Jury's Hotel - Heathrow
We arrived here on Thurs 22nd July the night before our flight from T4 Heathrow. The hotel is very new, clean and modern and ideal for access to T4. The rooms were not large but served their purpose. The restaurant was ok for an airport hotel. They do offer a very well priced buffet self-service selection but to be honest, the food was fairly bland but it was hot! We got the hotel to arrange our taxi for us the following morning to T4 which we thought was a rip-off at £10 so in future, we would arrange the taxi ourselves. On our return, the same taxi ride from the rank outside T4 only cost us about £6.50. All in all though a cheap and convenient choice (especially with the £39 opening offer we managed to get!
The Flight
We were very lucky with outgoing flights as we checked in very early and managed to get a couple of good bulkhead seats with loads of leg room
. We spent the couple of hours or so before the flight in the Holideck lounge at Heathrow which is one of the better lounges I have been in. Flight took off on time. Flight time was approx 8 hours to Nairobi and then we had to transfer to another flight to Mombasa.In flight entertainment was pretty good and the crew and service were absolutely excellent. We were handed 3 bottles of wine each - without even asking
. The food was ok too. This flight we thought was almost on a par with Emirates and was not at all what we expected.Transit at Nairobi was not fun. We had to go through immigration first and we were lucky as we already had our visas so we only had to go through a very short queue to get through immigration who were very, very slow. There was only one person at the end of each queue and so the queue for those requiring visas was very long and people were still coming down from immigration to baggage collection some half hour or so later. This was however very late at night so perhaps they have more staff at immigration at busier times. We only had about an hour to get our connecting flight but there were confusions about which conveyor belt our luggage would be put on and the screen announcements kept changing. It took over 30 mins to retrieve our bags. We then made a mad dash to Pollman Tours as our Tour Operators itinerary told us that they would help us in transit. I wish we had not bothered. It transpired that the departures was only just across the road to the arrivals exit and the help provided by Pollmans was far from professional"¦ the guy there called two guys to help us with our trolley cases (help we clearly didn't need) and they were both very aggressive in terms of asking my partner if we had any Kenyan currency and how we had to give them money for their services"¦ so we ended up hang to tip the Pollman's guy and the two porters as well and the smallest denominations we had were 500 KSH notes so this ended up costing us about £12. I have been to Kenya before so I did know to expect this but to be honest, I hadn't expected it to happen when we were supposed to have been assisted in transit by a professional company. All they did was crossed the road with us and left us at the departures area. We made the flight ok. This was a small plane and the flight from Nairobi to Mombasa was only about 40 mins or so.
Baggage collection at Mombasa was much easier and we were off the plane and in transit within about 20 mins. We were to spend the 1st night at Whitesands Hotel in North Mombasa and the transfer here took about 30 mins.
Whitesands Hotel
This is a large, modern hotel in North Mombasa. The rooms were nice with hair driers, safes, fridges, complementary water and mossie nets around the beds. There are several choices of bars and restaurants one of which was open 24 hours which was fortunate for us as we arrived after midnight. The food here was good and the service was excellent too. Breakfast was good and served with Bucks Fizz. My only real negative comment about this hotel is that IMOH it felt very "corporate" - all the airline staff stay there and the night we were there it was flooded with staff from Martin Air, BA and Kenya Airways - this will suit very many people but my personal preference is for something more Kenyan and with more of a personal and intimate feel, plus I much prefer the South coast beaches.
We left Whitesands at 9.30am on the Saturday morning for our transfer to Pinewood Village in Ukunda, South Mombasa. The transfer took about 1.5 hours. The roads are not great (recommend a decent sports bra for the ladies!!) and the journey was very hot and dusty and involved crossing to S Mombasa on the Likoni ferry. I didn't feel as intimidated on the ferry this time as I did in my last visit perhaps because I knew what to expect.
Pinewood Village
Pinewood is a small hotel on the southern tip of Diani Beach called Galu Beach. The hotel has a combination of standard rooms (I think there are 28 ) and then 20 (I think) suites with their own chefs to prepare dinner each night. We had a suite which comprised of a bedroom with ceiling fan and air conditioning and en-suite bathroom with shower over bath. There was also a large separate lounge area as well as a kitchen for the chef to prepare the food. The suite also had a huge private patio which was probably over 30ft long and about 8ft deep and we had dinner outside on this patio every night.
There is a restaurant near reception where breakfast is served every morning and where dinner is served for those in standard rooms or for those who want a change from chef prepared meals. We had breakfast here most mornings and it was very nice - the usual selection of eggs/omelettes/pancakes cooked to order along with bacon, sausages, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, potatoes, toast and jams, croissants, fruit, pastries, juices, tea, coffee, meats and cheeses and cereals. The only problem in the mornings at this restaurant were the wasps. They did their best to cover everything and candles were provided that helped to keep them away from the tables but this was not always very successful, However, being an open sided restaurant there is little that can be done about this. The food was always hot and amazingly, the bacon and the sausages were to UK tastes and that's hard enough to fine even in other parts of Europe!
There are two other places serving food - one is the pizza/pasta grill near the beach bar which serves from 11am until somewhere between 3-5pm (this seemed to vary) and they do excellent stone baked pizzas. The pastas were not as good. The other is the snack bar near to the pool bar which serves all sorts of food from light bites like toasted sandwiches to burger and fries, fried prawns (really good) and many other dishes. They also served ice cream (again to UK tastes) and sundaes, banana splits etc.
There are 3 bars - one near reception which has a lovely seating area from where you can watch the weaver birds weaving their nests or the many monkeys traversing the hotel grounds (they have velvet monkeys, baboons and colobus monkeys). There is also a TV in that bar area. This is always the quietest bar and we found that the drinks were better here too - they mix the world's best dawa here!!
There is a bar also at the pool which closes about 5pm and one on the beach that closes late - whenever the last guest leaves. You order food from the bars and any of the food available at either of the serveries can be ordered from any of the bars and will be served direct to where ever you are sitting.
There is a lovely pool area with a large deck and this was never over-crowded. They provide pool/beach towels clean every day. There were never any problems with towels being put down to "save" loungers etc. There were a few parasols in this area, lots of loungers and a few tables and chairs.
There was also a sandy sunbathing area adjacent to the beach bar with padded loungers and parasols and some more tables and chairs next to the grill.
The beach was wonderfully quiet and deserted. No beach boys!! There was one "shop" run by a beach boy but apart from one visit from a man selling camel rides, this was the only beach seller. It was a delight to be able to utilise the beach without being hassled.
The sea was very tidal here - it went out quite a long way and sometimes the sea was quite rough - great for surfing or body boarding and other days it was very still. This does however mean that the snorkelling is not great off the beach as the sand on the bottom is stirred up so much. The sea was very warm. There is quite a bit of seaweed that gets washed up on the beach along with millions of shells too. There is a large area of coral bed and there can also be sea urchins so it's best to wear beach shoes or similar in the sea.
The Chefs were fantastic. We had a chef called Evan and he worked so hard. Every day, you chose from their huge suggested menu, what you wanted for starters, main and dessert and wrote this down on a pad and left it in the kitchen for the Chef to collect. Each day he arrived at about 3.30pm to start preparing our dinner for 7.30pm - everything was cooked from scratch and prepared especially for you. It was an extra 600KSH each for lobster or king prawn dishes (about 4.50GBP) and these are well worth trying. The Chef would also arrange for your wine to be brought to your table. The house wine came in cartons and the red was very palatable. The white was on the sweet side but fine. Wed did however get a little bored with the house wine towards the end. You can pay extra for bottles of other South African wines and they ranged from around 1000 KSH to about 1500 KSH (about £8-£12). The food was always beautifully presented and we were very pleased with the quality.
The all-inclusive deal is very good value here as there are no time limits on anything. All drinks are included except premium brand spirits and some of the cocktails and only house wine was included. All food was included, regardless of what and where ordered from. You sign for all orders and each receipt clearly states how much (usually all) of what you have ordered is included in the all-inclusive. You put your room no on all receipts and then the cashier, when they get your receipts will just write off the amounts if your room no is on the all inclusive deal. This worked well and there were no funnies on our room bill at check out and was great as meant none of those horrible all inclusive plastic wrist bands.
Finch Hatton's
We went to Finch Hatton's in Tsavo West for 2 days on the 24th-25th July. We flew from the local airstrip at Ukunda which is only about a 15 min drive from Pinewood. The flight took about 50 mins.
This place is amazing and Jul-Sept is a good time to go - everyone wants to go to the Masai because of the migration which means that camps in other parks can be fairly quiet. The day we left, there was only more family of 3 left in the camp.
Finch is set on the banks of a rover full of hippos, turtles and crocodiles. The tents (I think there are around 25) are set on wooden platforms with thatched roofs and are very well spaced for privacy etc. Like most such tens they have permanent bathrooms and they had electricity, a power point, mini bar, showers with constant hot water and fully flushing loo.
Finch is very much in the style of 1920s British Colonial - oak panelling, leather, chandeliers etc. The staff are superb - discrete, softly spoken and obviously very highly trained. At night, they have armed guards to escort you to and from your tent.
There is a swimming pool and deck and towels are supplied.
They provide 2 game drives a day - the usual morning one from 6.30-9.00/9.30 and then afternoons from 3.30-6.30. We were lucky and had a land rover to ourselves. We saw everything but cats whilst we were there although we did see leopard and lion footprints.
Early morning coffee is available at the restaurant from around 6am. Breakfast runs until 10am. Lunch is 3 course with 2 choices and runs from 12-2 and dinner is 7 course and starts from 7.30 and you have to book your time after your afternoon game drive so that they can send a guard to walk you from your tent. Dinner is quite formal and we felt comfortable in a dress (for me obviously!) and him in long trousers and a shirt. The food was outstanding and the service was incredibly efficient.
Finch was completely surreal - just as I expected - to be sat in the middle of nowhere surrounded by hippos, crocs and numerous other animals eating a 7 course gourmet dinner on fine china with silver cutlery and sipping great wines in crystal glasses under wonderful chandeliers - an experience not worth missing!
Ndovu Bonde Treehouse
We decided to get married in the treehouse where we were due to spend our wedding night. We had originally booked a beach wedding at Pinewood but changed our minds as we really wanted a very private low key affair. The area that Pinewood use for beach weddings is actually right next to the beach bar and the beach bar is also open to non-residents who are using the next door watersports centre so it can get fairly busy.
It was wonderful. My partner arrived first and he got ready at the treehouse after his massage at Pinewood. I had my massage, pedicure and manicure and then followed on, arriving 30 mins before the ceremony but already showered etc. The treehouse is in Shimba Hills and is only about 40 mins from Pinewood.
Petra and John who planned our wedding (from Africa Renaissance) came along to be our witnesses and they arranged our photographer and video too as well as the flowers - cream rose bouquet for me and cream rose buttonhole for him and the cake.
The treehouse is amazing - it is not exactly a treehouse - you enter from the rear which is at ground level and go on through the bedroom to a veranda at the front which is built on the hillside so the front is on stilts overlooking the valley and the Shimba Hills.
In the bedroom there is a 4 poster wooden bed with nets which is on wheels so it can be wheeled out onto the veranda. There is also an assortment of sodas and alcoholic drinks and an air horn to be used to summon your butler if there are any problems or you want to order ice or drinks etc. The bathroom is completely open onto the veranda and the hills and valley - it takes a bit of getting used to sitting on the loo or showering in the open like that
but didn't seem to shock the elephants too much!!I put my make up on, Petra helped me into the dress and led me to where the ceremony was to take place. A tip for any ladies considering marrying in Kenya or anywhere like this - don't forget that your body does expand in the heat - I had to be shoe-horned into my dress
although it didn't help with the extra pounds I'd put on courtesy of the Finch Hatton's and Pinewood's chefs!!!.Next to the treehouse is another area with a swimming pool, a large veranda and a covered, thatched area. The veranda had a great view and this area had been decorated beautifully and a table set out for the ceremony. The ceremony was fairly short but beautiful and was all a bit too much for me in the end and am now embarrassed to see the box of tissues on the table in all the wedding photos!!
After the ceremony, we signed the certificates etc, had some photos taken, sipped a large cocktail and then cut the cake. After a few more pictures everyone went and left us alone. It was exactly what we wanted - quite, private and very romantic.
The butler and chef then served us drinks and a cold bottle of bubbly, filled up the Jacuzzi with hot water, provided us with a basket with smellies and towels in and brought some robes out for us, checked if there was anything we did not like before he went off to prepare our dinner and left us to enjoy the sunset from the Jacuzzi.
Dinner was lovely and was served with very nice wine. Another tip for anyone doing anything like this - you do get wine with dinner and you do get bubbly in the Jacuzzi so don't go ordering drinks before this like I did as I fell asleep after dinner - very romantic!!
The butler came and wheeled the bed out onto the veranda for us and then left us for the evening with coffee booked for 9am in the morning and breakfast for 10.
When I finally woke up again, we had a wonderful night listening to the sounds of the park and gazing up at the countless stars"¦it really was a very memorable day and evening!
Coffee and breakfast came as expected in the morning and we sat on the veranda listening to elephants. We saw gazelles, elephants and water buffaloes from our breakfast table.
Little Governors Camp
After 2-3 days chilling out back at Pinewood, we flew to the Masai Mara, again from the local Ukunda airstrip. This was about a 2 hour flight.
We were booked into the main Governors camp and were delighted when we found out that we had been moved to Little Governors. You access little Governors by boat across the Mara River which is teaming with hippos and crocs.
Little Governors has just 17 tents set around a marsh area. Again, this is an unfenced camp and you are escorted everywhere - day and night- by an armed guard. At night, you have to wave your torch outside your tent and wait for your guard to arrive. There is no power in the tents (although reception have sockets that can be used for things that need charging etc). The tents are real tents and are not set on wooden platforms and do not have thatched/wooden roofs etc. They do however have a permanent bathroom which is really large with shower, bidet etc and very hot running water! We also had a very large and extremely comfortable king size bed.
They do 3 game drives a day - 6.30-9.00am; 10am-11.30am and 3.30-6.00pm. Coffee, tea or hot chocolate is served in your tent at 6am when they also turn on your paraffin lamps in the tent and the bathroom. Breakfast is served through to 10am and lunch is served from 1pm with dinner at 8pm. If the weather is good, breakfast and lunch is served out doors next to the marsh area. At night, dinner is served in the tented main restaurant area. There is also a bar with seating area and adjacent to this, an area where the build a campfire every night.
The day we arrived was freezing - so cold that I had to buy a fleece to go on top of my fleece and they had to drop the flaps in the restaurant and bar tents to try and warm them up a little. The following two days were in the 80's!
When we arrived, within a few minutes we had a bottle of chilled Chardonnay delivered to our tent with the compliments of Little Governors and congratulations on our honey moon which I thought was a lovely gesture. When we returned from our evening game drive, there was a gift of 2 soapstone warthogs left on our bed. When we returned from dinner, the beds had been turned down and hot water bottles put inside. These little touches really made this place extra special.
The game was amazing here - you didn't need to go out on game drives - when we arrived there were 4 warthogs right outside our tent and they were running all over the camp at lunchtime. As we lay on our bed the first afternoon, gazing through the tent flap, we saw warthogs, gazelles, zebra, elephants, giraffes, water buffaloes, hippos, gnus . after the morning game drive on the 2nd day we came back find a huge bull elephant about 3 meters from our tent. I would have kept my distance had I not been so busting for the loo!!!
It was the same at meals time - sat at the edge of the swamp watching all the animals as you ate was really amazing.
The meals were excellent - maybe not as fantastic as Finch Hatton's but they were really very good.
We managed to see plenty of cats but not the elusive leopard - next time! We saw lions and cubs, a pride with a zebra kill, lots of cheetahs and best of all, we saw hundreds of zebra migrating across the Mara River with crocs snapping at their heels. I didn't manage to see this last time I was in the Masai so this was the real highlight of the game viewing for me!
We returned to Pinewood from the Masai on the Tuesday afternoon.
On the Wednesday we went on a "Robinson Crusoe" trip. This was ok but a little disappointing - we left Pinewood at 8.30am and went about 45 mins up the coast to Chale Island with our own Chef. We dropped the Chef off to set up the barbeque etc on the beach and the Captain took us out snorkelling. This was the best bit as the snorkelling was really good - not as good as the Maldives but not far short. After about an hour or so we headed back to the beach and the captain set out some beach mats for us to sit on and I assumed we would be left to chill out in this secluded bay for a while so was surprised when they served our dinner at 11am!! We had just finished our dinner when we were accosted by 3 beach boys selling their wares and clearly this had been pre-arranged and they had been told that we would be here so I was a little annoyed by this and, as usual, they were pretty insistent, but worse than usual, we had nowhere to escape to and in this secluded bay we were the only potential customers. We had only just got rid of them when the captain came and said he was ready to leave - that was 11.45! All in all, it was a free trip for us (part of the wedding package we paid for) so it wasn't too bad but I really wouldn't have bothered to pay for it.
We left Pinewood on Friday afternoon (5th Aug). It was a night flight home with a long stop at Nairobi airport so we were really very, very tired by the time we got home. The lounge at Mombasa airport was closed, as were most of the shops. Nairobi airport lounge was pretty poor - maybe because of the time of night but they had hardly any snacks left, the fridge had not been re-filled so the sodas were warm and it was not a very comfortable lounge with stark lighting etc.
We both took malarone and had no side effects. Neither of us had bad tummies at all (even though my husband has Crohn's disease). Until the last day of our hols, I only got 1 mossie bite - in the Masai Mara but on our last day we were both bitten a lot by sand flies - during the day so I'm still scratching frantically now!
We only took GBP300 in cash in KSH and our credit cards. We paid our bills at the lodges with credit cards, paid for tips in KSH and also bought shopping and paid Pinewood's bill in KSH and still came home with more than 50GBP in KSH.
We tipped our chef 200KSH per day (less than GBP1.50), tipped game drivers KSH500 per day, our cleaner KSH 500 per week and ad hoc bar tenders, porters etc all got 100KSH. We also left our cleaner numerous items of clothing and toiletries along with a receipt so that he could not be accused of stealing.
This was a fantastic wedding/honeymoon/holiday that we both fully enjoyed. The only real thing I would have changed is I would have booked the entire holiday direct - I would have saved a considerable amount of money but also would not have had all the stress caused by the tour operator (Thomsons) making so many last minute changes and adding so many last minute additional charges. I did book both safaris and the wedding direct and both of these went without a hitch.
PS A big thank you to all of you on this forum who helped me out so much in planning this holiday!
