Royal Saly

Pros +

• The staff was awful
• - Amazing food (special bravo to the pastry chef), nice variety of really everything - Super nice and humble staff (especially Adama and Fary) - Perfect location next to shops, superb beach, breathtaking garden/paths - Complementary paddle boarding - Clean pools, awesome songs on, cool little playground - Great, non-expensive massage - Quality artisanal goodies for sale
• OK, so overall, the visit was quite pleasant. The hotel is like a little village, with brightly painted buildings, a decent sized swimming pool with lounge deck, and open access to the beach and sea, which was fairly well kept (just a few cigarette butts here and there). The wifi was great and worked throughout the property. The landscaping, trees, and flowers are beautiful. Most of the staff were very pleasant and easy to work with speaking French. The room itself was large, and AC and hot water worked great. The first tour that the staff booked for me - to the nearby Bandia Reserve to see animals - was excellent, timely, well-priced, and well-managed.

Cons -

• ANIMATION - guy announces at 10am in the microphone that within an hour there is aquagym, nothing happened - no information sheet/board to be found on any activity - mini club was supposed to be open both in the mornings and afternoons, nobody to be found during afternoons - djembe at 23:00 wasnt appreciated RECEPTION - information provided was really insufficient, we discovered everything on our own or by asking specifically
• The biggest reason for my rating is the disappointing and fraudulent tour I took with their driver Khalipha, who overcharged me and kept changing the price of the tour I booked during the tour itself. He kept adding significantly extra to the price, and lied about the price that we had agreed to the day before. He lied about the price of extra stops on the excursions, for which I knew the price because either they were posted on the buildings or explained on the internet. For one stop he charged a ridiculous $75US extra, and he wouldn't explain the price until after we had gone - this was very confusing because we had agreed to the itinerary beforehand. He tried to arrange two additional excursions that would have cost about $100 more on the day of, so I had to decline. I had no recourse and no cell service, and in some places that were more remote, I had no idea where I could find a taxi, so I felt trapped. On the way back, I had booked his service to the airport and he had the nerve to ask me to pay half up front six hours in advance... which means if he ended up not showing up to bring me to the airport, I would be out half my remaining funds. A thief with a smile on his face. Terrible. The hotel food was not that good - nothing was seasoned very well. There was an abundance of items available for most meals, but none were well-cooked. The fish was dry, the chicken was dry, the omelets tasted a bit rancid, and the coffee was awful, and a lot of the time, the dishes had no flavor at all. My room also had a broken table in it that if I had brought children, I would be very upset and request to move rooms because there was a danger of falling into the open shards of glass that were not secured or taped up in any way. Sorry to say, the whole place looks really nice at first glance, but I would recommend paying a little bit more to stay elsewhere and feel more secure that things are run better.