If you ever find yourself heading to Watamu or are looking for a reason to visit the coast of Kenya, here it is!

I know it’s very cliché to call a place you visit during a holiday ‘paradise.’

And yes I called The Mansion Resort in Ubud, Bali paradise, as well as the private villa I stayed at during my time in Seminyak, and perhaps even the entire island of Gili Trawangan was also referred to as paradise at some point, so maybe I have over used the word recently but trust me when I say Medina Palms is paradise. In fact it is an absolute slice of utopia, Heaven on Earth, and quite possibly one of my favourite East African retreats to date!

You may know already that from the end of May I spent six weeks in my second home, Kenya, visiting my sister {Courtney}, brother-in-law {Asjad} and absolutely gorgeous new born nephew {Hamza}.

Towards the end of my trip, we decided to take Hamza on his very first family holiday. The chosen destination: Watamu.

Despite having lived in Kenya for eight years I had actually never ventured as far north during my trips to the coast before, so this was also a first for me. However, Courtney and Asjad had been to Watamu on a number of occasions, and are quite the regulars to Medina Palms so I trusted their judgement on the chosen accomodation.

A brief 50 minute flight from Nairobi will get you to Malindi airport along the coast and from there it’s approximately a 20 – 30 minute drive to the hotel. We arranged transport with the hotel, but it would be just as easy to organise a local taxi to pick you up instead if you’d prefer.

From the moment we drove through the entrance and dropped at the front door of our penthouse suite I knew we were in for a treat.

As much as I would love to say that I regularly live the penthouse lifestyle on holidays, don’t be mistaken, this was a sweet upgrade that Courtney had some how managed to talk her way into; but hey I’m not complaining!

The hotel is situated in a prime beach front location, with a number of villas and rooms available.

Our particular suite was bam smack in the middle of the resort, in terms of distance from the beach and from the main road; it was perfect and the views weren’t too shabby either!

Our penthouse suite had two rooms both with ensuites and walk in robes, a fully equipped kitchen, dinning area downstairs, and upstairs boasted an open living room, an additional outdoor dinning area, hot tub and lounge chairs to soak up the sun.

The little decorations such as the fresh frangipanis on the walls or the neatly arranged bathroom supplies just topped off the relaxing vibe of the suite.

Although we were originally booked in to stay only two nights, we ended up extending our stay only a couple of hours before we were due to fly back to Nairobi; possibly one of the best decisions we made.

It would be so easy to just spend the entire holiday lounging around your suite, and that’s totally acceptable if that’s what you want to do.

But it would also be incredibly silly not to make use of at least one of the numerous pools that run down the middle of the resort. {Note: the very last pool seen in the photo below is an adults only pool; but we took Hamza to it and, granted we were the only ones using it at the time, no one complained}

To be fair though, he wasn’t very interested in swimming and instead slept for most of the time ↓

Aside from the amazing views and chance to cool down from the humidity and heat that is associated with the Kenyan coast, the infinity pool in particular makes for a great photo op.

 

The numerous pools aren’t the only thing on offer though, Medina Palms’ facilities also include an on-site spa, fitness studio, water sports equipment for hire, a boutique, and several dinning locations and bars.

The Sakina Ocean Spa is a great place to unwind with a massage or treat yourself to some beauty pampering of a facial, mani or pedi.

I treated myself to a hydrating manicure while Courtney pampered her feet with a pedi. I’d never had a mani quite like this one, aside from the usual elements that came with a manicure the hydrating option added a wrap {my hands and up to my elbows were covered in moisturiser before being wrapped with plastic and topped with hot towels}. I must say though, my skin felt smooth and more hydrated than ever before, and all it cost me was 1800/= {approximately AU$20, which is an absolute bargain compared to the cost of getting a mani in Australia}.

View the other menu options from the spa here.

Being a beach front resort, taking a stroll along the beach is easily possible. However, when planning your beach walk remember to keep in mind the times of high and low tide as this will impact whether you’re able to walk very far.

Most importantly though, a super duper holiday is not complete without some amazingly yummy food to go with it; the Amandina restaurant {Medina Palms’ onsite restaurant} was easily one of the top features to the resort.

It was so amazing that I’m not even going to talk about it in this post because it deserves its very own post dedicated to all the dishes I tried and tested for you, which you can read here.