Southern Palms Beach Resort Reviews

Travelled with 1st choice - good flight, was well looked after by airline staff.

Once arrived had to queue for ages filling in forms and had to pay $50 each entry. You do get pestered for your bags to be taken to the bus, but expect to pay.

The journey to the hotel took over an hour, going through very poor villages. What an eye opener. Then had to cross on a ferry which took some time. Arrived at the hotel at long last quite tired and thirsty but was met with lovely staff with cold drinks and towels. The only downside had to wait over an hour for our room to be allocated.

The room was very nice, clean, had a tv, fridge, but had to pay for mini bar which was quite expensive. Allocated two small bottles of water each per day. A good tip for all inclusive would be to get drinks from the bar and put them in the fridge. We paid the extra for sea view rooms which were well worth it.

Arranged with the booking to do a 3 night four day safari. We stayed at the hotel for 2 nights, then had to pack up and leave luggage at hotel to go on safari. Just packed a large hodall for the safari nights.

The safari was fantastic, well worth the money. The first two lodges were ok, basic, food good. The last lodge in shimba hills was excellant. Saw lots of wild animals. There were only us 4 in the minibus for the safari which was enough as it does hold 6. I think this would have been a bit cramped. Were allocated a drive for the four days who was very good. At the end of the safari on the way back to the hotel stopped at a proper Maishir village, (costs about £7 each) but was worth it, although it can upset you as they are so poor, and the children beg for sweets. We took lots of pens, paper and sweets for the children.

The hotel overall was very good, the food was a bit repetative in the main buffet restaurant, but the other two restaurants were excellant. As we came back from the safari very tired it was nice to chill out for the rest of the holiday. Not much to do at night, but as it was so hot we had lots of early nights.

We found the staff to be very friendly, and if you give them a few pence, they can't do enoguh for you even on the beach they reserved our beds (although they weren't supposed to) but as you know the Germans always get the best beds first.

All in all had a great holiday would recommend it to anyone and would definately go back.

We stayed at the Southern Palms hotel which is located in Diani Beach.

A bit about our trip. We went with Monarch airlines from Gatwick to Mombasa. Journey time - 9 hours - seating predictably tight, but we did at least get 2 meals. From Mombasa, it takes about 30 minutes to clear customs, 30 minutes to the Likoni Ferry, 30 minutes waiting and crossing the river and 30 minutes to Diani Beach the other end, so expect 2 hours from the airport if you go.

Diani Beach is a resort located along a purpose built road. Most of the staff working the hotels live in a satellite town called Ukunde. To get to Diani Beach from Ukunde you go down a single road and have to pass through a police checkpoint. At the T junction, you can then go left or right along Diani Beach.

The hotel we stayed had very nice facilities. The bedroom was nice but the bathroom smelt a bit. We had a raised ground floor room overlooking the seawater pool, which was a great location as it wasn't far to walk to the main restaurant. As well as the seawater pool, there was a freshwater pool, then a beach entrance. The hotel looked spectacular, and you are given a towel card on arrival which you can swap for towels each day. We brought our own, however, and the towel card will cost you 15$ if you lose it, so it's probably a good thing. The safe was supposed to cost £2 per day, but I found pressing reset and typing in any 8 digit number when the safe was open allowed you to set your own pin number. The staff were very friendly, but did often offer to sell something to us. We started tipping 100ksh at each meal, but it's not necessary. I found the food to be really good there. They've got a lot of Indian influence in the region, and there's plenty of seafood, Chinese and meats in the main restaurant. There is also a barbecue restaurant and Italian restaurant which you need to book. Drinks aren't included with the meal, so you need to pay extra. The Tusker beer was about £1.50, coca cola 90p, cocktails between £3-4.50, but wine was between £12-16 so comparatively expensive.

On the beach, there are numerous beach sellers who target tourists to visit their shops or take a boat to the reef which is about 150 yards off the beach. However, they'll only approach if you go on the hard sand, and they're not there late at night. At low tide, you can snorkel out to the reef, but when the tide's coming in, there are massive waves crashing against the beach. My mask and snorkel completely disappeared when a wave knocked them from me. At high tide, the water's really sandy, so it wasn't possible to find them. The beach is picture perfect with talculm white sands. At the beach entrance, there are showers to wash the sand off with.

We went with Thomson and signed up for 1 excursion with them - the Champagne cruise. This was a good trip. It involved us going north of Mombasa to another beach area and then taking a dhow and a glass bottomed boat to a sandbar which is only exposed twice a month at low tide. We were then given a lunch of oysters and champagne and there were some sports activities to do. We did snorkel but there wasn't a whole lot to see there. In the afternoon, we had more and more champagne, after that I don't remember a whole lot, until the very spectacular sunset.

The other 2 excursions we made via the local hotel taxi driver - Joseph. His excursions were 33-40% cheaper than Thomson's.

We went with him to Shimba Hills safari park and were supposed to go to the Elephant sanctuary but the sanctuary wanted us to buy another ticket, and as we'd seen a couple of Elephants by then we didn't bother which was probably a good thing as we had lunch at the Shimba lodge and then Joseph took us to see his rented house in his village and then to the local Snake park in Ukunde. For the 2 of us, we paid 7500ksh for the day's driving, equivalent of 20$ for the entry to Shimba Hills with car and ranger, and 300ksh each for the Snake park. Personally, I thought the Snake park was better value than Shimba, but both were good.

We were also driven by him to Wasini Island. We then took a dhow to Kisite marine reserve were we snorkelled directly off the dhow. This was really good as we saw loads of fish (including a Parrot fish) and we even saw a giant turtle. On the way to Kisite we encountered the dolphins as well. We then went to the Arab village on Wasini island and looked around the coral garden. We finally had lunch at the Shimoni Gardens cafe, not far from where we started. On the dhow, we had 1 drink included, but drinks weren't included for lunch. For this trip, we did an all inclusive total price of 8500ksh for the 2 of us with Joseph, which included the driving and all of the above and the hire of the snorkel, mask and fins.

The difference between Thomson and the local operators, however, is that with Thomson you pay over the odds but get exactly what you agree to. With the local operators they often try to re-negotiate the deal by charging you extra for items which you've previously agreed to. You've got to stand your ground in Africa. They need your money, so usually back down.

Temperature wise it was between 26C and 29C during our stay. It was never cold in the sunlight, but 1 day when we were in the shade, it was quite chilly by the seawater pool at the Hotel. It rained a number of times but in short, dramatic downpours.

When we got to Mombasa airport on the way back, we had our baggage x-rayed as we got in to the airport, then we had our boarding card and passport checked, then we joined another queue to have our luggage physically searched, then we went to check in to deposit our hold luggage. We then had our boarding card and passport checked going through to departures, and when we got to the departure gate, we had our hand baggage x-rayed, we had to stand on a platform which measured our weight and then we were physically frisked. It took about 2 hours from arriving at the airport until we'd been scanned enough that they were sure we were good to get on board.

Booked a Premier flight, well worth the extra.Hotel great though the food wasn't the best.We were half board so often went out for lunch (down the road on the left) to the Pub a little very basic place, very cheap to eat and drink.Anna has a small gift shop next door, she is a great artist and painted me a fantastic elephant, very cheap to.Anna is a credit to all woman, go see her and learn a little.Booked Safari with Leroy on the beach, security will point him out.Flew to Masai Mara from Ukunda airstrip.Out of this world, stayed at the Mara Safari Club.Saw all of the animals except loepard but we had a cheatah jump up on our jeep and were surrounded by lions more than once.We stayed two nights it was fantastic.
Don't be afraid to go out and about , we did most days, be firm with the sellers.
As you go onto the beach, face the sea then turn right, the girls in the huts do a great massage much cheaper than the hotels, ask for Scarlet. You can walk to the sand bar when the tide is low but for the sake of a couple of quid you should take one of the beach boys with you.Don't be ripped of by them.Look out for the Rasta man he is a right pain.We gave the beach boys a little business at the begining of our three weeks just so they would leave us alone which after a little firmness they did.

Kenya is a real eye opener but also fantastic experience.

This resort is catered for Indian and Germans. Main food bar was ok if you where a veggie and like a curry.
The resort is no way 4 star plus also ended up with deli belly on new years day, their food hygiene is a lot to be desired most foods where pre heated best not have fully inclusive as you will need to go out to eat. Also beware of fraudlent staff copying signitures on bar bills, however most staff where pleasant. Highlight of the holiday was a resturant called Ali Barbours food is to die for, expensive but 5 star food and service.
If i where to go back to Kenya, i would book my own accomadation with the guy that owns the resturant as he has just opened a small hotel himself.Beach nice beach boys a pain well worth giving then a dollar and tell them to get lost.

I would like to say what a wonderful stay we had at the southern palms hotel.
The rooms were imaculate and wtaer was fine in rooms to shower much to our suprise after reading reviews in the past.
The food was of a very high standard and entertainment was also good.

Close to beach, and very clean.
Will be going back again for sure.

We will do the same safari again which was fabulous. The weather was very warm for time of year.

Our visit was from the 15/01/2006 - 31/01/2006.

Thorughly remomend to any first timers to Kenya