Flamingo Villas Resort — Hotel in Shella ward

Flamingo Villas Club is well maintained and welcoming. The staff are kind and attentive and we were welcomed by the manager soon after arrival.||||Note that the property is located about 10 mins off the tar-mac road and access requires a very bumpy ride along unmade rock-roads. This may be uncomfortable for older guests. Otherwise, the journey is bumpy, but acceptable. This is Africa! It can become a little laborious if you travel in and out of the hotel often.||||The complex is comprised of selection of villas surround a pool area which has a small bar. The villas were well maintained and exceeded our expectation for the amount paid. We were happy to find the rooms equipped with AC, minibar and fresh-water showers. Excellent! The rooms were a good size and very comfortable. Outside our room was a seating area, decorated with a ‘swahili’ theme where we took some coffee in the evening before leaving for dinner with friends in town. There were also relaxing areas upstairs where an open lounge afforded views of the sea.||||The pool area was well maintained and we were offered towels as soon as we sat down. There is a small charge for towels. Next to the pool is a small bar where drinks can be purchased throughout the day. It was disappointing not to be able to order any food at all during the day from the main hotel area. Apparently the one chef was assigned to the beach during the day (a ten minute ride by tuc-tuc) so if you wanted food in the daytime you had to go to the beach. It would have been nice to have some snacks available at the very least (crisps, French-fries etc.?) This may be because we were the only guests and in the hotel manager’s defence, she asked staff to go to the beach and returned with grilled vegetable sandwiches for us some time later. We appreciated that.||||Breakfast was identical every day, a selection of fresh fruit, breads, eggs if you wished and coffee or tea from flasks. Perfectly adequate and overseen by very helpful waiting staff.||||A massage therapist came to the pool during the day and sat there hoping for trade. Her prices were very high (KES2000 for a massage). As a resident of Kenya who travels extensively throughout the country I can tell you that this is a rather high fee for massage (for example, 5 star Mombasa hotels such as Voyager and therapy shops in the Serena area charge between KES1000 and KES1500 for a full-body massage overlooking the ocean!), especially when business is very slow. There were three of us who wold have had a massage (we were the only ones in the hotel) so we asked if she would negotiate a better price. She refused, telling us she never reduces her prices. She therefore sat by the pool doing nothing for most of the day!||||The private beach, a ten minute tuc-tuc ride from the villa complex (provided free of charge by the hotel) is beautiful. Quiet, secluded and aside from the very insistent beach-boys who were eventually chased off by the man cleaning the beach of seaweed, very relaxing. The lunch menu is great too – fresh seafood and grilled vegetables, pasta, to name a couple of the choices!||||Overall a wonderful place to stay which I highly recommend. I look forward to going back soon for a...

Flamingo Villas Club is well maintained and welcoming. The staff are kind and attentive and we were welcomed by the manager soon after arrival.||||Note that the property is located about 10 mins off the tar-mac road and access requires a very bumpy ride along unmade rock-roads. This may be uncomfortable for older guests. Otherwise, the journey is bumpy, but acceptable. This is Africa! It can become a little laborious if you travel in and out of the hotel often.||||The complex is comprised of selection of villas surround a pool area which has a small bar. The villas were well maintained and exceeded our expectation for the amount paid. We were happy to find the rooms equipped with AC, minibar and fresh-water showers. Excellent! The rooms were a good size and very comfortable. Outside our room was a seating area, decorated with a ‘swahili’ theme where we took some coffee in the evening before leaving for dinner with friends in town. There were also relaxing areas upstairs where an open lounge afforded views of the sea.||||The pool area was well maintained and we were offered towels as soon as we sat down. There is a small charge for towels. Next to the pool is a small bar where drinks can be purchased throughout the day. It was disappointing not to be able to order any food at all during the day from the main hotel area. Apparently the one chef was assigned to the beach during the day (a ten minute ride by tuc-tuc) so if you wanted food in the daytime you had to go to the beach. It would have been nice to have some snacks available at the very least (crisps, French-fries etc.?) This may be because we were the only guests and in the hotel manager’s defence, she asked staff to go to the beach and returned with grilled vegetable sandwiches for us some time later. We appreciated that.||||Breakfast was identical every day, a selection of fresh fruit, breads, eggs if you wished and coffee or tea from flasks. Perfectly adequate and overseen by very helpful waiting staff.||||A massage therapist came to the pool during the day and sat there hoping for trade. Her prices were very high (KES2000 for a massage). As a resident of Kenya who travels extensively throughout the country I can tell you that this is a rather high fee for massage (for example, 5 star Mombasa hotels such as Voyager and therapy shops in the Serena area charge between KES1000 and KES1500 for a full-body massage overlooking the ocean!), especially when business is very slow. There were three of us who wold have had a massage (we were the only ones in the hotel) so we asked if she would negotiate a better price. She refused, telling us she never reduces her prices. She therefore sat by the pool doing nothing for most of the day!||||The private beach, a ten minute tuc-tuc ride from the villa complex (provided free of charge by the hotel) is beautiful. Quiet, secluded and aside from the very insistent beach-boys who were eventually chased off by the man cleaning the beach of seaweed, very relaxing. The lunch menu is great too – fresh seafood and grilled vegetables, pasta, to name a couple of the choices!||||Overall a wonderful place to stay which I highly recommend. I look forward to going back soon for a...

One of the worst places I've ever stayed. I got it for £25 per night for 2 nights as a deal but this was way over priced for the experience compared to other hotels. To reach the hotel is a very bumpy and poorly maintained road. On arrival none of the staff are welcoming or even smile, I was handed a drink but not told what it was. I was the only person at the resort during my stay and now I know why. Ignore everything they promise in their description. There is no wifi even after I complained several times. This meant I couldn't arrange things to do while I was there and when I asked how much the boat ride with snorkelling was that they advertise they didn't know and just looked bewildered. There is no buffet breakfast or buffet dinner available. Breakfast was 4 different types of bread followed by 2 slices of pineapple. There is no opportunity to hear or learn musical instruments. There was no entertainments in the evening that they advertise. When choosing to get away from the place and eat in town on my second night they charged me 1000 Kenyan shillings when it only cost me 350 when I got a local to drive me in the same type of tuktuk and that was his opening offer which I thought was reasonable so never bargained to get lower which you normally have to do. They charged me for fizzy water which I never drank or ordered. The air conditioning didn't work. I left it on when I went to the beach during the day so my room would hopefully be cool when I got back, only to find that someone had come into my room and switched the air con and fan off at the walls! None of the 6 windows in the room shut properly with over a two inch gap which means even having the air conditioning on is useless as the hot air from out side comes in and replaces the cold air. The door to the luggage area didn't shut properly either. The "private" beach is not private but is constantly visited by "beach boy" trying to sell trips and items, even when I shut my eyes pretending to sleep on a lounger they would still speak until you responded. Overall a terrible place to relax and even worse staff! I'de recommend booking in town as I walked through some of the grounds and the hotels there looked...