Not just Monkeys in The Gambia
Our trip to The Gambia
For many of my clients, winter sun usually means the familiar favourites: the Canaries, the Caribbean or perhaps a classic city and beach combination. For us, it was meant to be Morocco this year. But with our first grandchild due in February and a real need to recharge before this new chapter in our lives, we brought our plans forward and chose something a little different: a November escape to The Gambia. What we discovered was a destination that felt at once warm, welcoming and wonderfully authentic. From our stay at Ngala Lodge to private transfers, local culinary experiences, river kayaking and encounters with schools, markets and wildlife, this was a holiday that surprised us in all the best ways. In this blog, I want to share our personal experience of The Gambia, along with some honest insights that I hope will help you decide whether it might be the right winter-sun destination for you or for your clients.
We had initially planned on a trip to Morocco, we normally
travel in February but with the arrival of our first grandchild due in February
and we needed a holiday, we decided to go in November. Using a supplier I have
used before, we went for accommodation exclusive to the supplier. Ngala Lodge
is by Gambian standards a 5* resort. We flew from Manchester but as we prefer
to go the day before our flight, booked ourselves into a hotel near the
airport. Personally, it makes sense and I would always recommend it to my
clients, it takes the stress out of the journey, and you can relax once in the
hotel.
Getting up the next morning having breakfast and making your way to departures helps with my anxiety levels! The flight was from the new Terminal 2 via TUI. Although the Terminal was brand new our gate gangway was broke, which meant we boarded in the rain on the pan, well it was Manchester! We then had a 6-hour flight, as it was a scheduled TUI flight, we had no in-flight entertainment and everything had to be paid for, Madeleine was horrified. She has been spoilt on the last couple of trips with blankets and pillows and complimentary drinks and meals. We landed in Banjul in the dark, so we didn't get to view the journey to our hotel very clearly. We were met by our rep and escorted to our private transfer, I did feel a little special getting to our transport and it only being for us, while the other passengers were headed onto a big coach!
On our journey to the resort, we found out The Gambia is 90% Muslim and 10% Christian. It has a population of approximately 3 million. The local currency is called the Dalassi and while we were there it was 95D to £1, so almost 100D to the pound. When we arrived at our hotel we were shown to our room by a member of the security team, he explained how his wife offers a culinary experience. We said we would consider it, after we had spoken to the rep the following day. We spoke to the Rep and found he was offering a family culinary experience for £100 per couple. I spoke to the security guard, who offered me a family experience for £40, including pick up and drop off. We had a truly authentic experience, with memories of a lovely family.
We also had 2 other excursions; one was a 6 in 1 trip which involved several visits to local places of interest:
· The crocodile pit – up close and personable, stroking a crocodile
· An African museum explaining about The Gambian tribes and colonialisation of the region.
· A local attraction where the local monkeys tried to get a free feed!
· A local school – The Head of the school asked if we could provide money towards helping the school with stationary etc. The group had already bought some items at the Crocodile pit, which we then donated to the school. It was fun talking to the children, all excitable until you engaged them and then they became shy children.
· The fish market where the fishermen land their catches on the beach and then the fish are sold or smoked in the local smoke houses.
· A local craft market, which had some lovely African artifacts. Most of them too big for us to buy. We did buy an African Mask as our reminder from another market. We had seen it on our first day exploring but felt it was too early to buy. We had told the owner we would return; he was surprised when we returned several days later to buy it!
The other excursion was kayaking down The Gambian River, the last time Madeleine and I had kayaked it nearly ended in divorced and we weren’t even married! So when we arrived and they offered us someone to row for us, we snapped their hand off. We had a nice man help us navigate the river, he explained the different birds we saw along the river. The Gambia is home to approximately 600 species of birds, we are not ornithologist normally but seeing such a variety of species made us appreciate them even more.
The Pro’s of The Gambia as a holiday, considering it’s 90% Muslim country, Madeleine was able to walk down the road in strappy tops and shorts. We went to several restaurants, cafes and bars and never had an issue in asking for a beer. We often walked to the restaurant from our hotel and felt safe. The areas we went too, we never saw any chain restaurants etc. and a very liberal society and everyone spoke English. The Con’s this is Africa and people are poorer than the tourist’s. Be prepared for requests for money or to buy an item of food. We were asked to buy a man a loaf of bread, when I explained if I bought for him I would have to buy for everyone and I am not a rich man! He left us alone as long as you are firm but fair the locals will leave you alone, although they might chance it a little bit.
As a holiday I would recommend The Gambia as a destination, it’s relatively safe, liberal and nice and warm in November and December.