Lily Palm Resort ★★★★

Breakfast was good. The hotel is situated near the beach. The hotel has two swimming pools. One pool in the beach area is deep, you can dive. Hotel has its own diving center, From 17:00 to 18:00 free tea and coffee with cookies.

It is a nice place, with nice outside, nice pool and restaurant; You can go around the place to walk easily. Nice bed as well. Nice local restaurant at 15 minutes by walk is Swahili café (both Kenyan and international food with nice real fresh juice) - really friendly. Otherwise, it will be mostly italian restaurant around. I would higly recommand the dive experiences with James and Habart : they are amazing instructors and guide, really safe and lovely compagny to be around !

The personnal is really lovely but sometimes a bit too much. For breakfast : nice choice but the coffee is really bad (instant coffee... in Kenya ?!) and again the personnal is really lovely but you had no time to finish your plate or to chew that they want to take it away... it was a bit exhausting. The music at 10 am... It was humide in my room, and can be with odors sometimes. Beach boys...

So to start. The resort itself looks beautiful. The staff is amazing and really friendly, the swimming pools are clean and also beautiful and we had an good time at the resort. The massages where amazing and the location next to the beach was also pretty nice. And the View on the beach and ocean was truly spectacular. good Cocktails at the bar <3

The rooms are pretty old and need a true makeover. I mean it is at least 20-30 years old. We had multiple power outages every day. Sometimes 4-5 times a day. I’m not sure if this is a energy company problem or a generator problem. Now we go to the main issue in my opinion. I’m a headchef of a resort myself and i was really disappointed with the food during my stay at Lily Palm. Especially for the price we paid for 5 days. So the food is average to bad. You get everything buffet style. You get a buffet like salad bar, appetizer, bread, soup Pasta dish, main courses and dessert and fruits. For me personally the food is truly below par. And i have a feeling this is not the fault of the kitchen staff or the headchef. As a Headchef myself i know how difficult it is to manage costs and prices and that management wants to save every penny they can save. And in my honest opinion, I don’t believe it is the fault of the headchef or the kitchen staff. I truly believe the food is below average/bad because management is trying to save every shilling they can. And this is not only seen at the food. When we look at the rooms, the main decor, the feel of the resort. It is clear there is no penny invested in the resort itself. Then the non resort related issues. While Watamu is beautiful and the beach is beautiful there are people everywhere who want to sell you something. Worse part is that they don’t leave you alone. At some point me and my friend were so oncomfortabel that i gave them money and asked them to leave us alone. They actually started stalking us till i said i was calling security. This also happened on the street. The same people started to harass us till a point where they started fighting with each other over who was helping us. We felt so uncomfortable that we ran back to the resort and stayed there the rest of the day. Now this is not the fault of Lili palm or other resorts but it is something to keep in mind.

The real stars of this Hotel is the staff, especially at breakfast and dinner service, the girl in charge of the operation is hospitality gold, exceptionally good at her job, in fact all the serving/waitering staff were great I liked the turn down service where they sprayed the room with mosquito repellant, not a single bite in three days :) Dinner was good but they need to get their bain marie's fired up a bit more. breakfast could be improved.

Room a bit outdated, good quality solid mahogany furniture that's seen it's day , that said it could be upscaled and given a new lease of life with some sandpaper and good quality furniture paint. Lost water pressure second and third days

The staff was extremely friendly and helpful, whenever I had a question or an issue, they were ready to answer or help! The room was very clean, and I especially appreciated that they sprayed insect repellent on key spots of the room every evening. There are several eating and drinking options on-site, and the massage was incredible. The pools were great with various depths.

The room I stayed in have seen better days and could use a bit of a renovation, but the cleanliness of it, the other amenities and the amazing staff made up for it overall. Other things like the slight saltiness of the water in the shower did not take me by surprise as a lot of previous reviews have featured it, so I was expecting it.

Location good. More range of cereals would have been welcome.

The place is very beautiful! The staff are quite friendly.

The beach side area is a nuisance with all the beach boys haggling us for things. We really thought it would have a private or at least secure beach. We didn’t get to enjoy the beach at all as every time we tried going a whole group of random people would come at us ‘selling’ staff and when we decline they would insult us.

This place has the nicest and kindest staff I have met anywhere I have travelled. From the manager and staff at reception to the waiters at the dining area, to the staff at the ala carte restaurants next to the beach - all very nice.

The resort is a bit dated, needs some refresh.

The property is well located and with easy access to the beach. The staff is wonderful and specially Jane who is in charge of the hotel restaurant and is a great host. The Mapango restaurant which is a separate entity has great food and amazing pizza. The majority of the guests are Italian. Actually the region is highly frequented by Italians so do not be surprised by all the Italian names of restaurants and services. I am giving this property a 7 because it is a bit let down, furniture is old, external wall paint is peeling of and some areas covered by green humidity. The rooms are ok, beds are comfortable and the bathrooms are fine as well. It just needs a retouch to make it look that it is being taken care of. The hotel proposes services and activities. They have a tour operator in the hotel in case you are interested in organising a safari to Tsavo east national park. One thing which is extremely annoying is all the people on the beach constantly trying to sell you boat rides, diving, fishing etc. they will tell you they are the owners of the boats or restaurants, but it is not true and actually take a big cut out the excursion that you buy. The best way to get rid of them is telling them that you have already done an excursion. If they can’t sell you something they will then ask you for money to eat or because they say they clean the beaches on the weekends. It’s totally rubbish and all they are trying is to get some money from the tourist. For activities it is better to contact the local service providers. If you want to do a boat ride to Coral reef or Diana creek, best is to go to the national marine park entry where all the boats leave for the excursions. One last thing, you have to negotiate everything. Just divide by three any offer to start negotiating. It is common practice in the region.

The furniture and building are old and need some refurbishing.

The location with direct access to the beach

Work going on