Shanzu Paradise Beach Hotel

I stayed at Shanzu Paradise Beach Hotel in Mombasa Kenya in a surprisingly very clean Seaview Apartment with A/C which was working throughout my stay, unlike the other linked hotels such as the Flamingo that had no water or A/C for two days. I went with an open mind albeit with slight trepidation due to past reviews and half expecting the hotel still to be closed.

The hotel had in fact been open for two weeks and for the first week there were few visible guests as only about a third of the hotel appeared to be open.

The second week was much busier and there are unobtrusive renovations going on in a separate block which were no problem whatsoever.

The hotel has two large swimming pools, both very clean, one of which has a bar that you can swim up to for drinks and food.

There are ample sunbeds, some wooden in dire need of maintenance and some plastic, one of which failed under my meagre 14 stones.

I want to pay a special compliment to the animation team at the hotel who were always friendly, helpful and talkative, especially Grace. Alice and Korea, who helped to make my stay that much more enjoyable.

For those that like animals, there were numerous monkeys roaming around at dawn and dusk which would come and take food from your hand, a resident heron which hunted the fish in the hotel ponds, and many lizards, one a baby, which was welcome in my room helping to keep the insect population down.

I hasten to add that my cleaner, Michael, did a very good job in sweeping my room every day.

I spent only little time during the day at the hotel, choosing to go into Mtwapa(100 shiilings by motorbike taxi), into the local village, onto the beach or to walk down the beach at low-tide to Bamburi to explore.