SAMAWATI APARTMENTS IN NYALI, MOMBASA | VILLA REVIEW
Where we Chose…
As other family members were joining us on this vacation to Mombasa, it made more sense to book our flights and accommodations separately especially as we had intentions to stay in other areas across Kenya.
I wasn’t sure what areas in Mombasa I was looking for, but I knew I wanted something close to the beaches in kenya, amenities, somewhere close to the airport, and ultimately, somewhere we felt safe to walk around. We needed a villa, so we weren’t particularly looking for hotels. So my first go to was Booking.com for booking our villa.
At first, we found some other apartment that ticked all the right boxes… (although I had dreamt of staying on Diani beach in Kenya,) the price was £550. Which was perfect for us. I went ahead and booked it with free cancellation. At the time, I was happy with that choice, but shortly after I began to notice that the images were copyrighted with another hotel name, and I began to panic.
Was it too good to be true? I asked myself over and over again. The more I searched, the more red flags kept popping up. The location was not clearly identifiable on the map and the correct address was not listed. Things were looking sketchy.
Where We Stayed
To make matters worse, the host had closed booking requests, and although the property was listed – it still didn’t say ‘sold out.’ I decided to ask a few questions to the host, and to my horror, days went by with no response. I looked at the images over and over again, and even hovered over an interactive map.
The area seemed poorly lit, rough, and I knew I had made a terrible choice. Soon after, I contacted booking.com and requested to be contacted within 24 hours otherwise I would cancel my booking. When the host hadn’t contacted me, I went ahead and cancelled.
I immediately felt at ease, even though we had nowhere to stay at that time.
I continued my accommodation search, but deep down I knew I wouldn’t find the same bargain, as the prices were increasing day by day. Nevertheless, safety was my priority.
Searching For Answers…
Time was creeping up on us and many of the accommodations were quickly being snapped up. We had to move fast. I looked through Hotels.com, Agoda.com, and finally found the most suitable and adorable villa on Booking.com
Samawati Apartment was in an ideal location, less than 10 minutes from Mombasa Beach and Nyali shopping centre, 15 minute drive to Bamburi Beach and about 30 minutes drive to the City Centre to see the infamous Mombasa Elephant Tusks.
We had 3 rooms, a swimming pool, netflix, and free purified drinking water. It was perfect… Until we were sweltering!
Instead of going for a dip in the pool, we were eager to put on the A.C, but the remote control was nowhere to be found. Later that day, we contacted our host to ask where the remote for the A.C was and she told us, it was hidden away, as the A.C was prepaid, and that we needed to top up if we desired to use it.
This was a disaster for some of my family members, but luckily there was a little bit left over before it ran out, enough to last us the day I guess.
Payments, Money and MPESA
Prior to arriving, I asked our host what payments were accepted and what she preferred. She told me about MPESA. She didn’t want to be paid by cash, and told me she didn’t accept card payments. I had no idea what MPESA was but I figured that we’d sort it out when we got there.
When we arrived, we asked again about payments (secretly hoping she’d just take the cash) but she informed us we needed to go to the Mall and purchase a card from Safaricom, a shop in the centre. Of course, we needed to be guided on the process of how to acquire it, and how to use it, because it was not as straightforward as I thought. We had to purchase a whole new sim card, top it up for the use of the A.C, plus the payment for the hotel, and for me this was a huge inconvenience.
We queued up for over an hour at the mall, just to be told to come back the following day with the cash. To be honest, this process really ate into our leisure time, and I was quite disappointed. The following day, we returned to the mall, topped-up and made the payment and we were free to explore!
Our Stay and Our impressions
After we were free to explore, we felt at home. Comfortable, safe and we could have really spent an entire month there! Our host Diana was really lovely to be honest, she came to visit us and she made us feel very welcome. We had a wonderful cleaner who came every 2 days to change the sheets and clean- something we were not expecting. She provided us with fresh water every 2 days, fresh sheets, and she did a great job. My son had an early morning dip in the pool downstairs before starting our day, and our stay was almost perfect.
Overall, we had a wonderful stay and I would most definitely recommend you to stay there too, oh- and guess what? We will be returning sometime this year, and we’ll probably be staying there once again… God willing.
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With Love,
Siobhan Patrina
