SENTIDO Paradise Beach Resort

Beach, hotels, road and not much else.

by pfsmalo

Ukunda is about 40 kms south of Mombasa and is part of the lengthy Diani beach area. Apart from souvenir shops, small superettes and bike hire places, all just outside the hotel compound gates, there doesn't really seem to be much to do in the actual village itself. Of course you can always take a safari trip up to Tsavo or a trip to Mombasa (which we did) but most just seem to soak up the sun and use the sea just in front of the hotels.

Ukunda - Diani Beach

by skatzcatz

"Diani Beach - decide for yourself"

Ukunda - played pool, helpful people, Lunga Lunga, shops everywhere, felt like 3rd world conditions.

Diani Beach - over-rated, german tourists, touts every 100 metres, seaweed, sharp rocks, fell in, hurt, monkeys stole my chips worth 20 ksh, if i had a choice i'd skip it...

Diani Beach

by sigg

"The Indian ocean Paradise"

Diani Beach is a Paradise.The colours of the indian ocean with the contrast of the snow-white beach is amazing.
This time i was volunteering on a project called Kaya Kinondo. I was marketing/booking turists at the hotels in pupose to make them take the "Kaya Kinondo" tour : A trip to see a little more about the culture and how the Digo tribe lived there many many years ago ,and also how people are living there today aswell. On this tour you also make a visit to a village , and a school. The local medicine-man or woman will also tell you more about different herbs and trees used for medicine.
This is a eco-tourism project, and the local people are benefitting economically from the visitors. It is a very nice way for the tourists to see a little more than just the luxorious hotels. This is moore real then any touristhotel-entertainment .

"Fishermen"

Theese are the local boats- the fishermen go out before sunrise - to get fish from outside the reef. some of them also take tourists on boat-trips during the day.

"Diani Reef"

At low tide- you can walk out to the reef, the high parts of the reef is above the see-level at low tide , and you can walk (with bathing-shoes) to see small ponds with starfish ,crabs,and small fish. it is wonderful to see all the life in this environment.
And it seems like the reef is growing despite all the tourists at Diani Beach. And it is no longer very common to see locals selling seashells and corals on the beach. Before this was a bigger problem - but PLEASE DO NOT BUY OR PICK SEASHELLS...... They are supposed to be where they are .

"Colobus"

At Diani the population of the Colobus Monkey luckily is increasing, The Colobus at the coast was/is an endangered spiecies. But now it is common to see it . This monkey feed only on Leaves and so on , so you never see a Colobus robbing food from the hotels and etc. They are calm and a bit shy , not as "Naughty" as the sykes and vervet monkeys.
It is now also common to see baboons in Diani , some years ago this was rare, but seems like the population of baboons also is increasing. Good news for the monkeys at Diani :-)

"Beautiful colours"

Truly paradise - look at the nice colors !
and the water is crystal clear at least november to february.
Could be moore seaweed and things other times of year , but this is just naturally and part of the eco-system.

"How to make coconut-milk"

On the "Kaya-Kinondo" trip you get to see a small village. You see how they live- and they show how to make coconut-milk used very much here at the coast to flavour different kind of food.

"Makongeni Primaryschool"

On the "Kaya Kinondo" trip you also visit one of the schools in this area.
In this class it is 110 pupils .... poor teacher .....

"Morning mood"

Diani Beach just before sunrise. Beautiful isn't it ?