An impromptu Gambia retreat that really worth it. You know once in a while, gals just gotta take a breather from the hustle and bustle of Lagos Living.
A couple of my dearest gal pals 😉 called me up and suggested an impromptu Gambia retreat in Coco Ocean Resort and Spa. It was a bit last minute, but I was going stir crazy and with the cost of the room split between 3 gals, it was not a bad deal.
Hotel: $200/night (it was originally $300, but we were able to haggle the price down a bit) Breakfast included March 23 – 29th 2014
We got a beach front villa and it was perfect. We were in serious lazy mode and did not bother to check out the Gambia, so I can’t really say anything about the culture.
I spent more of my days getting room service and getting pampered at the spa. The thai massage was a bit extreme for me (I usually love thai massages too) but I found heaven in the swedish massage, the masseuse also happened to be a Swedish lady visiting family in Gambia, so that even made it feel more authentic.
I need to also thank the hotel for their patience! When we got to the hotel, we found out that Gambia primarily uses Visa cards. Even though GtBank seemed to be pretty big in Gambia, our GtBank mastercards were mostly useless and I forgot to pack my Fidelity VISA card with me. Instead, all I had was my Mastercard and American Express. It was a bit stressful trying sort everything out, but we were able to get someone to wire the money to the hotel on the next working day (hallelujah! I no fit chop gbese). Luckily, because I have a GtBank Platinum Mastercard (for some weird reason, the normal orange cards do not have the number embossed thus making it impossible to using it in Gambia. Go figure) we were able to have the bank unblock it and allow us to pay for our extra curricular spa + room service activities.
Lesson Learned:
Always travel with 3 different types of card, at least a VISA and Mastercard.
Flight: Arik NGN 99994.00 round trip (this was a bit impromptu, I booked this 2 days before the flight date, so it may be cheaper if booked earlier)
I don’t know if there are other airlines that go this route, but flying Arik to Gambia was serious punishment. Going there, we were delayed for about 2-3 hours at the airport in Lagos because the plane was late. Coming back was even worse, my body was in a pretty relaxed state upon leaving the resort, but waiting on an uncomfortable chair for hours in an airport buzzing with mosquitoes and a/c on serious blast threw a serious wrench in our relaxing trip.
Btw, Coco Ocean’s website seriously needs to be upgraded, for such a fancy place, the website almost discouraged me. Thankfully in 2019, the advise seems to have been taken.
