Sun N Sand Beach Resort Reviews

Well what can we say about this holiday, it was truely amazing.

We booked with Eclipse - part of First Choice group who we book with most years as they are great value for money. We booked a two weeks stay and their 3 Night Ndogo Safari.The only bad thing to say about First Choice was that we were disappointed on our flight home when the inflight entertainment system failed for nearly 60% of the plane, so we had no films, no tv and no radio for the whole 9 hour flight. All the air-stewards could keep on saying was that it was panasonics fault (who provide the tv screens and entertainment), not the airline and that it was very rare for some many tv screens to fail.

Upon arriving to the hotel we were greated with a refreshing drink and cold towel and escorted to our room. The rooms were very clean and of a good standard. We had a double and single bed, a fitted safe, tv, big bathroom and fridge.

At our welcome meeting we were greated with singing and more food and drinks, followed by being introduced to the hotels staff and management team, which was really nice, never had that before.

The food at the hotel was fantastic, there was a different selection everyday and so much to choose from. The hotel also did theme nights and the Chinese night had to be the best for us. The drink measurements were very strong, esepcially at the pool bar. Jeremiah was the pool bar man, he was lovely. All the staff in the hotel were very friendly and lovely to talk too.

The hotel has a local acrobatic group which does some evenings of entertainment at the hotel and they are amazing, don't miss them.

After two days in the hotel we then went out on safari. The drive out to the national park is an experience to say the least, but it's well worth the hair raising ride when you get there. The safari was out of this world and we would highly recommend it, we saw the 'Big Five' which was brilliant. The lodges that you stay in were also of a high standard and the food they provided was also just as good as the hotels. The last lodge on this particular safari, Salt Lick Lodge was the best out of the three.

After returing back to the hotel we had a lovely relaxing stay.

We visited the local village to buy some gifts for home, which is better than buying from the hotel, as the hotel was very expensive and the people outside need the money more. The hotel has a trust fund for the local community, which is all explained in the welcome meeting, which has set up clean water for the people, a school and a medical centre. Take pencils and paper for the local school, which we forgot to do, but we donated money to the trust fund intsead which provides many things for the local commuity.

We would definately love to go to Kenya again and would return to the Sun n Sand.

Firstly I want to say that I was not really impressed with first choice, the cabin crew not very friendly, we sat on the front row and could hear them talking (mostly about customers who had complained). As we travelled at night it made it almost impossible to sleep, also we had upgraded our flight, but it wasn't really worth the money, we flew to Jamaica 2 years ago with air tours, much better value for money.

The resort was great, not really any complaints, although it did look a bit tired in places, cracked tiles around the pool, and in the bathroom.

I will list the various areas and my comments.
Rooms
We were lucky and had a corner room, it very large with a double and single bed and a sitting area with 2 chairs and coffee table, there was a dressing table area although not much storage space for clothes, a couple of wardrobes, no doors but no drawers. Bathroom was large with bath and shower. There was tea and coffee making facilities and a fridge (mini bar is an extra charge) and a nice big balcony with comfortable chairs and small table. There is a TV but good luck if you find anything to watch. My sister's and nephew's rooms were a bit smaller with no real space for sitting except on the balcony. The rooms were kept very clean with bedding and towels changed every day except Sundy, and 2 bottles of water put in you fridge.

Hotel
The grounds were lovely, with sunbeds around the main pool on the grass under palm trees, and the other two pools had terrace areas with sun beds and chairs and tables. All pools were cleaned daily, although the slide pool sometimes looked a bit cloudy.

There were 3 main bars, the swim up pool bar open 11-6 every day (This served the best beer) The Lamu terrace bar, open untill about midnight, and the bar in the snack bar again only open until 6pm. There is also a premium bar in the restaurant but you have to pay there. The beer was very weak, but spirits and cocktails good, you did'nt have to move off your sunbed or chair though as the many waiters would come round regually, and if tipped would never let you have an empty glass. The staff were all very friendly and always happy, except in the snack bar, were they hardly ever smiled!!

The food was amazing, somthing different every night, with most nights having a theme, Italian, African and even english with fish and chips and steak and kidney pie!! Breakfast was good, great sausage and omlettes made to order. We only ate at the Safari ranch once, and was dissapointed, we expected exotic meat like Zebra and crocodile, but got chicken and lamb!! there were 3 other restaraunts a chinese, italian and an al a cart (again you had to pay for this one)

The entertainment was not always very good, we saw a couple of acrobatic acts, some african dancers and some warriors, but the rest of the time it was a band/singer or some sort of game show/quiz. They also had kareoke night once a week. During the day there was loads of activities you could join in with, and the entertainment team would come round to try to get you off your sunbed, but they did'nt really bother you if you said no.

The beach would have been lovely if it was'nt for the beach boys. There were no sunbeds on the beach, you couldn't have a beach day, which I love, but as the pool was so nice it wasn't a problem.
Back to the beach boys, they will surround you as soon as you step on the beach, if you want to book trips or a sea safari (well worth the 450 shillings we paid, we would not have seen half of the marine life without soloman our guide)with the beach boys, then only use the ones in the blue shirts, these are lisenced so you won't get ripped off, after a few days they get to know you and most will leave you alone if you tell them your not interested.

Kenya,
it's an amazing place with breathtaking scenery. We went out on a few trips, we booked these with our rep (american dollers are best for this) Paul, he was great, we told him what we wanted and he found the best trips for us. We did a full day Mombassa tour and Haller park. We started with a trip to woodworking co-operative you get to see them making the carvings, and the shop is lot cheaper than any where else, if you want wood carvings this is the place to go and 95% of the price you pay goes to the person who made it. Haller park was OK a bit dissapointing after a Safari, it was like a trip to the zoo, the best bit was feeding the giraffes (although a school party beat us to all the food)

I would reccomend the sunset cruise on a dow, we went to a restaurant I think it was called the Marina were we got on a dhow, we sailed down the Ntwapa creek and watched the sunset, then we were entertained by jugglers and dancers, they were great and got every one involved. There was only 7 of us on the boat. After we had dinner in the restaurant. My sister and I had sea food mezze, only choose if you love seafood, prawns oysters, lobster, crab, calimari, smoked sialfish sushi and more prawns, fantastic, the rest had BBQ, they put the grill on your table and keep bringing different meats for you to cook, they had Hippo, crocodile, zebra, amongst others. We enjoyed it so much we went back for our last night the restaurant even arranged a taxi, which we paid for on our bill. We also did the charlie claws dhow delight, good if you like snorkling or even scuba diving, I tried this for the first time and the instructor was brill, really patient. The lunch was lovely try the crab, very fresh. Avoid the mangrove board walk to the coral gardens, it only cost 100 shillings, but it's just to get you to walk through the village, were people are begging and you feel obliged to buy somthing in the shop. Go to the lazy lagoon instead

You have to do a safari if you go to kenya, we booked ours before we travelled, on line with a company called wildlife kenya safari's we paid £240 each for 2 nights in Tsavo east and West, about the same price as it was in the resort, but we had a toyota landcruiser with opening roof, all to ourselves, others we spoke to had minibuses they shared with other parties. The safari was amazing, we saw 3 out of the big 5 but loads of other animals too, I would reccomend a safari, but if you can afford it the Masai mari sounds much better than Tsavo. The lodges we stayed in were graet, food good and rooms basic but clean and comfortable. The first lodge was up in the hills with amazing veiws over a watering hole, where herds of elephants and zebra came at night, you could watch them from where you ate dinner. As there was no fence around the lodge you had to be escorted at dark to your room by a masai warrior, some guests had to stay in the bar while we were there as a herd of buffalo was going through the grounds.
I think I have covered everything, you probably got bored reading it!!
I would definately go back here and wouldn't hesitate to reccomend it.

Just one last thing, if you go here then please visit the school, and take some pencil, pens as they really appreciate them, we also took some football tops and gave them to the two boys who befriended us on our vist to the school. the hotel has done a lot for Kikambala, sponsering the school and health centre. The village is well worth a visit, go to the bar, turn right outside hotel and its on the left just down the road, most of the staff live in the village and drink here, its friendly and very cheap, much better beer.

We holiday every year in January and always read reviews beforehand, this hotel/resort had the least number of bad reviews out of all our holiday destinations so we were really expecting something amazing.
We arrived at the hotel after an hour's drive from the airport, greeted by singers and dancers and a cocktail and cold face towel. We were given our rooms but noticed our 15 year olds room was the other side of the complex. We were asked to go for a drink and within 30 minutes the mix up was sorted.

Good sized, spacious rooms with a kingsize and a single bed (even my daughter's room had the same), a very large bathroom with massive bath and shower. The best air con unit i've ever had in a hotel, that cold we had to turn it off after a while. Rooms were cleaned to very high standard every day with fresh towels and bottled water(note this is the only place you can get bottled water....you have to pay for it at the bars/restaurants).

We arrived late afternoon so after showering went to the bar before dinner. The brochure states that there are 4 bars, true if you include the pool and beach bar (both shut at 5.30 p.m), and the premium bar, which have all the brand drinks but you have to pay. That leaves only one bar which left a lot to be desired. They do only stock local brands but don't have copies for the usual drinks e.g malibu, baileys, tia maria and after two weeks of sitting night after night at the same bar, becomes rather tedious. After the second night we were told they didn't have diet coke left and no cream for the pina colada's, we asked at the premium bar and were told if we wanted coke or cream we would have to pay. We asked to speak to the manager who was amazed we had been told this, it turned out the bar staff were simply too lazy to go and replenish their stocks and were guaranteed that for the remainder of the holiday if we were told there was none left we had to speak to him. The soft drinks are warm when served and you have to ask for ice, once again a week into the holiday we were informed ";no ice left";. Again on speaking to the manager, this was corrected.

The entertainment is very repetetive. The same act on for 10/14 nights with an acrobat act (very good) and a fashion show and another group (brilliant). It was advertised that there was a disco every night...the disco consisted of background music after the act had finished and finishes at 1.00 as well as the bars closing at 1.00 with no warning at all, and then the lights turned off..as you can imagine not very impressive with 4 teenagers to keep entertained.

The food was excellent, the buffet having a wide variety of meats, fish, pastas, vegetables and salads. We ate at the Chinese which was amazing (and air conditioned...an added bonus) and the bbq grill also very nice. The fish restaurant which is advertised is not included in the all inclusive package. The beach bar is good for an afternoon snack (very meagre portions) but nice food....note, the coffee and milk shakes are not free either.
Meal times are very limited, breakfast 7.30-9.30, lunch 12.30-2.30 and dinner 7.30-9.30. You can't get any sort of drink until the beach bar opens at 10.00 a.m. and if you miss dinner and need a snack this is available at the premium bar, but you have to pay for it. If you are booking trips, please don't book with the holiday rep, we paid a fraction of the cost with the beach boys (only book if they have blue or white shirts), these boys have licences to sell. You will notice the security guards chasing away beach boys who are not licenced and who are simply out to rip people off. Ask for Augustine or Roland and they will really look after you. Augustine took us to feed the monkeys (bananas off the breakfast buffet come in very handy), they actually come up to you and take the food out of your hand (amazing) and also took us on a walk down to the reef (100 shillings - 85p) and showed us loads and loads of sealife that we'd have missed had we not gone with him (he also warns you not were to walk - sea urchins etc).
We went on a 2 day (one night) safari, and considering I wasn't keen to go, was the best part of the holiday. The lodge we stayed in (be forewarned...there are lots and lots of mosquitoes, flies, spiders and lizards...only to be expected) hung a carcass out and we sat and waited for the leopard to turn up (it hadn't been for the previous 3 nights), what a sight watching it crunch its way throught the meat!

The Kenyan people are lovely and are very grateful for any clothes or toiletries (can be traded in for goods at the small market on the beach).
The weather was amazing, well into the 100's every day with no rain, the only let down was the beach, but the pool area more than made up for it.
In all a good holiday but wouldnt rush back to the sun n' sand.as this is nowhere near as good as some of the other all inclusives we have been on, it feels like everything is done on a shoestring budget and they want to give you as little as possible.

We went with Firsst Choice for a week 15/23 December 2006.
The Flight war excellent having up graded, well worth it although First Choice do have extra leg room in ecomony anyway (32";).

The coach to resort was ok but I was glade that it was early morning as the air was not that good (the trip tooka bout 1 hr) On arrival we all registered and then they in formed us that the rooms would noy be ready for 2 hrs (not what we wanted to hear being tied and very hot!) However this turned out to be about 30 mins only.
We had already booked our Sarafi (with DM Tours..details got from another review). This was 3 days/2 nights at Mara Safari Club (see review dated Feb 2006)Excellent. It cost us £380 each (from UK on a special deal - normal price £520) The rep wanted £600 each! Well worth it! Howeverif I was going to do it again I would look at putting it together myself. As the Lodges do all the game drives and pick you up at the air strip All you need do is book the flight and taxi to and from the airport, you do not really need a tour company to do this. The sarafi trips were great we did 6 very tiring though. December is the wet season and the driver said August is best as the animals are migrating, but very dusty. We tipped him 1000 Kenyan shillings each.

The Sun N Sand Hotel tried to be a 4 star but did not reach the stanadard we have had before. The staff were ok (and some very good)but there was a marked differance between the Mara Safari Club and the Sun n Sans staff. The room was clean if a bit tried (bathroom sealed cracked and sink nearly blocked etc) I feel some of the other reviews are rather harsh especially considering were the hotel is in the world. The food was ok, I would recommend the special restraunts (which have to be booked) I was ill during the trip(the only one out of 4 of us), not down to excessive in take of anything! Others were also ill in the hotel I do not know were I got the bug But it is the first time I have lost weight on holiday!

Concerning the beach boys I suggest you speak to the guards first as they will guide you well, especially with the correct prices!They said the Trips from the Beach Boys were a bit uncertain.

Overall a good holiday, First Choice I would recommend, may be not Sun n Sand. We spent more on the medicans and sarafi than orginally planned but overall and excellent value.

After reading the latest reviews on this page was very concerned about going but we had an absolute amazing time!!!
hotel was brilliant staff cannot do enough to help you and they are not just after money as some reviews try to state.
rooms are cleaned every day towels changed twice a day do not even get that service here.
food was great did not even eat in speciality restaurants as food was great in buffet restaurant.
the entertainment was very varied and entertainment staff were brilliant
especially slim shady who feels like part of the the family!!
this hotel has something for everyone
and i will see you there next year as there is no where else i will be going from now on.
i am a travel agent and if any customers come to me for a holiday to kenya i would have no hesitation in recommending this hotel to them as it was definately a holiday of a lifetime.

the only downside is the beach but seeing a few hotels in mombassa they are all the same tide goes out way out and it is full of the local beach boys but they did not ruin my holiday and are part of the authentic kenyan holiday.
Definately the best hotel I have stayed it and if you are going say to slim and rooney from me....