Almanara Luxury Villas — Hotel in Kinondo ward

One of the worst hotels, value for money wise, I have stayed in anywhere in the world.

If you are staying in Diani and are willing to pay their prices then stay at Alfajiri. It is in another league!

Sadly, I don’t have anything good to say about the place.

I was there with my partner and paid $600 per night each for an Ocean Suite. It was a nice room with a balcony but it was a room and a bathroom. What designated a suite I do not know. The balcony was huge with a tiny amount of furniture and only a very obscured view of the beach and ocean. Oh, the room didn’t have anywhere I could sit comfortably at to use my laptop. No suitable desk or similar. No suitable chair. The lock was faulty on the door and took a lot of effort to lock. If you didn’t lock it it blew open to the corridor outside.

There was no TV in the room. When I said that it was a lot of money to pay for a room with no TV they said “most people don’t want a TV”. Don’t they?

One of my pet hates is an expensive place that is supposed to be inclusive and then charges a supplement for everything that is of decent quality. What is the logic? We are top of the market, certainly charging top of the market rates, yet if you want anything above very basic you have to pay a premium for it?!

The single worst moment was when they told me beer was included but if I wanted Heineken I had to pay Ksh 500 a bottle. Now, I don’t know about you, I love a lot of things about Kenya, but their local beer isn’t good. It really isn’t. In my opinion. It is not as if Heineken is exactly premium beer either. Anyway, after an argument they relented begrudgingly.

House wine was included. I ordered a bottle of red as a matter of interest. Let’s just not go there…

Food? Rubbish! Examples: a crispy fishcake was placed on top of a very wet salad and by the time it got to me it was soaked half way through with water. When my partner mentioned this to the chef she was told. “That is the way we do it here, you should have asked for it without salad.” No apology. The grilled lamb cops were not grilled. The fat was wet and soggy and smelled bad! When I said this isn’t grilled they said “it was grilled but then we put it into the oven, you wanted it dry and crispy? You should have said.” They were decent lamb chops absolutely ruined. The icecream had ice crystals in it. You know, the way it goes when it is allowed to melt and is then frozen again. They gave a choice of pork, beef of chicken sausages but the only had pork. The bacon was tasteless. Have you had tasteless bacon before? I haven’t. The mushrooms were very wet and were so salty they were inedible. I usually add salt to food… I think you get the message. We complained. Nobody came to explain of apologise.

Keep away is my strong advice.

To Alamanara, I will never forgive you. I just hope I have prevented some other people suffering what we suffered by leaving this review.

If anyone wants to go and look at my other reviews, I pride myself on leaving good reviews as well as bad. You can see that. I leave a review is something is very good or very bad. This place is firmly in the very...

We stayed in the main villa, and it was pretty close to heaven: We had just come back from two weeks on safari and needed some down time. There were three other couples staying there at the time, and we all got to know each other to some extent as we dined, used the pool, and stayed down by the beach. The pool table is a nice touch, and we pretty much played every afternoon while the amazing staff (Terri, Sedine?, Anna, John Paul, and Chef Dorcas) took complete care of us. Don't forget to tip them when you leave! The all-inclusive food was really good (it's better at night) and the alcohol was well chosen. The beach chairs are set up beautifully and there is a barrier in case people on the beach selling stuff makes you uncomfortable. We rented a kayak on a calm day and it was fun, easy paddling. ||The biggest downside was the lack of management service: while we were greeted in the very beginning by the manager, We didn't see her again until we checked out, and we really needed her help in making dinner reservations, etc. having her check in everyday would have been a great help. It would have helped, in fact, When we made a reservation at a nearby Fancy restaurant but couldn't make it there on time because Almanara 's van was being used by another guest to take his mother-in-law to the hospital. We tried calling the restaurant twice but nobody picked up. Here's the problem: The wait staff helped us by using their phones to make the phone call to the restaurant but it was all very confusing. The next day, when we were checking out, the manager finally came by and basically critiqued us for not showing up to our dinner reservation. We had already explained the reasons why that we're completely beyond our control (maybe Almanara could have a separate van in case one is being used for emergency). Thus, we left with a slight bitter note, despite absolutely loving the rest of the staff. Bottom line: the manager should be more visible and they should do more to help the guest while...

We stayed in the main villa, and it was pretty close to heaven: We had just come back from two weeks on safari and needed some down time. There were three other couples staying there at the time, and we all got to know each other to some extent as we dined, used the pool, and stayed down by the beach. The pool table is a nice touch, and we pretty much played every afternoon while the amazing staff (Terri, Sedine?, Anna, John Paul, and Chef Dorcas) took complete care of us. Don't forget to tip them when you leave! The food was good (it's better at night) and the alcohol was well chosen. The beach chairs are set up beautifully and there is a barrier in case people selling stuff makes you uncomfortable. We rented a kayak on a calm day and it was fun, easy paddling.

The biggest downside was the lack of management service: while we were greeted in the very beginning by the manager, We didn't see her again until we checked out, and we really needed her help in making dinner reservations, etc. having her check in everyday would have been a great help. It would have helped, in fact, When we made a reservation at a nearby Fancy restaurant but couldn't make it there on time because Almanara 's Van was being used by another guest to take his mother-in-law to the hospital. We tried calling the restaurant twice but nobody picked up. Here's the problem: The wait staff tried to help us by using their phones to make a phone call but it was all very confusing. The next day, when we were checking out, the manager finally came by and basically critiqued us for not showing up to our dinner reservation. We had already explained the reasons why that we're completely beyond our control (maybe Almanara could have a separate van in case one is being used for emergency). Thus, we left with a slight bitter note, despite absolutely loving the rest of the staff. Bottom line: the manager should be more visible and they should do more to help the guest while they stay here. Otherwise,...