Review: Kenya Bay Beach Hotel, Mombasa

Most hotels, at a minimum, try to maintain an attractive outward appearance. Even if the rooms are dingy and the service surly, hotel owners know that to attract business they have to at least look shiny and clean.

Kenya Bay Beach Hotel, on the Indian Ocean coast north of Mombasa, is the opposite. On first glance, it does not look very inviting. The paint is peeling, fading and chipped. The pyramid-like roofs are splotchy and ugly. The fish ponds are murky.

But inside is a different story. The rooms are comfortable and clean, with flat-screen TVs, refrigerators, balconies and safes. The staff is friendly and helpful. The buffet meals are filled with a wonderful array of salads, entrees and desserts. White-faced vervet monkeys bounce playfully around the grounds.

The pool at Kenya Bay Beach Hotel

My family spent four days and three nights at the Kenya Bay Beach Hotel recently and, for the most part, enjoyed the stay.

The hotel is conveniently right on Bamburi Beach, and there's a nice pool.

The restaurant there – the Frangipani – is remarkably reasonably priced for a hotel restaurant. They'll even deliver your food right to your seat by the pool. (We also liked the pizzas at Roberto's, a short walk down the beach to the south.)

We had entertainment two of the three evenings, including a dazzling group of acrobatic young men who seemed impossibly agile and flexible. An offbeat "magic" show the next night wasn't as good, but in both cases you couldn't beat the price: free.

Of course, you can't review this hotel without also considering the beach, and in this category there are some pluses and minuses. A big negative are the annoyingly persistent sellers that surround you the minute your foot hits the sand (see: "Coping With Mombasa's Beach Boys"). Try to go very early in the day if you want a quiet walk on the beach.

The ocean water is comfortably warm, but there are no waves here, because a reef along this stretch of the coast knocks them down. So forget any thoughts of boogie boarding or surfing. Also, there's a fair amount of seaweed in the water. It's not terrible, but most people prefer a "pure" sandy beach.

One important tip: If you're the kind of human who likes to sleep, avoid staying at Kenya Bay Beach Hotel on a Saturday night. I was awakened at 12:30 a.m. early Sunday by the incessant bass pounding of music. Even though the windows were closed, I had earplugs in and, in a desperate move, had a towel wrapped around my head, the pounding was unrelenting.

At 1 a.m., I went out and found that the music was coming from the dance floor of the neighboring Il Covo Restaurant. This was actually on the far side of the grounds, so if we could hear the music in our room, every other guest could, too.

I went to the night desk clerk and asked if he could do anything to get the music turned down.

"No," he said, smiling.

"Is it always like this on Saturdays?" I asked.

"Yes," he said, smiling.

Sigh. The music continued until at least 3 a.m.


With the pestering beach sellers on one side, and a closed gate on the inland side of the hotel, you may feel a bit hemmed in. But you can get out and go other places.

Not far from the hotel is Mombasa Go-Karts, a fun outing. You can walk to it, but it's not obvious how to get there. We paid a young man from the beach $5 to walk us there.

The driver who does the airport transfers for the hotel – Dennis – is happy to take you other places, but be sure to negotiate the price in advance and be clear on whether you just want a ride or need a guide, too. In fact, it seemed that just about all the hotel staff members knew someone who operated a taxi or could serve as guide. Just ask them.

See also:

Coping With Mombasa's Beach Boys

Kenya travel tips: Money, credit cards, cash, ATMs



---
 (Please support this blog by clicking on an ad, or by donating via the Paypal button below.)

Kenya travel tips: Money, credit cards, cash, ATMs

Cash

Some guidebooks and websites say that U.S. dollars are accepted in Kenya just as readily as Kenyan shillings, but based on my family's recent trip there I think that's misleading.

We found just about all goods and services were offered in shillings (except at the airport gift shops, where dollars are preferred). While you may be able to pay in dollars in some places, the seller will certainly make the conversion in his or her favor.

People in rural areas will have trouble exchanging dollars, so they clearly prefer shillings.

Also, various travelers have reported that Kenyans may refuse to accept dollars, particularly $100 and $50 bills, if they're even slightly torn or slightly old (over five years).  We never had any of our shilling notes refused, except when the seller couldn't make change, even though most of them were heavily wrinkled and worn.

In short, it's best to get shillings right away from an ATM and use them for most expenses. 

Do take a wad of U.S. $1 dollar bills for tipping, because it may not be easy to break the 1,000-shilling (about $11.40) notes you get at the ATM.

Paying for your visa

There is one thing you can't use shillings for – your entrance visas. You must pay for these in dollars ($50 per person, including children, for a single-entrance visa), Euros or British Pounds. Credit cards are not accepted; you must pay cash.

Because of Kenyans' reputed pickiness about U.S. bills, I went to my bank before we left and got four $50 bills of the most recent issue year possible (2009, as it turned out) to pay for my family's visas. Three of the bills were crisp, but the fourth one was rather wrinkled, and I worried it would be rejected.

It wasn't. But at the next visa station over we noticed that another visitor's $100 bill had been turned down and he was hurriedly thumbing through his wallet to find a replacement.


ATMs

Before your trip, check with your bank to see if you'll be assessed a fee for withdrawing cash at ATMs in Kenya. It may depend on what ATM you use. For instance, Bank of America (my bank) has a partnership with Barclays, so when I used Barclays ATMs, there was no fee.

But when I used other banks' ATMs, I got badly dinged: There was a $5 fee levied by Bank of America, plus about $1.75 charged by the bank owning the ATM. Ouch.

It's good to withdraw plenty of money when you do visit the ATM.  It minimizes the number of ATM fees you pay, and it means less worry about getting low on cash and less time lost stopping to refill your wallet. Of course, be careful how you carry cash; I recommend using a money belt.

ATMs are common in cities, but don't expect to find them in the national parks.  There is at least one at the Nairobi airport, just outside the baggage carousel area.

Plastic

Credit cards are typically only accepted in Kenya at hotels, larger stores and restaurants that serve a lot of tourists. Be aware that many credit cards assess a 3% charge on foreign transactions, so you may want to get a credit card without such a fee before your trip. I got a Capital One card for exactly this reason. 

One interesting moment occurred when I pulled out my credit card to pay the bill at a nice restaurant in Nairobi. Rather than take my card, the waiter brought the card processing machine to the table. We learned that this is common practice in Kenya to assure the customer that nothing undue is being done with your card.

Be sure to call your credit card companies and banks to warn them you'll be using your credit and ATM cards in foreign countries so they don't regard those transactions as fraud. It wouldn't hurt to tell them two or three times. I warned Bank of America that I would be using my ATM card in Kenya – and yet they still froze my card after my first withdrawal. (I managed to call them while there and get things fixed.)

See also these articles:

• Review: Kenya Bay Beach Hotel, Mombasa
• Kenya travel: Coping with Mombasa's "Beach Boys"

------

(Please support this blog by clicking on an ad.)

Review: Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam

If you have to be stranded at an airport, Amsterdam is not a bad place for it to happen.

On a recent trip to Kenya, my family missed our connecting flight in Amsterdam, forcing us to spend nine hours waiting in Schiphol Airport. While a missed connection is never fun, Schiphol's many amenities made it easier to take.

Tired? Sleepy?  Head upstairs and find the dimly lit areas with lounge chairs. It was just what we needed after our overnight flight, and it cost nothing. (Just be sure to set your alarm so you don't sleep past your boarding time.) There are also restrooms with showers in this area.

A flower shop in Schiphol Plaza

There are some cute whimsically designed restaurants inside the airport, and even a small museum. There's a bigger selection of shops and restaurants if you exit out through passport control and enter Schiphol Plaza, which is something like a shopping mall at the airport. Don't worry, as long as you have your passport and boarding pass, you'll have no trouble getting back in.

Want to watch planes taking off and landing? Once outside passport control, follow the signs to the Panorama Deck, an enormous viewing area on top of the airport.

If you have enough time, you can easily take the train into central Amsterdam. Buy tickets to Amsterdam Centraal station either at the kiosks or at the ticket counter. If you're returning the same day, you can buy round-trip tickets (second-class tickets are fine; no need to spend more for first-class passage). U.S.-style magnetic strip credit cards don't work at the kiosks, so you'll have to go to the counter, where there's a extra fee of 50 cents per ticket.

Once you have your tickets, head downstairs to board your train. Trains to Centraal leave pretty frequently and only take 20 minutes once you're on them.

In our experience, there was a crush of people getting on the train, but once on, the ride was quiet and amazingly smooth. By the way, there were no turnstiles to get to the train and no one ever checked if we had tickets. I'm just saying.

At Schiphol, they do security at each gate rather than immediately after check-in. I'm not sure why they do it that way, but it did prevent us from our usual routine of bringing empty water bottles through security and then filling them at a drinking fountain. Be sure to go the bathroom before going through security, because there are no restrooms in the "secure area. "

Also read these articles: 

• Review: Sharm Hotel in Amsterdam
• What's the deal with breakfast in Amsterdam
• Review: Rederij Plas canal tour in Amsterda

-----
(Please support this blog by clicking on an ad)