3 Stars Hotels in Western Area, Sierra Leone

It’s been quite an experience for me for the past two weeks staying there. The hotel itself is at a fantastic spot, so no worries about that at all. The management work really hard to keep their guests comfortable and I must say I was really impressed with that. Fantastic team! With improvements, this hotel will definitely gain more than the current rating. That’s if its wanting to. Therefore to fix that, there’re rooms for improvement with the amenities and facilities provided. Apparently, the rooms advertised were done on a fake advertising scheme. They looked nothing like the one I paid for. My room was later upgraded when I complained as I was really disappointed. The rooms didn’t even have any single bottle of water for guest. Imagine lading at night and thirsty but realise there’s no drinking water as most hotels would. I highly recommend a look into that. For future reference, I would recommend the staff be aware of guest's booking details. Maybe provide a desktop at the front desk where they can access the bookings for confirmation. Most hotels have that. Last on the list is the breakfast provided. It would be great if the hotel would provide a blend of different breakfast options instead of the same everyday. It can still be on the current budget but with different meal options, every other day or so. I nearly fell ill during this period unless I had to skip breakfast on most days and go out for food. Some of us don't have the stomach for that, and it's quite displeasing when you've already paid for the service, even worse when you’re staying longer as I did. Overall, I would recommend this hotel for anyone travelling to Sierra Leone as besides the aforementioned, I did enjoy my stay there. Great staff! And yes, I will come again in the near future.

We quite enjoyed Ishmajoso Lodge! Location is in a lovely small village about halfway between Freetown and the nice peninsula beaches. We much preferred this to staying in town and it's actually got a lovely little private beach about 10 minutes walk through a village. Great community atmosphere. Wifi is really good Rooms were pretty decent. Hot water is good AC wasn't great. Despite being on 16 and full force, the room never cools down - seems to be more of a fan disguised as an AC. Not great! Staff were lovely, Hassan is an absolute legend and super hospitable! Restaurant food is decent, but my God it takes SO long. We waited 1 hour and 10 minutes for an omelette and spaghetti (and there was nobody else in the restaurant). Genuinely curious what on earth they were doing in there.

Jam lodge is located not far from Congo Cross in Freetown. It is frequented by NGOs, WHO etc. All the rooms are ACd. Breakfast was always delicious and there is a relaxing Bar area outside with a good selection of cold beers. I must comment also on the honesty of the staff. I accidentally left a wad of Leones on my bar stool after getting my USD exchanged. The amount probably equated to several months wages for the hotel staff. When I realised my mistake I ran back to the bar to be greeted by a smiling bar tender who had kept it safe for me not even skimming of the top! I tipped him, of course.

The Hotel Barmoi is an okay place to stay, especially by Sierra Leone standards. It has two pools and a restaurant/bar on site. The staff is friendly and helpful. The rooms are comfortable and contain a double bed, armoire, drawers, desk and micro fridge. The bathroom contains a sink, toilet, and bath/shower combination. The water is hot especially in the mornings. The room is air conditioned and you can control the temperature controlled. The bathroom is not air conditioned and is often quite humid. The restaurant is open throughout the day. Breakfast, which was included in our room rate, is a mix of fruits, meats, other local specialities, crepes (pancakes) and cereals. Juice. water. coffee and tea are also served free of charge. Lunches start at about $1.00 USD (10,000 Leones) and go up. The food is well prepared and quite tasty. The dinner menu contains a mixture of local dishes and foreign meals. I recommend the beans stew, which comes with either beef, chicken or fish and a side of steamed rice. The portions are ample and very tasty. The rate for my room was $90 USD per night which is very competitive for this level of hotel in Freetown.

It’s been quite an experience for me for the past two weeks staying there. The hotel itself is at a fantastic spot, so no worries about that at all. The management work really hard to keep their guests comfortable and I must say I was really impressed with that. Fantastic team! With improvements, this hotel will definitely gain more than the current rating. That’s if its wanting to. Therefore to fix that, there’re rooms for improvement with the amenities and facilities provided. Apparently, the rooms advertised were done on a fake advertising scheme. They looked nothing like the one I paid for. My room was later upgraded when I complained as I was really disappointed. The rooms didn’t even have any single bottle of water for guest. Imagine lading at night and thirsty but realise there’s no drinking water as most hotels would. I highly recommend a look into that. For future reference, I would recommend the staff be aware of guest's booking details. Maybe provide a desktop at the front desk where they can access the bookings for confirmation. Most hotels have that. Last on the list is the breakfast provided. It would be great if the hotel would provide a blend of different breakfast options instead of the same everyday. It can still be on the current budget but with different meal options, every other day or so. I nearly fell ill during this period unless I had to skip breakfast on most days and go out for food. Some of us don't have the stomach for that, and it's quite displeasing when you've already paid for the service, even worse when you’re staying longer as I did. Overall, I would recommend this hotel for anyone travelling to Sierra Leone as besides the aforementioned, I did enjoy my stay there. Great staff! And yes, I will come again in the near future.

Jam lodge is located not far from Congo Cross in Freetown. It is frequented by NGOs, WHO etc. All the rooms are ACd. Breakfast was always delicious and there is a relaxing Bar area outside with a good selection of cold beers. I must comment also on the honesty of the staff. I accidentally left a wad of Leones on my bar stool after getting my USD exchanged. The amount probably equated to several months wages for the hotel staff. When I realised my mistake I ran back to the bar to be greeted by a smiling bar tender who had kept it safe for me not even skimming of the top! I tipped him, of course.

The Hotel Barmoi is an okay place to stay, especially by Sierra Leone standards. It has two pools and a restaurant/bar on site. The staff is friendly and helpful. The rooms are comfortable and contain a double bed, armoire, drawers, desk and micro fridge. The bathroom contains a sink, toilet, and bath/shower combination. The water is hot especially in the mornings. The room is air conditioned and you can control the temperature controlled. The bathroom is not air conditioned and is often quite humid. The restaurant is open throughout the day. Breakfast, which was included in our room rate, is a mix of fruits, meats, other local specialities, crepes (pancakes) and cereals. Juice. water. coffee and tea are also served free of charge. Lunches start at about $1.00 USD (10,000 Leones) and go up. The food is well prepared and quite tasty. The dinner menu contains a mixture of local dishes and foreign meals. I recommend the beans stew, which comes with either beef, chicken or fish and a side of steamed rice. The portions are ample and very tasty. The rate for my room was $90 USD per night which is very competitive for this level of hotel in Freetown.

The whole hotel culture is “we do not care about the guests”. Examples: -asked the receptionist to call through their landline number a local restaurant to investigate if they were open or closed. They showed no willingness to do so and they didn’t. -the cleaning lady got into my room while I was still inside and without my permission in order to pick up the towels -asked for the gym, no staff seemed to know where it is located. Once, somebody eventually, pinpointed it to me, the whole gym was without electricity, completely abandoned and out of use (see photo) -throughout my friends long stay, after a week the hotel staff freaked out with the aggregating costs and they decided to block the guests key without informing/discussing with them the situation.

We quite enjoyed Ishmajoso Lodge! Location is in a lovely small village about halfway between Freetown and the nice peninsula beaches. We much preferred this to staying in town and it's actually got a lovely little private beach about 10 minutes walk through a village. Great community atmosphere. Wifi is really good Rooms were pretty decent. Hot water is good AC wasn't great. Despite being on 16 and full force, the room never cools down - seems to be more of a fan disguised as an AC. Not great! Staff were lovely, Hassan is an absolute legend and super hospitable! Restaurant food is decent, but my God it takes SO long. We waited 1 hour and 10 minutes for an omelette and spaghetti (and there was nobody else in the restaurant). Genuinely curious what on earth they were doing in there.