Hotel Palma Rima Reviews

I've just read back through my review and realised it sounds quite negative. For people new to Gambia pls don't think you wont enjoy yourself - you will - just see this review as handy hints towards making the best of your time there. I will go back to Gambia but not to this hotel.....please read my section about the hotel itself to understand why.

Reasons to go to Gambia: The sunshine, beaches, beer is cheap - local lager Julbrew tatses fine dont waste your money buying imported stuff, food is reasonable, it's hotter than the canaries or europe, cheaper than the carribean and doesn't take as long to get there.

Malaria prevention not necessary in our winter (your choice of course).

Palma Rima: If you have already booked Palma Rima, the accommodation is basic and very clean. The pool is nice and the staff friendly, helpful and efficient. Don't go with high expectations of the hotel or you will be dissappointed as it is dated and we presume there is little chance the current (greedy) owners will invest any money into it in future. The hotel serves its purpose, but with the feeling your stuck in a time warp!

The pool is the 'biggest pool in the whole of the Gambia'!

Room: We stayed in a hotel room (not a bungalow - which is an option here). The rooms are in a building which regulars have nicknamed 'cell block', they are very basic - but all you need when on holidays - and very clean. I asked our cleaner to come only every other day, rather than every day, but he was so worried he would get in trouble from his boss for not cleaning daily that he came every day.

Air con: Unless you go in rainy season (our summer) you wont need air con, so don't buy it on arrival - it's unnecessary and very expensive. We did ask for hire of a fridge but Palma Rima charges a wopping £10 per day for hire - just not worth it.

Hotel food: The breakfast in the hotel is appauling. Older reviews on this site tell you about a cooked breakfast.... forget it, you get cold hard toast, tea/coffee/juice, fruit, cheese and bread. Absolutly no variety and certainly not very filling.

We stayed in the hotel restaurant for evening meal by choice one evening. 3 course buffett meal approx £10 per head. The food was cold and by the time we got to dessert there was no choice but fruit salad. We complained about the meal, and it took 2 days, and 2 trips to the general managers office to get our money back.....very poor service.

Hotel entertainment: very poor. For children - no mini disco, kids entertaiment or organised activities. If taking children make sure you take plenty to occupy them else you'll end up suffering from whinging, bickering and restlessness such as what we experienced from those around the pool. The adult/evening entertainment was shocking. On New Year's Eve a 3 hour set was put on by the hotel entertainment staff - exactly the same as the year previous other guests noted and was boring and made little sense. They have not taken into consideration there is a wide age group of guests and that all guests were british.

The hotel nightclub was shocking. No modern music, not quite sure who the music was catered for! And all the cd's played by the dj were scratched. There was no atmosphere - the owners need to take a serious look at investment here as this was a real let down when this was the only 'night club' in its location. Go out in the evening to senegambia for nite clubs - there are 4 there. Outside of the hotel: Bumsters - Palma Rima is a tourist trap and the only hotel in Kololi saturated by bumsters .... the hotel are wrong to allow this to happen.

Bumsters can be intimidating and very much a nusiance. We were offered drugs on a daily basis and had little opportunity to walk alone. They latch onto you and call themselves 'GUIDES', they claim you need them to go anywhere from bars and restaurants (so they can sit with you and you will buy them beer and food) to taking you to their friends souvenier stall. I actually think the 'guides' believe you need their help in finding the back of your own hand...... for a small donation, of course! Ask yourself this: can I go anywhere on holiday and manage to find a bar, restaurant, or the beach without having to pay someone to do it for me? If the answer is YES then do not accept the help of these guides - they will only end up costing you unnecessarily both financially and also in the time that you have to spend with your loved ones that you chose to go on holidays with! Be firm but polite with the bumsters

or make friends with Buba, Lamin or 'Billy no mates' at the 'Official (tongue in cheek) tourist office' outside of Palma Rima and they will sometimes ask the real bumsters to leave you alone - Hi Guys, miss you all!

Transport - Don't get ripped off by the 'tourist' green taxis - agree a price, and even pay up-front, because drivers, conveniently never have change when they get you to your destination! Pay no more that 50d to 100d to senegambia.

Even use yellow 'local' taxis - you can barter a fair from 5 dalasai upwards. Cheaper still - the bushtaxi - local buses - great experience and only 5 dalasai a trip - use them!

The beach: beautiful - use Julas beach bar (in front of Dunes hotel). Ask for Dam (Lisa and Adam say Hi). The food here is fresh and home cooked, and whilst the menu is quite limited we enjoyed many lunches much cheaper than anywhere else around Palma Rima. Free sunbeds all day and waiter service for your drinks just relax and enjoy!

BEGGARS! Everyone in Gambia is after something whether your, walking down the street, to sitting in a restaurant to buying friut from the fruit lady on the beach to relaxing to the beach. Gambians in general think nothing of interupting your relax time to talk to you, beg for money, cigarettes, clothes, or to sell you something. Once again just be firm from the off else you'll spend all day with your hand in your pocket. Remember -you can say no.

Gambia in general lacks in family entertainment. There was nothing for the children to do in any of the pubs, restaurants or even at the hotel. We did come across 'Alfies Bar' in senegambia - a new owner claims he is going to provide a variety of quality entertaiment for all the family so there may be something available on a future trip?

The monkey park - much fun, about 50p to get in, take the camera.

If your holiday is to catch a great tan, visit the beach, relax (wear your ipod and ignore the beggars) and to have fun evenings at local bars with cheap beer (spirits and wine can be costly)then Gambia could be for you, just be open-minded (it is africa) take into account it is a developing country, be assertive and I'm sure you will enjoy.

senegambia strip churchills all good places had tour guide called sara absolutley brilliant sara made our holiday if you are going to palma rima ask outside for sara he shows you all the best places to go showered our two girls with gifts and never asked for any thing had a fabulous meal at sara's families house made us peanut soup absolutley delicious.

Well where to start! We read the reviews on this site before we went. We have been to other 3rd world countries but nothing prepared us for this holiday.

When we checked into the hotel we were taken to our rooms which reminded us of prisoner cell block H! We paid and upgraded to a bungalow. This was slightly better as the room was bigger nothing more. The hotel is quite advanced for Gambia but i would not rate this as a 3 star more like a 1 star. The rooms were not cleaned the bed sheets stank overall it was very basic.

The hotel staff were lovely and very helpful we made friends with a lad in the hotel who we went out with for the first couple of days of the holiday. The food was ok but nothing special.

When we went out we saw the real Gambia which was amazing in a 4x4. We only paid a fraction of what the so called 'bumsters' charged. Nothing prepares you for the bumsters they are bad, as they pay more tax to the government for the privallege of being outside the hotel they think as tourists you have no choice in who you would like to go on a trip with! They are in your face from leaving the hotel and spying on you when you think you are out of site!

With our friends on the 3rd day when sitting in the jeep (a private vehicle not a taxi) ready to go to paradise beach we found ourselves blocked either side by green taxis. We were then pulled out of the vehicle and surrounded by 10 Gambians all arguing and shouting at us and spitting in our faces. I thought this was the end for us how scarey! We left and later found out that the police arrived and arrested our friends and imprisoned them for 72hours as the bumsters told the police that they were putting us in yellow taxis which was a big lie. Thats not called justice.

I could go on about the experiences we had but i have never been to a country where i have felt so unsafe and homesick. These bumsters are bullies and will do anything to take your money. I would advise you to go elsewhere but to be honest you don't have a lot of choice. The hotel have no control over these people outside of the hotel. We used Korimo who drove a yellow taxi, he was excellent half the price of a green taxi. Everyone in the Gambia, guests, hotel staff know these are bad people but are poweless to stop this.

I will never return to the Gambia you pay for what you get! It is a great shame as we went to some of the poorest places in Gambia and the people were friendly and did not want money just a sweet. But these bumsters ruined our holiday and talking to other guests in the hotel it seemed pretty much everybody had a bad experience with these people.

A great shame that a handful of people ruin it for the rest of the Gambians as there are some wonderful people there.

Just got back from the Gambia again,so thought id come on and give a bit of advise. we used the lad called smiley and we found him to be honest and very good for the trips, jeep rides fishing ect, gave us a real good price advised us correctly and saved us a bundle, we had some great nights out with him also singing karoke in churchills with my husband was was a blast a raster and white man singing buffalo soldier.
please use him and give him some business we are sure you will be pleasantly surprised. we love the gambia hope you do too.say hello to smiley in churchills for us

This hotel is very basic, but dont let that but you off unless you plan to spend all your holiday in there, if so go for a five star hotel. the drinks in the hotel are expensive just go out the local bar is just down the road called churchills, look out for a lad called smiley he will take you on trips a third of the price the sell in the hotel hes good fun to be with also, just give him a go you will see what i mean, we went to the lamin lodge, paradise beach, charlie the croc, and many more we also found a beach bar that as a swimming pool, great sea view and breeze, with no sand heaven. its called pirogue beach bar, either get a taxi or find smiley and he will get you a taxi for the best rate, the taxi driver we used was called Baks wonderful dropped us any where anytime and we txed him when ready to be picked up, smiley also got his number, from us hes the best.
holiday great weather fantastic hotel alright for a base enjoy