La Palm Royal Beach Hotel

“Exceeded our expectations”

This hotel describes itself as opulent and luxurious. It’s very good but, as others have said, we think it needs to invest in room refurbishments and new poolside furniture first. Having said that, it was a lovely hotel, in a great location, with a super poolside area and gardens, welcoming staff … more

This hotel describes itself as opulent and luxurious. It’s very good but, as others have said, we think it needs to invest in room refurbishments and new poolside furniture first. Having said that, it was a lovely hotel, in a great location, with a super poolside area and gardens, welcoming staff and fantastic weather! In more detail, here is some information and feedback from our 10 days stay in November, which tourists like us might find helpful. The free airport hotel pick up worked well. The return drop off was at 6pm and the traffic was chaotic. However, our driver got us there in a reasonable time, and the processes at the really good Kotoka airport were smooth. We used the hotel’s Forex money exchange bureau to get Ghanian Cedi’s – better than any other option. The weather was fantastic, 27 degrees of heat at 8am, nice sea breeze, lots of blue sky, decent poolside cover under large parasols and palm trees, and only 20 mins of rain during our stay. A mile or two inland and the conditions were not as good. The pool was kept clean and the swim up pool bar was great (shout out to Sarah!). Be careful entering the pool – it’s a bit slippy. Food and drink: we were B&B. The hotels breakfast and other food choices were absolutely fine. A plus point is the ocean and the sunset views from the Ghanaian Village restaurant. We also made use of the supermarket at the nearby petrol station to get some snacks, drinks and chocolate. It’s a 5 minute walk: turn right as you exit the hotel, same side of the road. For a change of evening scenery, a few minutes further along is the Labadi Beach hotel which, to be honest, had better quality ambience and food choice. We also went on 2 very good Get Your Guide food tours 1) one daytime - at the massive Makola market 2) one evening - street food in Osu. Lots and lots of classic Ghanaian food, some very spicey! Felt safe, no dodgy stomachs. Our (Standard Double) room was absolutely fine – yes it could do with a bit of redecoration, and yes it would have been nice if the patio doors to the ‘balcony’ weren’t locked (for security reasons). However, it was a nice size, kept clean, the air conditioning worked well, the bed was large and there was a good choice of TV channels. We had some lovely walks along the beach, watching the large groups of fishermen pulling in the nets, not getting pestered hardly at all, BUT – 1) for security reasons, access from the hotel to the beach is limited to one locked gate at the Ghanaian Village restaurant, which was not manned. You could get the staff to call over someone with a key but it was tricky to get off the beach back into the hotel unless you shouted to a hotel guest to go and get someone 2) if you turn left onto the beach, you are soon approached by someone (legitimately) requesting a fee (about 20 Cedi pp) to enter the pleasure beach zone next door 3) 75% of the beach is fine, 25% near the sea wall is covered in rubbish (plastic bottles and carriers bags, coconut shells, clothes etc) – not a good look, a real shame, and finally, 4) swimming looks precarious. In all, we would definitely definitely recommend this hotel, and this location.

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