The ultimate holiday experience (Lamu)

Member Name: half_lep

Product:	Lamu
Date:	18/09/08 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fresh food, unbelievably relaxing, wonderfully welcoming

Disadvantages: Speed boats and tiny planes can't be avoided

We stayed on lamu at the start of our honeymoon, and I've never known of any place so relaxing!
We visited in the cooler season (about 30 degrees C!) and it was so fabulously quiet as a result. We stayed initially at Kinzingo - a group of 8 thatched huts built on the beach, run by ex-coffee farmers Mary Jo and Louis. During our stay at least half of the huts were empty.
You can only travel there by speed boat, and are greeted by the most amazing site of hundreds of crabs running away across the dunes as your boat approaches.
Meals are taken in the main hut and consist of whatever local fish/meat/veg are available that day. The bar is also in here, where the local staff knock up the most delicious cocktails. Afternoon tea is delivered to your hut, and before dusk the bed is turned down and mosquito nets lowered. Remember to take everything you need with you - you can get bottles of water, but for anything else you will need to wait until Mary Jo is taking a trip to the mainland, when she will gladly pick up any toiletry supplies you need. (Think of the film 'The Beach'!)
Days are spent laying in your hammock, walking on the beach, sitting in the bar, or taking trips with the resort staff - we went to a local village where we were shown round the local school and doctors surgery, and followed through the streets by childern shouting Jambo. We also were lucky enough to see some turtles accidentally caught by fishermen being recorded and released - the resort partakes in a turtle release program. It is also possible to book dhow boat trips and, in the right season, to go swimming with dolphins.
I didn't want to leave.
When we did, we headed by boat to the other side of the island for a one night stay at the waterfront Peponi hotel in the town of Shela. This is a lot more touristy - with masai people walking the beach selling trinkets, and locals touting for your boat trip custom. The hotel itself though is fabulously comfortable, the bed was even bigger than the six foot one at Kizingo, and we were greeted by chilled bubbly on our veranda which looked out over the water. Again, here we were fabulously lucky to learn of a nearby turtles nest which was ready to hatch, and so we joined an early morning trip down the coast, through the mangroves, to see the stunning event. Trip fees are used to pay local (ex-) turtle poachers to guard the nests and see the tiny turtles safely into the sea.
From here we travelled back to the 'airfield' on the mainland, to catch our tiny plane back to the city and on to our safari.
Once in a lfetime trip. Absolutely impossible to match the experience.

Summary: Choose either a town location or beach resort, or combine the two