.Had fantastic time.Stayed at Ocean Bay in Cape Point.Lovely hotel,great beach,v friendly people.

Hotel is q expensive for food and drink but plenty of restrs nearby or a short taxi ride away.

I highly recommend a guide called Max who took us on day trips in his 4x4 and also to Kololi for a good meal.V knowledgable, friendly and cheap.

Travel Date: December 06

Submitted in December 2006 by: Emma Perry - Gloucester

Operator: Other

This holiday was fantastic, the hotel was brilliant (couldnt get much better). The rooms, food, accomodation, staff - everything was excellent. Hotel prices were expensive (go off site and you will get much much cheaper food and drinks) - on site wine was 3...

Travel Date: December 06

Submitted in December 2006 by: Emma Perry - Gloucester

Operator: Other

This holiday was fantastic, the hotel was brilliant (couldnt get much better). The rooms, food, accomodation, staff - everything was excellent. Hotel prices were expensive (go off site and you will get much much cheaper food and drinks) - on site wine was 3/4quid a glass, go down the road (Mr Bass) and its 1pound a glass of wine. Watch your change - they dont like giving change bk to you, so make sure that if you are by the pool and they bring you drinks ask to pay at the end of the day as you wont lose as much money!!!!! The bumsters can be very off puttng, just be really firm with them and say no your not interested and they will soon leave u alone to bother someone else. Take sweets for the kids!!!!

I would recommend this hotel and the Gambia (i will def. be returning) The hotel was so fantastic that all cabin crew and the Gambian president stayed in it whilst we were there!!!!!!! Fantastic hols!! :-)

Travel Date: November 06

Submitted in May 2007 by: Duncan and Kat (both 23)

Operator: Airtours

Complete Paradise.

The staff are wonderful. The hotel is spotless, the food brilliant with a variety of local cuisine and European. We only stayed for a week but would have found plenty to do if we stayed for two. There is a local bar just along the ...

Travel Date: November 06

Submitted in May 2007 by: Duncan and Kat (both 23)

Operator: Airtours

Complete Paradise.

The staff are wonderful. The hotel is spotless, the food brilliant with a variety of local cuisine and European. We only stayed for a week but would have found plenty to do if we stayed for two. There is a local bar just along the beach from the Ocean Clipper restaurant which has live music, karaoke and other entertainment. The hotel entertainment is great too with acrobats and bands. If you venture out of the hotel in the daytime, head straight across the road to the offical tour guides dressed in red. They have been properly trained up by the government over there to take you wherever you want to go for a fee decided on by you and talk to you about their country. They are very much into English football so gen up before you go cos they knew more than us!! There are two happy hours at the hotel as there are two bars you hot foot it from one to another at 6pm and you can enjoy 241 cocktails and other drinks for two hours!

Travel Date: March 06

Submitted in September 2006 by: Andrew Briddon

Operator: Other

The hotel grounds, swimming pool and location (right on a massive beach and near plenty of local restaurants) was impressive. It is a large hotel and lacked a Gambian atmosphere but the staff were very friendly, the meals nice but nothing special.

T...

Travel Date: March 06

Submitted in September 2006 by: Andrew Briddon

Operator: Other

The hotel grounds, swimming pool and location (right on a massive beach and near plenty of local restaurants) was impressive. It is a large hotel and lacked a Gambian atmosphere but the staff were very friendly, the meals nice but nothing special.

The room had a safe and air conditioning as standard (normally you have to pay a large supplement to have these). Spotlessly clean, though we had an inter-connecting room which whilst locked, we could hear our neighbours move about, the noise from the television ..

There is occasional evening entertainment (cultural shows - dancers, drummers, fire-eaters, guys on stilts) but we preferred to get out and about. The Calypso Bar, Chinese restaurant and Happy Corner were all very reasonably priced and delicious. Eating and drinking in the hotel every night would be very expensive (though you can pay by credit card at the end of your stay).

We made friends with one waiter, Malang, who took us to his compound - what an experience!. We met his family and friends, and his sister cooked us a tasty meal. What an eye-opener though - no power, no running water, the children did not have any toys..

We had done numerous trips before we arrived at this hotel and wanted to relax for a week. We still managed to go to the Monkey Park and the Crocodile Pool too though - both worth a visit and only a couple of pounds to get in each. The bumsters are offputting and we spoke to some guests who did not go out of the hotel as a result, but you have to ignore them, or make friends with a taxi driver who will walk with you to wherever you want to go (if a local person is with you, no-one else will bother you).

Travel Date: March 06

Submitted in March 2006 by: Glen Louise - Woking

Operator: Thomas Cook

Flights:

We flew with Thomas Cook Airlines and there were no queues at Gatwick for check-in and the flight left reasonably on time. The leg room and seat width was the bare minimum necessary and food on board was appalling - In future will buy nice ...

Travel Date: March 06

Submitted in March 2006 by: Glen Louise - Woking

Operator: Thomas Cook

Flights:

We flew with Thomas Cook Airlines and there were no queues at Gatwick for check-in and the flight left reasonably on time. The leg room and seat width was the bare minimum necessary and food on board was appalling - In future will buy nice sarnies and eat those which will be considerable cheaper than the stale roll, 99p ready meal and 45p desert.

Banjul Airport:
Unfortunately there are two flights which land within 5 minutes of each other which overwhelms the baggage handling staff at the airport but imigration control was very quick (10 mins) and the £5 tourist tax point was quickly passed. Getting the suitcases was the scrum from the baggage reclaim that others have mentioned on this site. We got a porter to carry our cases and quickly bypassed the queues for the x-ray machine and were out the airport and at the coach before we knew it and £2 was paid to the porter and also to the bloke loading the suitcases on to the coach.

Transfer:
Coach was not air conditioned but the African style air-con was used which involved leaving the coach door and the roof windows open. Transfer time was just over 30mins

Ocean Bay Hotel:
This hotel is very nice and modern. Check-in was very quick and the bell boy got the suitcases to our room minutes after we got there. we had a ground floor room with a view of the pool. The room was clean and had plenty of storage space, beds were comfy, air con worked and was remote controlled inside the room. The rooms only have showers which we prefer.

The food was not much cheaper than in the UK within the Hotel but was excellent throughout the holiday. The breakfast was excellent with the usual eggs cooked however and how many you want and pancakes cooked to orders. In the evening if you didn't fancy the buffet you could order from an a-la carte menu which actually worked out cheaper than the buffet if you only want a main course and desert rather than 5 courses.
There was no shortage of sun loungers by the pool and most days the pool towels didn't arrive at the pool side collection until after 8am so there was no worrying about a certain nation reserving most of the sun beds all day only to use them for 10 minutes in the afternoon. The pool was quite cold but then the evenings were 18 to 20C.
The hotel does Happy hour at the pool bar between 17:30-18:30 and then from 18:30-19:30 at the beach with buy one get one free on the excellent cocktails.
There was entertainment by the pool every night which was LOUD and went on some nights until 11.20 so if you are looking for early nights and are a light sleeper either bring ear plugs or try and get a room in blocks 1 or 5+.

We only did one trip as we were only in the Gambia for a week. This trip was the south gambia experience on the ex-swiss army lorries. very good day, very bumpy and dusty and the school visit can be a bit shocking BUT THE TRIP WAS EXCELLENT FUN. The one problem with the trip was every time you got off the lorry you were pesetered for money or to buy something. Paradise beach and the fruit liquer stops were the best stops of the trip.

Heading Home:
The day before we left the Gambia all the flights were cancelled due to dust storms and the day we flew out the sky was still full of dust. On arrival back at banjul we paid a porter to wheel our cases to the check-in desk and by passed the queues and were waved through the security check point.
Our seats were already allocated and boading cards issued by Thomas Cooks rep who takes your return flight tickets at the welcome meeting so that these can be done sorted out during your stay and speeds up check-in. The departure Lounge is quite large but due to the number of flights was packed with the outside being for smokers unless you can withstand the smoke. On landing at Gatwick the plane was parked in some remote stand and then we had a 20minute wait for the stairs and the baggage reclaim was a farce and took 90mins to get back (most of the probs due to Servisair - the airport ground contractor)

Summary:
We would go back to the Gambia but would not fly with Thomas Cook ever again (to anywhere!!!). We would happily stay at the Ocean Bay again but making sure we had reserved a quiet room in block 1.