Omali Lodge

Hi Derek,

We had a great time, thanks.

Everything worked well.

At Bom Bom we'd booked a garden view room and were shown to a beach front room which was great and we didn't complain at all! Not sure why/how we got this upgrade but we didn't want to ask in case we got moved..

Omali was fine. There's a fair bit to see on Sao Tome so we probably could have spent longer there...but we intend to go back sometime...

What else? The 15 kg baggage allowance on the STP inter-island flight was a joke..most people had large hard luggage with wheels and did just fine...but your advise shouldn't change because if it's a full flight maybe they are stricter...

So yeah, thanks...we had a great time..

Regards,

C'.

'Dear Derek

We really enjoyed our trip. São Tomé was interesting and the guide you recommended looked after us very well. The Omali Lodge was very comfortable and clean. With a bit of help from TripAdvisor and the guide we found some interesting places to eat at night.
Bonbon was beautiful and the cabin we had was right on the beach.  There were some lovely walks around the lodge and the snorkelling was good. We went into the main “town“ for lunch a couple of days and there was a festival one day. There are a few other hotels/lodges that have opened on Príncipe and you may want to think about an itinerary that gives clients a few days at each with perhaps a shorter stay in São Tomé.
The TAP flight on an A320 was challenging! There is a rumour though that they may be putting a bigger aircraft on the route.

Thanks for your help.

Kind regards

Colin'

'I did enjoy the islands and my trip.

The Omali had a nice atmosphere and grounds. The food was good, but a little pricey. There was usually someone there who spoke English. It was too far to walk into town, although if your timing was right, there was a free shuttle. I used the guide you recommended while at the Omali. His English was good and he tried his best to help me see what I wanted. . His tours were usually about 4 to 5 hours. 

I did 4 dives with Joao Santos of Tropic Ventures. He was very helpful. The best dive I made was a shipwreck dive I did with him. The half sunken ship was swarming with large schools of many types of fish- one of my best shipwreck dives I've done from the fish point of view. Two other dives with him at Santana Island were done when the weather conditions weren't the best, and were scary.

I liked the Pestana Equator about the best ( although the BomBom was close). All meals were buffet and had numerous choices, so the food was good. The grounds were beautiful. The director, the dive master and one or two of the staff were the only English speakers. The director was especially helpful. 

Bom Bom was very beautiful, but no diving and no diving at a nearby plantation either. I did two walks and two car tours, all of which I enjoyed. They were reasonably priced.

So, thank you for your help in making this a good trip.

Thank you,

Brad Stolz'

'We LOVED Sao Tome & Principe - particularly touring around the islands.

Would ideally have stayed in more places outside those hotels/resort and done more walking, but it was really good.

Thanks for arranging it all - great trip!'

We had a lovely holiday. Principe and Bom Bom in particular were lovely. But so was getting a public bus across Sao Tome.

If there were things to be improved, one would be finding a better flight schedule. The trip back, landing at 4am in Lisbon was a bit gruesome.

But overall a great holiday.  Thanks you

'We got back yesterday and it was a great trip.  The journey is long though but overall TAP are good. When we got to  Principe we were given Room 3, the best hut right on beach.  Principe is something special we could have spent longer there

A great holiday thank you'