Unclean, unhygienic, flies all over food, staff smell of BO, cats and monkeys come into the shanzu restaurant, had stomach problems for 2 weeks.....on the last day I ate elsewhere and instantly tummy was better!

Kenyans on the beach harass you to buy.

One of the pools was always dirty, flight was delayed , was stopped off in Nairobi and left stranded for hours because ASC did not have the right equipment to take off again to fly into Mombasa.

The staff are dumb.....takes them 7-10 mins to bring in coffee or tea for breakfast and even then forget to bring cups and spoons or sugar. AC keeps going off, loud and noisy.

Bathrooms smell, water stopped working for a while and staff make you feel guilty about their circumstances and wages an make you feel obliged to give them money or tips. AVOID. worst holiday ever

Hi me my wife and daughter of 14 stayed at the Shanzu beach hotel, which is connected to the paradise hotel just north of Mombasa.

The hotel is almost directly on the white sandy beach just separated by an elevated cliff path,(don't worry though its only a few steps to the bottom).where do i start?, having had plenty of holidays in the Canaries, Greece, Cyprus etc over the years we decided to venture further a field and try Kenya. I must say this is the best holiday we have ever been on, we stayed for 11 nights from the 21/12/2006 so were at the hotel over Christmas and new year.

On arrival we were met at reception with African drums and staff in traditional African dress. We were part of quite a large arrival but the reception handled it well bearing in mind all the tourists had just been on an 8 1/2 hour flight and were all quite tired.

We were shown to our room by a member of staff and were happy with the accommodation although not the Hilton it was clean and did the job, with a great balcony overlooking the sea and the pool and were perfectly ok for our needs. The grounds are inhabited by vervet monkeys, loads of them and they are great entertainment but don't leave your apartment doors open or they will be in on the scavenge after what they can run off with.

Food I found was of a high standard plenty of choice at all meals and the staff were very attentive to your needs, constantly making sure you were ok for drinks etc.

Entertainment was good African music, acrobats and theme nights etc, these were repeated over our stay but were enjoyable nonetheless.

There are two pools at the Shanzu beach, both very large and one with a swim up bar every morning there are staff in the pools cleaning them out before the clients go swimming, sun beds are chargeable at 1.5 euro per day which as everything else i.e. drinks and any purchases at the shops on site are charged to your room as the whole complex is a cash free environment and you settle your bill after every three days or so with the cashier on site, You get a full printout of all your transactions and can cross reference them with your receipts. Scuba diving starter sessions are also available at the main pool.

In addition to the pool areas there are also extensive landscaped areas to walk in where you will see monkeys lizards and some interesting birdlife i.e. herons etc around a lake with fish in it.

We went on the Tsavo east red elephant safari on Christmas eve stopping at the crocodile camp for 1 night, this had to be the highlight of the holiday we went on three game drives in total and saw lions,elephants,giraffe,zebra,gazelle,antelope,impala dic-dics,eagles,merekats,hippos,crocodiles and many other animals/birdlife which was just amazing.

If you are considering a holiday like this I urge you to do it as you won't regret it, there are some initial costs with injections/malaria tablets etc but if you love wildlife this is for you, a fantastic place, fantastic people the friendliest we have come across, they can't do enough for you,

Take my word for it and experience it for yourself, - Malcolm Roberts

The hotel was reasonably clean.

Food very basic. I couldnt use the beach, people constantly trying to sell rubbish goods.

The staff were very friendly. No entertainment unless you wanted to pay, would not visit this hotel again.

Stayed in the Palm Beach Hotel, Kenya which is linked to the Dolphin etc. Food cold and full of flies. Everyone in our party had stomach problems. Room was absolutely filthy, even on arrival the linen on my bed had lipstick on the pillowcase, dirty sheets and cover. According the the fellow travellers on the way home all the African Safari hotels in that area the food was terrible!

Staff at the desk were very unhelpful and when I managed to get hold of the manager and told him, all he said was "have you brought it to the receptions attention". Even the balconys the grey paint was coming off on peoples clothes, the answer to this from the manager was "don't lean or sit on it then, it is what the chairs are for (which were also filthy).

All in all, would never go back to an African Safari hotel again. We booked ourselves into the White Sands Hotel, different world, could not fault it! So beware if you are going as we still have bad stomachs a week later!!!!!!!!

Quite clearly the worst

New manager just appointed and seems friendly and efficient. Staff re excellent particularly the Kenyans. Shuttle bus operates between the varios hotels in the group about every hour.

We opted to pay a bit extra for a suite and think it money well spent as you get a seperate lounge with fridge etc. I would not consider any hotel in this region without air conditioning. Ours was very efficient but a little noisy.

Had a few short power cuts and water shut downs but no real problem. Food of good standard, the gourmet restauraunt made a change and a trip to the local restaurants made a nice change. They were cheap and of good standard. Be prepared to pay for excess baggage at 7 euros a kilo although pleading poverty and no credit card sometimes works. Daft really when you can buy a huge wooden animal at duty free and take on board as hand luggage with no problems.

Catering on the safari trips is generally better than the hotel. But as value for money I rate this excellent.

This hotel is one of a 4 hotel complex, all of them linked by well tended gardens, and a clifftop path; the complex has 6 pools, 4 buffet restaurants, 2 a la carte restaurants & 5 bars. Unfortunately when we were there, one hotel was being refurbished, so not all the bars etc. were open - it made no difference to us, as the facilities that WERE available were good enough.

The place is spotless, and the staff are some of the friendliest I have ever come across. It is Africa, however, and efficiency is not always up to scratch, although we had no major problems.

The food was reasonable in the buffet restaurants, always well cooked & presented, with a fair degree of choice - 2 meat, fish, 2 veg, rice & a potato dish at dinner. The a la carte restaurant (not included in the f/b package) was excellent, with lobster a speciality, although I preferred the veal.

The hotel is on the beach, reached by a flight of steps, or through the bar; there is a private area, then on to the public beach for access to the sea.

Entertainment was varied & of reasonable quality, although the policy is to have it in only one hotel each night.

We had a tremendous time here, and are already planning a return visit.

Lot of troubles with nearly all the persons who were here at the same time in this hotel.

The food was various but always the same, so you are quickly fed up with the food.

At twelve and in the evening same thing in the same place.

The beach is not for those who want swim because of coral.

The ASC staff were awful (I don't speak about the Kenyan staff, but the Swiss team.)

No answer for a lot of various problems with few tourists.

I hope the next traveller will be luckier.