Tamala Beach Resort

“Staff make the holiday”

This was our fourth year visiting Gambia, and the Tamala. Firstly, the hotel has changed to a TUI blue with some noticeable changes to the physical buildings, rooms, available facilities. You are now able to have lunch at the breeze restaurant and one evening meal there per week too. Great service … more

This was our fourth year visiting Gambia, and the Tamala. Firstly, the hotel has changed to a TUI blue with some noticeable changes to the physical buildings, rooms, available facilities. You are now able to have lunch at the breeze restaurant and one evening meal there per week too. Great service and food! Yet again, we cannot fault the wonderful service provided by the staff at this hotel. Special mentions must do to Lamin Bajinka. Always welcomes us with a smile, warm words, coconuts, friendship and more. He maintains the gardens fabulously, prepares for the fish nights, feeds the vultures and takes such pride in his work and a genuine interest in everything. Simon also provides an attentive service round the pool, meticulous cleaning and ensuring that your needs are catered for whilst soaking up the glorious sunshine. (Assisted by Clarke and the team) Caddy always serving refreshing drinks at the pool bar, remembers your favourites and happy to serve with a smile! Can’t thank the staff enough for their service, friendliness and genuine interest in all the guests. They really make our holiday every time. We will be back next year.

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“R&R”

The location and staff make this resort. Fantastic place for r&r . Great to wake up in the morning and look out at the sea so close to the swim up rooms. The entertainment was good. The food was good and the drinks were good. Big shout out to Lamin,helped us out so much. It's a great place but need… more

The location and staff make this resort. Fantastic place for r&r . Great to wake up in the morning and look out at the sea so close to the swim up rooms. The entertainment was good. The food was good and the drinks were good. Big shout out to Lamin,helped us out so much. It's a great place but needs some money spending on it then it would be even better

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“Kay”

Not quite the four star experience expected. Rooms quite dull with no bedside tables or drawers for clothes. Housekeeping often not leaving towels. Very basic toiletries. Staff very friendly, especially the entertainment team. They found time each day to talk to everyone. Evening entertainment … more

Not quite the four star experience expected. Rooms quite dull with no bedside tables or drawers for clothes. Housekeeping often not leaving towels. Very basic toiletries. Staff very friendly, especially the entertainment team. They found time each day to talk to everyone. Evening entertainment very good and varied. Special thanks to Max, James and Mo.

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“Staff great, hotel not so much”

This was our fist time visiting Gambia and overall it was a good holiday but could have been better. THE HIGHS We cannot fault the wonderful service provided by the staff at this hotel. From Fatou’s fabulous omelettes in the morning, to the amazing Sea Breeze staff, Kady from the pool bar to the … more

This was our fist time visiting Gambia and overall it was a good holiday but could have been better. THE HIGHS We cannot fault the wonderful service provided by the staff at this hotel. From Fatou’s fabulous omelettes in the morning, to the amazing Sea Breeze staff, Kady from the pool bar to the attentive lifeguards and funtastic animation team! We had a blast with the team, James, Ida, Mo, Ambrose, Michael, and Max. Thanks for making the tik Toks!!! Their energy was infectious. Everyone always said hello & remembered your name. It was great to have chats with you all throughout the day. You really made our holiday and gave 5* service. Loved the aqua aerobics in the mornings & ‘dart time’ in the afternoons. No issues with sunbeds and the lifeguards were always on hand to position our beds in the designated spot for the day. We never got a cabana, but we were ok with that. We had a swim up room so would spend the last few hours of the day there. We were lucky enough (though a bit scared) to see monkeys the first morning at the buffet and then a day later running around the swim up patios. They didn’t cause any mischief apart from nabbing some food from plates and trying to get into the rooms. One even chased the cat around by our pool! The weather was amazing! Hot hot hot throughout the day and cooled down a little in the evenings. Didn’t need a jacket or shawl in the evenings but can be breezy if sat outside at the back of Seabreeze at night (on the beach). We booked a treatment in the spa with Mo and had a lovely session with the ladies there! I recommend the scrub and massage. THE LOWS We booked a superior pool view swim up room (5106) and on arrival I was not happy with the standard. It was very tired looking, nothing like the brochure – broken tiles, rusty taps, a/c not powerful. But we stuck it out and didn’t ask to change rooms as I knew the hotel was fully booked. However, on day 5 the A/C blew and stopped working. We called reception and they sent an electrician within 10 mins. They spent about 30 mins fixing it, got it working but said they had to come back to change a part. Then 20 mins later it blew again (with me stood under it) and shorted all the electrics in the room. So, we were half dressed and plunged into darkness! Reception got straight onto it, but we had to be moved to the room next door (5107). Once they got the lights back on, we finished getting ready and went for dinner and then moved rooms. To our surprise, the room next door was bright and modern & in much better condition than the old room and the AC was arctic cold (so ours never worked properly from the beginning). It’s a shame to know that we paid all that money for a room upgrade to get a sub-standard room, when others were in much better condition! The Food here is by far the worst All Inc I have ever had! I’ve stayed in lots of AI hotels all over Africa, Caribbean & Europe and the variety here is very bottom of my list. I know it’s a small hotel, but it’s also a Tui Blue so I expected better! The buffet is tiny and the choices limited & repetitive, which meant we chose to eat out a few times. We had a few lunches at sea breeze which was a nice change. Drinks are ok, but cocktails are strange… we had mojitos made with oranges and bitters?!?! The prosecco is nice and the frozen daiquiris. The gin is also tolerable. Soft drinks are local source unless you pay for them and are flat. Entertainment The animation team are the best, but it’s the same thing every day (aqua aerobics, boules, darts, volleyball). There needs more variety! The music round the pool is from the restaurant and is bizarre! Ranging from afrobeats-classical-jazz lift music- Arabic music. Its so annoying. Thank God we had our Bluetooth speaker! Evening entertainment is either a singer on a keyboard, bands that are so bad its hilarious, or traditional drummers/dancers. Its so boring!!!! Unless the singer is up at the buffet restaurant, they tend to be on for an hour and then that’s it. A few nights there was a local DJ (DJ Ice) who would play a bit of music for an hour (thank God for him) otherwise there is nothing else to do. The bar stayed open till about midnight, but there was nothing to do but sit and drink. Thankfully, we ventured out to ‘The Strip’ otherwise I would have been bored to death. Get a ‘disco’ or more entertainment PLEASE!!!! I would return to Gambia again, but not necessarily this hotel unfortunately… well… maybe when I’m 60+ lol! Outside of the hotel we went to John Raymonds restaurant (very slow service but tasty food), Jamaica Jamaica restaurant (superb food and drinks), Three chicks & a grill (good food & drinks) & Saffron (lovely curry). We used the green taxis outside the hotel which were safe and cheap.

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