We have just returned from this Very Special Hotel. It lived up to our expectations and more besides.

We were met by the receptionist Pamela who booked us in swiftly and she was both proffesional and friendly ,then we were taken to our room by Mr C.

We had a standard room that was on the first floor (room 181) and it was one of the closest to the pool area. You could almost see the sea from the balcony. The hotel has recently been refurbished and was done beautifully, Fred our room boy was thorough in keeping the room clean and put fresh flowers on the bed daily. There is a large mosquito net around the bed which is drawn around each afternoon and adds a very romantic look.

The room is also sprayed regularly with repellant. The whole of this hotel is kept lovely,from the rooms to the gardens the pool bar, beach bar and grill, restaurant and spa.

The food is top class, with different themes each night and a barbecue 2 nights per week on the beach. Dickson the chef and Evans were excellent, i have an intolerance to milk and he made sure that he had a dairy free alternative for me always, even making something different if needed. The beach bar also provided food having a daily specials board, which included lobster. Pizza was freshly made when ordered and they were to die for!!!! My particular favourite were the queen prawns.

The staff were all friendly,and very helpful, Ngomeni who supplied our drinks and snacks along with Wilfred at the beach bar, Many waiters that include Jimmy, Justus, The flamingo(Christopher),and Dave & Richard the barmen, Mohammed the Animator and many thanks to Ronnie Bhasin the manager who makes a point of talking to all his guests. That is a rare thing to see!!!!! We were made to feel part of a family and were introduced to Maya who is Ronnie's fiance.

While we were there we had the good fortune of being asked to help with a wedding. It was an honour...It was so well done. The couple were very impressed by the organizing done by Mr C who arranges it all. He and Mohammed acted as the paparrazzi taking photos for us.....
They also had a Massai Escort on the beach.

Much has been written about the beach boys in Kenya but we were not hassled by the crew at this hotel and once they introduced themselves, they left you alone only waving as you passed by. All 8 boys were polite, we dealt with Alfa and Pele.

We made so many friends whilst we were there and will be returning next year.

One last word to Ronnie who gets married to Maya at Pinewood on the 8th August. CONGRATULATIONS.

Whoever is staying at Pinewood Village then, will witness a Very Special Occassion, we only wish we could have been there ourselves.

My partner is currently working in Nairobi, Kenya.
I went over to see him for a holiday and our first port of call was the Pinewood Hotel on Diani beach, Mombassa. We stayed here a few nights, and had a suite which was very spacious and comfortable.

The staff were extremely helpful and polite, and our personal chef Maureen came to prepare our dinner from scratch every night at our suite.

The standard of food, variety and quality was excellent, and was always very well presented.

We had a timber four poster king size bed with mosquito net drapes, a living area with comfortable cane furniture, a dining area designed for two, a double shower and a veranda.

Pinewood hotel is right at the end of the road on Diani beach, which makes it very private, the road is bumpy but its worth the travel.

There was little entertainment provided, but this is more of a quiet retreat to escape in tranquility.

There was a lovely pool and jacuzzi which was very quiet, I had a couple of morning swims and had the pool to myself.

We went on a day excursion to Swahini island by boat and went snorkelling in the indian ocean. lunch was provided at the island mainly seafood, but you can request alternatives if necessary.

There is a beauty salon in the complex, i had a wonderful full body massage with essential oils and it was only about

This could have been a very good hotel, unfortunately our holiday here was spoiled by bed bugs. Having never experienced them before it took us 10 days to realise that the very painful bites we were experiencing were caused by insects in our bed. We then saw our representative who immediately arranged for the mattress and bedding to be changed and the room sprayed. This solved the bed bug problem, but other people we talked to said they were having the same problem. There were also many sand flies on the beach which do bite and some people were getting covered in red itchy blotches, other people seemed just to get a few.

On the positive side the staff were very friendly and the food was reasonable, although most of the meat seemed to be very tough. Fish was a much better choice and quite good. Breakfast was OK.

This was sold as a first class hotel, but I did not think it was really of a first class standard, more of a 3 star than anything else. Some things could really do with an upgrade i.e. sunloungers, mattresses on the beach sunbeds. I could see no evidence of what had been done during the time the hotel was closed in May, apart from painting which they were still doing while we were there.

The pool was smallish and was used by the water sports centre for training divers. Some days it was occupied by them all day, there could be twenty divers plus instructors in a smallish pool, which made it more or less unusable, all day sometimes. Customers from other hotels also did training in the hotel pool.

I would not really recommend this hotel, and would certainly not return.

We have been to Pinewood on 6 occasions now, as a couple, as a family, with friends and also on honeymoon. We always stay in the same suite and always request to have Evans as our chief (Evans you get a few mentions on this site!)

I CANNOT fault any about Pinewood especially if you just want to relax and unwind. The only thing I would change if it was possible is the sand flies! if anybody out there Knows how to keep them at bay pleeeease let us know! One thing we have learnt is to take a good non drowsy antihistamine (stops the itch!)

Just returned from a 2 week holiday in Mombassa - stayed at the Pinewood Village in a suite with chef, what can I say - amazing, worth every penny.

The suite was lovely though when you book do tell them you want a refurbished room, our chef Evans was fantastic and the actual resort is beautiful, very small, just what my partner and I like. We will definitely return.

Booked this holiday with Q Holidays, so much cheaper than some of the others.... Flew with D.M Tours (highly recommended - Denis and Lilian - pat on the back - you run a very professional outfit) to the Masai Mara for a 3 day safari, stayed at Governors Camp, again the right choice.

Saw all the usual, and even a cheetah kill, but sadly did not see Leopard or Rhino (Rhino are not on the side of the river where Governors is located) next time if poss would probably do 1 night at Governors and the 2nd night at the Mara Safari Club as they do have Rhino in their vicinity.

I did think 3 days personally for me was enough. Back at Mombassa went to the reptile farm (15 Min's down the beach) and for a few pounds each this was well worth the money - hands on with snakes, lizards and baby crocs - they even have 2 giant tortoises!!!

My only complaint about this holiday is "Wet and Wild", this is a company that is located in the "Aqua-land" building in Pinewoods grounds - when you pay 310 euros to do a mangrove safari on jet ski for 90 mins, I expected the word safari to mean stopping to view the wildlife, be told what they were and have the opportunity to take photos, we had an underwater camera with us.

Well the 310 euros ended up being a jet ski play which my partner and I could have done on the sea for a lot less money. We complained and tried to get our money back, but no use, what they wanted was another 155 euros to take us back (buy 1 get 1 free) to take the pictures that we should have been able to take in the first place - the phrase throwing good money after bad comes to mind!!!

I don't want to appear to biased it was beautiful and an Irish couple we were out with enjoyed it, but it really wasn't what I was expecting and for the cost of that we could have spent a night at Pinewoods tree lodge in Shimba Hills or had an additional 1 night safari in Tsavo - mmmmm!!!!

I've never felt ripped off on holiday before, and it's just taught me a valuable lesson - make sure you know exactly what you're getting before you hand any money over...

Pinewood is a small hotel on the southern tip of Diani Beach called Galu Beach.

The hotel has a combination of standard rooms (I think there are 28 ) and then 20 (I think) suites with their own chefs to prepare dinner each night. We had a suite which comprised of a bedroom with ceiling fan and air conditioning and en-suite bathroom with shower over bath. There was also a large separate lounge area as well as a kitchen for the chef to prepare the food. The suite also had a huge private patio which was probably over 30ft long and about 8ft deep and we had dinner outside on this patio every night.

There is a restaurant near reception where breakfast is served every morning and where dinner is served for those in standard rooms or for those who want a change from chef prepared meals. We had breakfast here most mornings and it was very nice

This is not a hotel, it is a complex of houses, each house split into two. Lower is living rooms, kitchen and bedrooms, chef comes in and cooks meals. Upstairs is living accomodation for couple/family. If you live upstairs you eat meal in the main lodge resteraunt (does breakfast, lunch is down the poolside fast food and dinner is back in the main restaurant or the barbecue etc.

This is a lovely place to unwind. Beach is clean, and mainly deserted as this hotel complex is away from the local centre.

Sea is clean and warm, BUT TAKE SWIMMING SHOES as the bottom is full of sea urchins and with-out shoes you are going to get your feet full of spines.

Not an activity holiday, days and nights are slowwwwww.