Coconut Residence

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The original and at the moment, still the best, in terms of luxury in The Gambia. (The new boy on the 5 star block, the Sheraton, currently experiencing teething issues by all accounts.)
The Coconut Residence hotel is small but packs a powerful punch when it comes to looking after it's guests.
There are just a few rooms (or suites as the hotel calls them) - all of them spacious and comfortable. Found either in the well tended, mature gardens, or in the colonial style building, which houses just over half the given rooms available, and overlooks a pool.
Rooms are cleaned several times a day, including towel changes as required.
Food is served around the main pool - although this in itself tends to put off guests from using the pool .... space around this pool is given over to tables rather than sun beds.
Breakfast is extensive with a 5 star menu including the best of british as well as more local offerings. Lunch, should you feel you need for more food, is executed to perfection with a menu that offers an excellent selection of salads, local dishes and a great club sandwich!
Evening meals are really what this hotel is known for - 3 courses of exquisitely executed food, all under the watchful eye of the formidable maitre d'hotel ... Andrea. Nothing escapes her eye - she is watchful of every dish that comes out of the kitchens and is keen is surpass guests' expecatations.
The downsides to this hotel can be put down to lack of beachside location (the hotel provides courtesy travel to and from the local beach, itself a fairly basic open beach that fronts onto the somewhat wild Atlantic ocean - tides ARE strong).
Also note the limited swimming opportunity at this hotel. The pools are more of an afterthought here - small and tucked away - however they do the job of providing sunbathers somewhere to cool off in. Cool being the operative word - the pools are unheated ... although in an almost constant thirty something temperature (celsius) , this is probably very wise indeed.
One thing to note is the upcoming beach version of this hotel. Just a mile or so away, located beachside and due to open summer 2008. This promises to tick the boxes that the current Coconut Residence is unable to (ie beach location and space for swimming pools, not to mention a dedicated Spa facility).
The Coconut Beach Resort will be a byword for luxury and perhaps finally, a viable alternative to the scenic, luxury winter sun holidays that normally be found more readily in the Carribean. Only with The Gambia - flying time is around half plus resides in the same time zone as the UK.