We stayed at the Ocean Bay Hotel in Gambia. The hotel is roughly, depending on traffic, meaning the congestion on the roads, about half an hour to an hour from the airport heading north. It is in Bakau, right at the very top of the peninsula. The surroundings are beautiful. The UN headquarters is actually next to the hotel. And when we arrive at the hotel, we are welcomed into a completely different world: a very nice reception, helpful people who speak good English. As we head towards the houses—because this is not a classic hotel with one big building and many rooms, but many small houses, each with a few rooms, around five to ten rooms per building—as we started rolling towards our room, at that moment, the beauty of the hotel revealed itself. For example, the pool, the restaurant, very nice palm trees, flowers, and everything else. When we booked we requested a double room. A double room means two separate beds. They said sure, everything’s fine. Also, we asked for a sea view room. They said everything’s fine. Well, we rolled up to our room, and the sea view, let’s say, didn’t really greet us, because when we step out the door of the room, since we were on the ground floor, there’s a small table with two chairs, so when we enter the room, the mini-balcony in front is where the sea view is. But actually, this sea view is also a bit of a thing, because basically we saw a fence, and through the fence, the beach, because the hotel is well protected, so obviously there is a fence. However, from the ground floor, the ocean view was somewhat less nice. The sea view would have been really good if we had gotten a room on the first floor, but we didn’t get one there, but since we weren’t there many days, we let it go. However, what I definitely have to mention is that at the reception they said double bed, or two beds, sorry, and separated—we even repeated the word with them. Despite that, it was one very large bed. And they said, well, they’ll bring an extra bed. But the extra bed was a single bed plus a really outstanding large double bed. And then they looked at us strangely, like, why are we asking for an extra bed? Well, because we were friends and not couples. So this was a bit of a weird thing. We looked at them strangely, they looked at us strangely. The room itself is a simple room, so no one should think this Ocean Bay Hotel is a five-star hotel. In African conditions, I would say the room itself, under European or US conditions, corresponds to a three- or four-star hotel. The beds were comfortable. The bathroom had everything we needed. They changed towels every day and whatever else we needed. The restaurant is excellent. You can choose all-inclusive or à la carte. Basically, there’s some program every evening: karaoke, music, dance.
The area around the hotel is very nice. Towards the beach, there is a beach bar. At the beach bar, when we go out, there is a guard who watches over the hotel, and the beach is roughly 100 meters from this beach bar. It’s a very nice beach; the trash is cleaned up, so there’s nothing to worry about. The breakfast is also excellent. There are a lot of places in the hotel, a lot of tables. You can decide if you want to be inside or outside. The breakfast is quite plentiful, and they really pay attention to making sure we have everything we want. So we had a great time overall at the hotel, but this is not a five-star hotel. Realistically, you should expect three to four stars. Of course, under African conditions, it counts as a five-star hotel, because naturally, the possibilities are a bit more modest than in Europe. So I recommend the hotel to everyone, but definitely confirm in advance, if you book this hotel through any service, whether you really get what you ask for. And naturally, if something is wrong after check-in, you should obviously speak up. The ocean view is, well, the sea view is actually an interesting thing. Obviously, we didn’t go there to sit on the terrace or at the entrance and stare at the sea, but to get to know Gambia. So we have to appreciate that we can see the coastline to some extent. There are guards at night, so someone can really enjoy themselves if they go to this hotel. The pool, by the way, in the middle of the hotel, is not a heated pool, so if we go at a time that is not the peak season, but a bit off-season, then the pool might be a bit colder. Well, it depends on what temperature you prefer. We guessed the pool was around 21, 22, or 23 degrees Celsius.
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