Location

ATLANTIC HOTEL: Situated in the capital, Banjul.

General Description

The hotel is excellent with nice rooms, friendly staff and good service. Swimming pool, bars and restaurant. The beach is good, with nice soft white sand but the foreshore tends to be a little dark in colour and has a certain odour. This could be due to it being situated on the estuary of the River Gambia and not far from the shipping lanes into the port at Banjul. The Atlantic is Banjul’s only first-class hotel. An easy cool-weather walk from the town centre, opposite the Gambia’s Foreign Ministry on the old Marine Parade, the capital’s shadiest and most ‘colonial’ thoroughfare, which Tomkinson (Gambia book) tells us began as the protectorate’s Regent Place and in 1999 became Muammar al Gadhafi Avenue. The Atlantic has a spacious, landscaped frontage with a drive-in past security to the front doors. To the right are a parking space and a small taxi park

Accommodation

The 200 rooms and 4 suites occupy 3 wings looking like a letter Y from the air

Amenities & Services

The Hotel boasts its own clinic, a satellite TV room and 3 pool tables, there are volleyball, croquet, squash and floodlit tennis courts There is a good sized kidney-shaped pool, with sun loungers around it, a pool bar and thatched umbrellas beneath some tall palms. Snacks are served here and at seats outside and above the beach

Dining

Bar and ‘High life’ al a carte restaurant. At the end are the Tropicana Patio and the Katcha Dula Bar and the ‘Bantaba’ restaurant, which has an open-air entertainment area beside

Activities & Facilities

Clive Barlow, the writer of the excellent ‘Birds of the Gambia’ has created the ‘Atlantic Bird Garden’ which has attracted 155 bird species and even rare forest varieties have started breeding here. It is also his base since 1990 and houses the offices of his ‘Gambia Bird-watchers Ltd