The Coco Ocean resort is a well maintained luxury hotel. We stayed in one of the delightful luxury detached Beach Villas. However issues arose which mean we will not be returning. One event in particular destroyed the last three days of our holiday
On Sunday 20th January at 05.45am, 3 days before our departure we were burgled whilst asleep in our villa. I awoke and almost caught the burglar however he slipped out of my grasp and escaped through a small sliding window located behind a full length curtain. I was unaware of this window. The burglar took the two Kindles we had been reading in bed, as well as a watch and phone. I tried ringing reception but the phone was dead. I ran through the grounds to reception to get immediate assistance. However the receptionist refused to contact management saying he had to wait for them to report to work. I asked for security and found that he was sleeping on a sofa outside the reception. He had to be shaken awake. The guard refused to ring the police saying we had to wait for management. I then telephoned Joyce of our travel agent, Gambia Experience, and despite the early hours she immediately drove to the hotel via the police station where she collected three officers to investigate the crime. Joyce acted as intermediary and we were very grateful for her professional assistance. On returning to the bungalow I found that the window lock of the hidden window was broken/tampered with and therefore although having the appearance of being locked it was not. This lock can only be accessed from within the room giving rise to the possibility that one or more of the Coco staff could be involved. This suspicion was also shared with me by the Coco management during a subsequent discussion. Our beach villa had become a crime scene and so the Management who had then arrived transferred us to an inferior room having a faulty safe so we then had to wait in the room with our valuables until it was replaced instead of trying to relax in the sun. During this dreadful day the hotel owner who previously appeared to be very hands on failed to make an appearance and check on our personal situation. On Monday 21st January I eventually met up with the owner and asked what he was going to do about our financial loss taking into account the possible participation of his staff or the negligence relating to the window lock and lack of security. He advised he was looking into it but failed to make us any concrete offer of recompense. Despite expediting a response to my claim from several of the management team, in the end I was forced to deduct the value of the stolen goods from the final bill with an offer that any payment from our travel insurance would be returned to them less the excess. We were not offered any credit for having an inferior room for the last two nights of our holiday. The hotel staff all offered profuse apologies for this terrible event however when it came to taking financial responsibility the hotel was conspicuous by their absence. The hotel Owner should have immediately offered to make good the £420.00 loss and transferred us to a secure room of at least the same quality; we could then have moved on and put this distressing experience behind us. However their financially defensive attitude dominated the last three days of our holiday making us wish that we were back in freezing Britain. During this period Coco did belatedly offer to pay for the Spa treatments we took that day.
Finally I understand from new Guests that the welcome speech starts with “We must tell you we are not responsible for any loss of valuable no matter what circumstance”. If this is the only lesson learnt from this burglary then management of this so called best hotel in the Gambia are failing in their duty of care to future and current clients. Finally well done Gambia Experience but shame on the Coco management who made no attempt to reduce the negative impact on us of this criminal event.

I stayed here for one night, while passing through on my way to another country.

This is truly a remarkable place. I'm going to guess that the main hotel building was built back in the '30s or '40s. The rooms are HUGE, with 15 foot ceilings. The hotel has been kept fully up to date, whilst at the same time preserving the ambiance of the colonial past. The clientele at the hotel consists of older (50+) Europeans, and it is common to see gentlemen wearing jackets to dinner, and ladies wearing smart dresses to dinner. Heck, you almost expect to see Humphrey Bogart walking by in a white dinner jacket.

Beds are comfortable, the place is clean, and all the expected amenities (coffee machine, etc.) are provided in the room. Room decor is delightful and respects the traditional architecture of the property. The hotel is located in a quiet, peaceful location. Security appears to be excellent.

Food at the restaurant was very good, both dinner and breakfast. Service was professional, albeit somewhat slow.

The only problems with this hotel are those which are inevitable in sub-Saharan Africa, no matter where you go or how much you pay: The internet connection (free wireless) is slow and was unreliable, the staff move slowly and are not too clever, and the public computers are old, out of date, and full of viruses and trojans. If you need to print something in the business center, put the document on a memory stick, then burn the memory stick after you have put it in the hotel computer. Don't even dream of using the memory stick again in your own computer unless you wrap it in a condom before putting it into the hotel computer.

But, having said that, I think you would have a hard time finding a better place to stay in Banjul, and I would certainly return here again, and I do recommend this hotel to others.

We moved here from Mandina Lodges and were not that impressed despite everyone telling us it was meant to be the best hotel in the country.

We had a Beach Villa Sea Facing which was a nice room, good size with a huge outdoor garden although its under cover so not great for sunbathing.

The shower, for such a large and grand bathroom was tiny though, a little handheld thing that drizzled water out. Weren't impressed.

The first night we went for a drink at a pretty souless bar with the Matrix 2 playing on a big screen which was really odd and didnt suit the ambience of the hotel at all. Service was ok. We then went to dinner in one of the restuarants (spotting a cockroach sat on one of the tables on the way!)

We soon found that there were loads of these huge bugs everywhere and were surrounded by them at dinner...they jump and fly and land all over the place, crawling around...awful awful awfull!

We almost left the hotel it was that bad. As it was we went to the Serekunda Strip down the road (via our awesome taxi driver with his Bob Marley tunes!) and the holiday was transformed! The nightlife, restuarants and bars there are great fun and really busy, welcoming and great value. Highly recommend the African Queen and its sizzling seafood platters.

Back to the hotel, the pool areas are decent, we had a private pool area which was pretty quiet although the whole place does look a bit dated and the sunbeds weren't very comfortable.

Highlight of the time there was helping the local Gambian fisherman on the beach play tug of war with their nets...caught a huge load of fish and even a sizeable shark which was a great experience. Recommend some long walks on the beach too although look out for the pufferfish...I almost trod on one which would have been a bit of a ruiner!

Spa and breakfast were good.

Beautiful rooms, nice swimming pool, friendly service... I've been three times in this hotel and I always feel like coming back. Is far from town but there's not much to see in banjul. The restaurant is very good. I recomend the bamboo suites for couples and the vilas for group of friends.