We travelled with My Travel which we wouldnt do again!
The plane was small and not very well equiped. Also not particuarly clean. We also had a 20 hour delay because the plane had problems before it had left london, and we were not kept well informed about the situation and found My Travel telephone operators useless!

As for the hotel is was very good. Food was excellent, entertainment was slightly poor on some nights however on others it was ok. Room was standard but comfortable. And found all staff to be very friendly. Only downside is too many Germans, which is however expected as its a German hotel. Overall the hotel was very good.

There are a fair few beach traders some of which are very friendly, and nice people, however there are others which can be slightly intimidating. The trick is to play them at their own game!!

Overall despite the few problems the holiday was very good.

We have just arrived back from or holiday at the LTI Kaskazi beach hotel.
There were many good points about it, however, there was also a massive downside with it too.

I shall start with the good points

1. The food and catering staff were amazing

2. The hotel was kept very clean and tidy, even though it was slightly shabby in places.

3. Great weather

4. Booking excursions was very easily, and staff were incredibly accommodating to our needs.

5. Most of the staff were charming and friendly and couldn't do enough to please us.

6. Food and drink was in abundance whenever you wanted it



AND THE BAD POINTS!

1. Too many Germans! Now don't get me wrong, there are some really polite German's etc, but 95% of those staying at the hotel were incredibly rude, pushing in front of us in the food queue, treating staff like scum!

I mean a basic please or thank you never hurt anybody. They didn't lower their voices late at night or in the early hours when passing through the corridors (1am-6am) and thought nothing of shouting loudly and waking up people in other rooms.

They also seem to have no control over their children either, letting them run a mock in from of fire performer, letting them dangle over balconies, stamping on butterflies, throwing food and punching staff and guests!

To be fair, so English couples let their children behave badly too, but think about this, if their child had an accident, they would blame the hotel, not their incompetence as a parent!

2. The Manager! I have never met such a rude, arrogant and unhelpful man. We had to lodge a complaint as some of the hotel staff were trying to hustle money out of us. We are only in our 20's so I think staff thought we were soft touches etc.

The manager, couldn't have given a toss about our complaints though, he ignored me and only listened to my boyfriend. He claimed I never said hello to him and that I tried to get him thrown in the hotel pool on quiz night(the rules are you go in the pool when you get a Q wrong), both lies.

This is coming from a general manager, who seems to prefer acting like a child.

3. One of the Animation team, John, gave me a sob story about his grandmother breaking her leg, asked me for money, then said he was trying to buy a waterpump for his village and wanted me to buy it for him!

I said I would help him, but I needed a receipt as evidence to set up a private charity, however he said he would prefer the money up front, hmmmm!

Also a couple of days later when i asked him about this grandmother, he said he didn't have one. So there's the first of the staff trying to con us

4. We constantly were hassled 5-6 times a day in the hotel to go on trips we didn't want to do. When we said no, they asked us for our clothes or to buy carvings!

5. We came back from an excursion to find one of the cleaning staff running himself a bath in our room!

6. We couldn't go on the beach because the beach boys were constantly bugging us to buy stuff, and wouldn't take no for an answer

7. My boyfriend was mugged buy 6 people outside the hotel, one holding a knife to him, the others feeling his pockets.

Luckily he kept calm and started joking with them and said he would come back with money and cigarettes and managed to break away. We were told the road was safe outside the hotel by our rep, but it obviously wasn't.

8. We never saw our rep when we needed him, and he never got back to us when we requested to meet with him.

9. We flew with My Travel. It was horrendous. Crap food, no seating space, and we are both very slim! Rude staff who make it obvious they don't want to help you.

The plane was filthy too!

LTI Kaskazi Hotel Diani Beach Kenya
12 to 27 March 2006 Tour Operator Thomson Booked @ Thomas Cook

Flight
1st time with Britannia Airways since 1999, regret TUI still makes great profits from overpriced duty free drinks and very poor meals. Even worse the plane was an old Boeing and from seats 14a & b we could not see a film screen, never mind we saved cost of earphones! Airport reception was slow but no problems. Transfer to hotel was quite exciting seeing bustling streets, colourful ferry, many pushing water carts and various parts of Mombasa.

Reception, Check in and Reps Meeting
Very slow and almost seemed timed so we would be too late for lunch. Early afternoon we went by coach to the Reps Talk at a conference centre a few miles away. We were promised all sorts of vital local information. We got a hard sell for a few overpriced Thomson trips. No information on shops, markets, restaurants or how to book

This all inclusive hotel was a lovely experience on our first visit to Kenya, the entire staff were courteous and friendly, the salon was a treat, offering wonderful massages at low prices and doing fantastic braids.

The food was of a very high standard and areas were always clean, yes this was once again the choice of many Germans but I have found as with the Rius Germans are very particular where they stay and therefore we made a good choice, lets face it you dont have to mix if you dont want, we met some lovely german people here, there are good and bad everywhere.

The vervet monkeys were a pleasure and we got some fantastic photos, we booked 2 safaris which were great, we also did a lot of other excursions through thomson.

This hotel appears to be the home of the colobus monkey which appeared on the terrace at 7am, what beautiful creatures, Being an animal lover I didnt like the way the guards catapulted the monkeys but lets face it in kenya these animals are like the rat are to us in Britain.

There isnt really a beach at the hotel as it is straight onto Coral but the facilities were good and relaxed, entertainment was basic but what would you expect, its the same in Europe also. The entertainment and bar staff work long and hard hours for next to nothing, but nothing is too much for them, you are always greeted with Jambo, you dont have to tip and the staff are not a
llowed to accept gratuities without a letter of consent from the management.