Karibuni Villas — Hotel in Magarini ward

We holidayed here over the long New Year's weekend. Outwardly, this looks like a nice place but service is lacking and the villa we stayed in was poor. ||Good points include: Spacious grounds, two clean and large swimming pools, a good and secluded beach, safe locale (you can venture comfortably outside the hotel for a walk but there is nothing much to do or see!), peaceful and devoid of human noise making it a fine place for introspection and calming the mind. ||Bad points: The staff are bumbling fools. Don't take their job seriously, discriminative toward non-whites. The villa we stayed in had no airconditioner and the fans were too slow. General cleanliness in the villa could have been better. Apparently some villas are privately owned and therefore the quality of the villas varies. Be careful to emphasise you don't want something crap when booking. The beach is great but you cannot swim in the ocean because the corals are there from the shoreline. Place is like 12km out from Malindi, past the Sabaki River. Getting transport to Malindi town can be a problem. The reception staff were unhelpful, telling us to walk to the main road and hail the tuktuk ourselves! Tuktuk, if you get it from hotel will charge you 500/- to get to Malindi (a rip off), on the main road you get it for 200/-. But it can take long to get one sometimes. Also consider your return trip back to Karibuni, especially at night, when Mombasa tuktuks will take nothing less than 600/- to bring you back. Matatus during day time are by far the best option. Again somewaiting to be done on msin road but costs only 20/- to Malindi town. Food at Karibuni is poor quality. Breakfast is a joke. Cook your own, or venture to Malindi. ||Overall, we had a disappointing experience and would think twice about going back to Karibuni. Plenty of other...

We holidayed here over the long New Year's weekend. Outwardly, this looks like a nice place but service is lacking and the villa we stayed in was poor. ||Good points include: Spacious grounds, two clean and large swimming pools, a good and secluded beach, safe locale (you can venture comfortably outside the hotel for a walk but there is nothing much to do or see!), peaceful and devoid of human noise making it a fine place for introspection and calming the mind. ||Bad points: The staff are bumbling fools. Don't take their job seriously, discriminative toward non-whites. The villa we stayed in had no airconditioner and the fans were too slow. General cleanliness in the villa could have been better. Apparently some villas are privately owned and therefore the quality of the villas varies. Be careful to emphasise you don't want something crap when booking. The beach is great but you cannot swim in the ocean because the corals are there from the shoreline. Place is like 12km out from Malindi, past the Sabaki River. Getting transport to Malindi town can be a problem. The reception staff were unhelpful, telling us to walk to the main road and hail the tuktuk ourselves! Tuktuk, if you get it from hotel will charge you 500/- to get to Malindi (a rip off), on the main road you get it for 200/-. But it can take long to get one sometimes. Also consider your return trip back to Karibuni, especially at night, when Mombasa tuktuks will take nothing less than 600/- to bring you back. Matatus during day time are by far the best option. Again somewaiting to be done on msin road but costs only 20/- to Malindi town. Food at Karibuni is poor quality. Breakfast is a joke. Cook your own, or venture to Malindi. ||Overall, we had a disappointing experience and would think twice about going back to Karibuni. Plenty of other...

We stayed at Olson Villa located in Karibuni Resort from Dec 2018 - January 2019, a whole month!! It was the best vacation we have had in a long time. The villa is located on the new and quiet side of Karibuni Resort which puts it very close to all the amenities. This worked great for the kids who swam almost all day everyday in the two pools at the resort. The restaurants always seemed to have specials for a set menu at very reasonable pricing. According to management, the Resort had closed down but the privately owned villas had continued to thrive. They had therefore decided to re-open the Resort under new management so it is on the rise for sure. A lot of the Resort will be renovated in the near future but there are private Villas for rent at very reasonable prices regardless. As for my family, we enjoyed all the perks of being home away from home. We used the tennis courts, swimming pools, boccie ball court, pool table and free wi-fi from Tembo Bar, all through our stay. We shall be back pretty soon and look forward to staying at Olson...