The Smiling Coast-most definately-I know where I want to be! (Gambia)

Member Name: munchkin-bitch

Product:	Gambia
Date:	07/03/08 (183 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: friendly people, amazing experiences, lovely country, monkies!!

Disadvantages: burnt skin! having to leave, traders very pushy

I actually ended up going to The Gambia after postponing my wedding, 4 years ago this month. One of the things we had given a deposit on was our honeymoon, to Cuba, but eventually we decided to postpone it for a year or so, as the stress was too much and all the venues we looked at were booked on the date we had planned.

We had paid around £250 deposit with Travel Choice, and luckily because it was a premium booking we were able to change our destination to a cheaper one. When looking at the options we decided on Gambia as it was so cheap and hot in March, which was when we were going away.
The trip cost us £330 per person for a week self catering in a hotel close to the capital, Banjul.

Gambia has quite a few sight spots, for example where they filmed 'Roots', Charlie the Crocodile you can touch and monkies everywhere that love to be fed! The people on the whole are really friendly-it's known as the Smiling Coast for a reason, and you may get a few people giving you their address in the hope that you'll write to them when you go back home! Everywhere is definately a bit of a culture shock-they have little huts with tin roofs, or palm leaf roofs, and houses are mostly single storey, with several people living in one room-our tour guide shared a double mattress with 2 of his brothers in a room not much bigger than the mattress.

About my experience. Well the flight out there took 5.5 hours, of which i was hyserical with fear at the start of (flying phobia, but try and fly anyway!)
We paid £15 each extra to guarantee the emergency exit seats, as my husband is 6 foot 5, so needed the extra leg room. We were lucky we did as the flight attendants sat in pull down seats facing us on takeoff and explained all the noises to me to calm me down a bit!

On arrival i was a bit unsure what we'd let ourselves in for, as you are faced with a wire fence, behind which a crowd of people are standing, begging. It was a bit of a shock, and I immediately felt quite ashamed to be there.

We then boarded the coach to our hotel and things looked up from that point.
The hotel we stayed at had basic facilities but was nicely furnished, obviously in African style.

The holiday was from Thomas Cook, and we were invited to a meet and greet session, which i wasn't that impressed by. The main reason was that I felt that they were trying to use scare tactics to get us to book the overpriced trips they had on offer. We were immediately told DO NOT book the travel guides that stand outside the hotel, as they could be 'dangerous', and that the only times we should go out should be on one of Thomas Cook's trips.

This was appalling in my opinion, as the guides that stand outside the hotel depend on getting custom to pay their bills, they are authorised by the hotels and the Gambian authorities too. (They wear designated shirts to be easily identifiable).

After coming away from the meet and greet-and booking one trip, I started to chat to another guest at the hotel, who was leaving the next morning. He and his wife told me that they had used a local tour guide their whole holiday and had been given some great experiences. He introduced me to the guide he had been using, and we decided to book him for the next day.

We booked him to take us out to the capital and the markets,
and we also hired a taxi, one the guide knew a little.

At the market he asked us what WE would like to do, and said just let him know when we wanted to do something else.
The market traders can get a little much, trying to sell you things, but when one wouldnt take no for an answer, our guide said something to him and he left us alone. Our guide insisted on carrying our carvings after we bought them, even though we really didnt want him to-he said it was his job to ensure we had the best experience we could get.

As the week went on, we became good friends with our guide, Will and our taxi driver Raymond, and were appalled by some of the things they told us. They said that usually they have to wait in the taxi whenever they take people out, until the people come back, so they can take them home again. For example, if you used the taxi to go for a meal, they have to wait outside for you to eat and then they'll take you back. Also, if you think the tour guide hasn't done a good job, you don't have to pay them-needless to say we paid them everytime, I couldn't be so cold, and they became friends more than anything.

Bearing in mind that food and drink was so cheap (and that they earnt very little), we invited them into the cafes and bought them lunch, as otherwise they wouldnt eat all day. We invited them into places such as the crocodile park-the taxi driver had never been in, only ever sat outside, and we learnt so much in doing so too. They would tell us the names of trees and what they use them for, and took us to places that we wouldn't have visited using Thomas Cook. We taught Raymond how to play pool too, as he'd never played, and they took us to meet the locals, and we gave out sweets and textbooks to the children there.

The one trip we did with Thomas Cook was a day trip to Senegal, which was ok, but in hindsight we wish we had taken Will and Raymond, as we felt a little bit like sheep being herded from place to place-being told you have 10 minutes and then you've got to move on, and getting very little service in comparisson from the tour leader.

Near the end of the week, Will invited us to his sister's house for a meal as a thank you for how much we had been paying him-apparently it was alot more than their usual rates, but it was still not alot really. We were served a traditional rice and chicken dish, which was very tasty, and were introduced to his family.

Our taxi driver friend asked us if we'd like to see the house he was building, and we met his dad too. He was really proud to have saved enough to buy his land, and had nearly finished his house. He was 30, but wasn't allowed to marry until he could provide a home for his own family first.

We learnt alot about their culture and were really sad to say goodbye to them at the end of our holiday.

-Just as an afterthought, don't forget the high factor sunscreen, as when we went my skin turned lobster red in March, even with regular sun screen. As it's by the coast there's always a bit of a breeze, but its definately hot hot hot!!


We still write to Raymond at times-he married 2 years ago now, and Will came to England and stayed a few days with us, a few months after we came back-his brother was studying in London, so he paid Will's flights and put him up for a while. Will didnt really like England that much and was a bit homesick, but it was still really nice to show him round our homeplaces in return. It was definately a trip that we'll remember the rest of our lives.

Summary: hire a local tourguide to get the real experience