Résidence Hôtelière du Phare

This hotel near the airport (just a 5 minutes drive) is set on a quiet three mile long sandy beach - (while walking it we twice saw baby turtles heading being rescued by volunteers). All the hotel's rooms face the sea and have good aircon, hot water showers, kettle, fridge and TV with European channels. The hotel could use a new paint job but most stuff works and the staff are friendly and helpful when things don't. The breakfast are good - fruit juice, a basket of pastries and bread, jams and butter and fresh tea or coffee; eggs and more on request and extra. Dinner in the restaurant - roofed but open sided, right on the beach - is not cheap but is excellent; we can recommend the ‘sergeant fish’. Service is, unfortunately, African-speed but you have the beach and the waves to watch while you wait. If you need to arrive or leave the hotel late at night or very early in the morning make sure they know so that they can unlock the front doors for you. There is a useful bakery and coffee shop 5 minutes walk away, La Citronelle, opposite which is a good grocery store.

DO NOT STAY HERE!! The morning I was to leave, while eating breakfast, I watched an employee (housekeeper) go into my room. A couple of hours later as I was traveling down the coast I discovered she had stolen $600 usd from my day pack. We called the manager immediately. His initial response was to blame me for not using the room safe (THERE IS NOT A SAFE IN ROOM #4). When I returned to Libreville a week later I went straight to the hotel and suggested we call the police. Again he blamed me for not using the imaginary safe and said he would report it to the police. That proved to be a dead end in spite of promises made. I could have stopped payment on my credit card, but opted to honor my bill. Lesson learned. I could also go on about the dinginess of the hotel as a whole, the sliding glass door to the room that has a one inch gap to the outdoors, the cigarette butts in the water buckets for washing the beach sand off your feet, the shower head that shoots water up rather than down, and used ear swabs/buds in my garbage can. But, to put it more simply ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK! You have been warned…