Bakadaji Hotel

Great staff, never met such friendly people. Beautiful hotel, great environment and the food in the restaurant is to die for. Bakadaji has everything you need! Just 5 minutes to walk to the beach and all of the best places of the Gambia are within reach. We will definitely go back.

My friend and I (both female) were brought to this hotel restaurant by two male “friends” for food and drinks. From the moment we entered, we felt uncomfortable—the bar staff, all of whom were men, continuously stared at us, which was unsettling. Despite this, we decided to stay and proceeded with our meal. As the night went on, one of the men we came with became extremely drunk and began verbally abusing my friend. Shockingly, the restaurant staff did nothing; they simply stood by and watched, making us feel incredibly unsafe. If you’re a young woman, I would not recommend visiting this place. It felt deeply sexist, and we felt objectified the entire time.

The hotel is physically nice. The pool is wonderful and clean, the gym access is fantastic! The breakfast is adequate, not special. Problems encountered - no hot water. Mentioned this to the desk several times with no resolution. You are only provided with two bottles of water on check-in, nothing for subsequent days. The standard across most of Africa, frankly the whole world, is that when the tapwater is not potable, the hotels provide guests with at least two bottles of water per day per day. This is honestly a minimal expense for the hotel and relieves the hassle on guests to have to track down water on a regular basis. The Royalista Restaurant just outside the car gate, is a fantastic fusion restaurant with Indian Italian, and some Chinese food. It is incredibly reasonably priced, much more south than the restaurant just inside the gate for the hotel. The hotel was able to exchange currency at what I found to be a very reasonable rate. The beds were quite comfortable, the air conditioning worked well, and the rooms were clean and in good order. I asked for a tea kettle, which was brought right up. However, in this day and age the rooms should be pre-equipped with tea kettles and coffee or tea service for in room consumption, as is the standard in most 3-4 star hotels around the world. The Internet worked OK in the main building, and on the patio, but was virtually nonexistent and incredibly unreliable in the rooms. This poses a significant challenge if you are trying to do work. It is obvious by the shirts, that the staff is definitely being trained to up the level of customer service. By and large, I found most of the staff, especially housekeeping, to be very accommodating and helpful. The restaurant stated on several occasions that they were out of something, yet on two of those occasions, when asking a different person, items would miraculously appear. This hotel has the potential to be quite a place. The management and staff need to pay a bit more attention to detail, put the effort and money into a few of the amenities that are missing, and ensure a reliable supply of hot water.

This has potential to be a fantastic hotel. The grounds are beautiful, the rooms are spacious and well appointed. The pool area is lovely and the food is pretty good. The downfalls are no kettle in the room, we had 3 different rooms during our stay (we came and went a few times over 3 weeks) and none of the hairdryers worked. The key constantly needed rechipping and we got locked out at least 4 times. The ground staff ie: gardeners, pool guy, cleaners and car park men were all lovely but the front of house staff in reception and restaurant were miserable and unfriendly. Not very welcoming. There also needs to be someone who comes around for drinks orders at the pool, walking up to the main building in swimwear isn’t very comfortable and something most other hotels do anyway. But this said we would stay here again as it is by far the nicest hotel in the area now (we’ve been coming to the Gambia for years)

Having been let down by Bamboo Village who gave away our reserved rooms, a series of phone calls got us 18 rooms at short notice here. Best 'let down' of the trip, and will be using this great gem in future years. Recently renovated to a high standard, staff, facilities and food are excellent.

Just read review about this hotel run by criminals I also was tried to be scammed and room broken into just as I was checking out for my flight suddenly told me I owed 15000 dalasi which is huge amount for drinks food I never had at there horrible restaurant after arguing which was embarrassing told me oh no mistake give us 1000 dalasi which I did as my flight was going also last night there my room key mysteriously not working as they had tried to gain entry to take money passport this place only open 12 months should be closed down what got me the most is spent lots there was nice to all staff and this was my reward from this hotel will never stay again have influential uncle who has lived there long time I have let him know just remember thus what you reap in life you will surely sow mark uk yes you know me dont you