Neptune Paradise Beach Resort and Spa

We stayed at six different places during our stay in Kenya and had no issues anywhere else but standards at Neptune Paradise are poor. Firstly, the reception was rather frosty. It was as if they hadn’t expected us or that we were a nuisance. This is particularly noticeable as it was low-season; the resort was not busy. After some time we were brought a welcome drink and shown to our room. We were told to use the safe but the safe had been left in the locked open position so we couldn’t close or reset it. We tried to call reception but the phone also didn’t work. We then walked to reception and were told someone was coming to sort the issues. After 25 minutes, no one had arrived so we had to walk back to reception again who also didn’t know where the guy was. The safe was then sorted but he said he didn’t deal with phones. At this point we had wasted over an hour so just left it. We returned later to find it had been sorted. The staff work hard but are clearly unhappy. Again, everywhere else we had stayed, staff talked about how the hotel looked after them or how many years service they had - staff at Neptune Paradise definitely don’t appear to want to be there. The food is ok, the buffet offers a range of options. We also had a meal at the Indian and Italian à la carte restaurants. The Indian was very nice but very rushed, the Italian was the best meal we had. Unfortunately, we both had upset stomachs during our stay, again, we did not experience this anywhere else in Kenya. On one day, our room still hadn’t been serviced at 2.30pm so we ran out of water in our room and asked for some more bottles but this was only sorted once a manager stepped in and directed staff to replenish them. We also went to the Neptune bar one morning to re-fill our water bottles to find the cooler hadn’t been replaced. Service is very slow. Sometimes you may order a drink with your lunch and it won’t arrive until you have finished your meal or even at all! We gave up ordering drinks with our meals and just took our water bottles with us. There was also a towel replacement area which we only used once (we try to be environmentally friendly and keep our towels) that opens at 9am. However, at 9.25am we were back at reception asking for a towel - they wouldn’t give us one but said they would call the guy! Lastly, after finding out how expensive a late checkout was, we said we would just use their shower room facilities. (Strangely, this was exactly the same room as ours so then another room had to be cleaned) We shouldn’t have been surprised to turn up to a shower room that had no towels - back to reception again! If you want basic, go in low-season, and use it as a base, if you’re going out to other places. There are some lovely staff like Ibrahim and Hassan who worked at the bars and offer good service but don’t have high expectations.

The facilities are excellent, the rooms are spacious clean and comfortable. The pool was warm and a good size with a swim up bar. The restaurants and bar were nice with good service. The food was generally good, sometimes excellent and occasionally poor. The breakfast was lacking in variety The reception was helpful except once recommending that I take a hotel taxi to a location which was unnecessary and expensive since tuktuks are much cheaper. Overall a good and enjoyable holiday.