Name: Crystal Bay Resort
Address: Jacaranda Road, Watamu, Watamu, Watamu, 00400, Kenya
Rating: 9

24-hour reception

Smoke-free property

Ticket assistance

Garden

Terrace

No elevators

General

Laundry

Safe-deposit box

Concierge services

Dry-cleaning

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Breakfast

Snack bar

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Airport transportation

Transfer

Tour assistance

Tourist services

Library

Recreation

Free parking

Parking

Meeting and presentation facilities

Conference Hall

Business

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Temperature control for staff

Personal protection equipment for staff

Extra decontamination measures

Temperature control for guests

Personal protection equipment for guests

Additional measures against COVID-19

Health and Safety Measures

Location

At the resort

Watamu Beach

Malindi Airport

Vipingo Airport

Crystal Bay Resort

Watamu

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

20-beds

21-beds

22-beds

23-beds

24-beds

25-beds

26-beds

27-beds

28-beds

29-beds

3-beds

30-beds

31-beds

32-beds

33-beds

34-beds

35-beds

36-beds

37-beds

38-beds

39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

Crystal Bay is an affordable option in Watamu, and it is on a nice bay with a nice beach. I had challenges booking directly, as response was slow and for two days I wasn’t confident my stay was confirmed (a challenge when you also need to book flights).  The accommodations are fine and pool area is decent. We did bed and breakfast and the breakfast was ok but not great (surprisingly poor coffee for a resort catering to Italians). There are some very good restaurants nearby or within a short Tuk Tuk ride for lunch and dinner.

 The main challenge here is in the catering to Italians. The vast majority of guests were Italian (there’s an Italian tour office in the lobby), and I had read reviews saying the staff favoured the Italian guests. This does seem to be true, unfortunately. In particular, the Italian guests put their towels out early in the morning to claim all of the lounge chairs (by 8am there were towels covering the beach loungers with not a guest in sight). The staff also deferr to them even if they had claimed more than one for themselves (one in the shade, one in the sun), and after not helping another paying guest fund a suitable spot. So if you stay here, I guess you’ll need to be aggressive about claiming loungers yourself. Buona fortuna :|

Great for Italians, maybe

This place has pros and cons of course and here they are:

✅ PROS:
- amazing location and views of Watamu, dream like when you go down the stairs to the beach
- village entertainment staff was superb, very funny and always trying to include everyone in the activities, big up for Bea, Ciccio and Antonio!
- food by the chef Francesco was always excellent and great healthy variety offered
- cleaning of the room always done properly

❌ CONS:
- the resort itself needs a deep restyling starting from the rooms to end with facilities for disabled people
- electricity sockets outdated
- no phone line in the room to contact reception
- towels were old (leaving fluff)
- avoid the ‘beach boys’ at all costs

Pros & Cons

Only Italians are welcome on this hotel. Don't go on this hotel if you are not Italian. Kenyans staff are very nice but they can't help you too much because the management or entertainment people are too "superior to everyone". Just avoid this hotel!!


If you are not Italian, don't pay to this hotel!

The resort is “resurrecting”  from the COVID closure of the past two years and it did offer great value with the unmatched ocean views. 

The rooms are still gorgeous ( I loved the private balcony’s’)  although the bathroom could use some updating for a “resort” but the place makes up for  that mishap with cleanliness and great service. It seems like everywhere you turn there is a someone  to attend to you. 

On the down side, the  resort is running only one breakfast restaurant . The breakfast meals needs some spruce up,  after 3 days one tires of eating the same thing..  

On the minus side there  is no room service, slippers and kettle in the room. For dinner we had to make do with the adjacent Watamu restaurant ( more on the  separate review of restaurant)  

For a resort closed for “the COVID years” they are bouncing back really well. Proximity to beach , the silence and two swimming pools make for great relaxation!! 

Can’t wait to go back when it’s fully vibrant or even visit one of the sister resorts as had originally planned  ( 7 islands or Mawe Zuri)

Excellent for leisure.

Beautiful Hotel with amazing service… I really enjoyed my stay at this splendid beach resort. The rooms were clean and the staff was very kind and helpful. I would definitely recommend crystal bay as a vacation spot and visit again soon. Best resort in watamu

A splendid beach resort in watamu

My first vacation in watamu ended up in tears during my first morning at the resort. I am so traumatised I can't bring myself to visit watamu anytime soon. The staff did not have our rooms ready until 5pm and wanted to leave the dirty linensfrom the previous tenants in the bathroom until the following morning when they could do the laundry. I explained how i would not allow that with the covid situation and they finally understood and took away the dirty linens. The owner is a horrible condescending human being, shouting, talked down on my family because of skin colour, pointing fingers, and refused to give us a refund after literally driving us out of there after the first night. The manager knows how unreasonable the owners can be but he can't do much. 
 My msg to the owner : vaf*nc*lo.

Racist experience

Ohh but where do I begin😫😫. There was no one to receive us, take our temperature, sanitise nor usher us in. What we thought would be lunch made at the hotel, turned out to be take out from a nearby restaurant (pizza was half burnt and horrible to the palate). The curtains in the room had stains and some of the windows could not close. My friends and I made the best of the one night we stayed there but quickly changed our reservation for the 2nd night. The staff seemed nice but some really need to work on their customer service.

Management really needs to work on the grounds and the general ambience of the place. We were truly disappointed by what we saw.

Horrible stay

It was an unplanned rendezvous for 1 night... we just called Crystal Bay and got a good reasonable rate for B&B and booked on the phone.
The entrance to Crystal Bay is very welcoming with abundance of color of all the bougainvillea in full bloom.
The hotel is well laid out with villa like structures  and each villa having 2 to 3 rooms...near the main pool.
There are twin rooms on the top floor with a common veranda and balcony overlooking the sea and another small swimming pool.
We loved this top floor room as we had the lovely view and also the access to the smaller pool which was more private and easier access to the beach too.
The staff are friendly. The breakfast basic. The rooms and baths are average but function well and overall comfortable.
The linen and the veranda furniture and materials are a bit dated however in trying times it's difficult to maintain everything.
I would still visit again.

Random  Visit

I wish I were writing a better review because the staff is really wonderful. This review really is for the management/administration of this resort. During our stay we found out that "Papa remo", " 7 Island resort" and this one are owned by the same company and if that is accurate they really have neglected this one severely. The grounds look like they have not been tended to in quite some time. 

Only breakfast is made available and very limited on the food that is offered. The mosquito nets for the 2 beds had holes throughout. The beds are uncomfortable from the mattress to the pillows and sheets. The towels feel like sand paper and extremely old. To describe the bathroom you'd have to see it to understand the awful state it was in. My family and I even found 2 coackroaches in it.

The location of this property is great but like anywhere else on the Kenyan coast the beach Boys do not leave you alone one second to let you walk peacefully on the beach. This property has so much potential to be great like I imagine it once was.

Forgotten hotel

The location is amazing and the management is also very friendly. Good value for money and the breakfast was good with a variety of dishes. Beautiful and clean rooms/villas. I’d totally recommend the beach rooms.

Crystal Bay Resort

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