Holiday reviews for Diani Beach

We havejust arrived back from or holiday at the LTI Kaskazi beach hotel.
There were many good points about it, however, there was also a massive downside with it too.

I shall start with the good points

1. The food and catering staff were amazing

2. The hotel was kept very clean and tidy, even though it was slightly shabby in places.

3. Great weather

4. Booking excursiions was very easily, and staff were incredibly accomodating to our needs.

5. Most of the staff were charming and friendly and couldn't do enough to please us.

6. Food and drink was in abundance whenever you wanted it



AND THE BAD POINTS!

1. Too many Germans! Now don't get me wrong, there are some reallly polite german's etc, but 95% of those staying at the hotel were incredibly rude, pushing in front of us in the food queue, treating staff like scum! I maen a basic please or thank you never hurt anybody. They didn't lower their voices late at night or in the early hours when passing through the corridors (1am-6am); and thought nothing of shouting loudly and waking up people in other rooms. They also seem to have no control over their children either, letting them run a mock in from of fire performer, letting them dangle over balconies, stamping on butterflies, throwing food and punching staff and guests! To be fair, so English couples let their children bahave badly too, but think about this, if their child had an accident, they would blame the hotel, not their incompitance as a parent!

2. The Manager! I have never met such a rude, arrogant and unhelpful man. We had to lodge a complint as some of the hotel staff were trying to hustle money out of us. We are only in our 20's so I think staff thought we were soft touches etc.

The mananger, Mr Rexwinkle, couldn't have given a toss about our complaints though, he ignored me and only listened to my boyfreind. He claimed i never said hello to him and that I tried to get him thrown in the hotel pool on quiz night(the rules are you go in the pool when you get a Q wrong);, both lies. This is coming from a general manager, who seems to prefer acting like a child.

3. One of the Animation team, John, gave me a sob story about his grandmother breaking her leg, asked me for money, then said he was trying to buy a waterpump for his village and wanted me to buy it for him!I said i would help him, but i needed a reciept as evidence to set up a private chrity, however he said he would prefer the money up front, hmmmm! Also a couple of days later when i asked him about this grandmother, he said he didn't have one. So there's the first of the staff trying to con us

4. We constantly were hassled 5-6 times a day in the hotel to go on trips we didn't want to do. When we said no, they asked us for our clothes or to buy carvings!

5. We came back from an excursion to find one of the cleaning staff running himself a bath in our room!

6. We couldn't go on the beach because the beach boys were constantly bugging us to buy stuff, and wouldn't take no for an answer

7. My boyfriend was mugged buy 6 people outside the hotel, one holding a knife to him, the others feeling his pockets. Luckily he kept calm and started joking with them and said he would come back with money and cigarettes and managed to break away. We were told the road was safe outside the hotel by our rep, but it obviously wasn't.

8. We never saw our rep when we needed him, and he never got back to us when we requested to meet with him.

9. We flew with My Travel. It was horrendous. Crap food, no seating space, and we are both very slim! Rude staff who make it obvious they don't want to help you. The plane was filthy too!

The Club Sun & Sand is located right on the beach at Diani, a fair trek out from the bustle of Mombassa. We were there in Dec 1998, after a weeks safari, and the humidity was probably somewhere in the 90% region!

The hotel itself i notice, has undergone a refurbishment which has seen the thatched grass rooves removed from the apartment blocks. Picturesque as it once was, it presumably offered an unacceptable risk of fire.

On the whole, Club Sun & Sand is a pleasant hotel complex, somewhat sprawling in nature, with plenty of facilities and nearby attractions. Be careful if swimming off the beach, as sea urchens abound and the spines hurt when they get you in the foot!

The beach itself attracts the locals who, unlike we found in Gambia are'nt too persistent and are generally freindly. We went all inclusive, so we took the oppertunity of taking some of the locals soft drinks etc in return for hair braiding/beach walks to the outer edges of the reef etc.

All in all, basic but pleasant but dont go just to doss on the beach. We met a couple from Yorkshire who had returned to the resort eight years running and had NEVER been on Safari!