A luxury tropical retreat on one of Kenya’s finest beaches. Hemingways is a 76 room resort Hotel overlooking the stunning beach of Watamu Marine Park 60 miles north of Mombasa.
The ambience of the hotel is of relaxed sophistication, with the friendliness of a privately owned hotel coupled to the facilities and standards of an International resort.
Stunning sea views, stylishly furnished. All Hemingways rooms and suites are extremely comfortable, have ocean views, are within yards of the beach and benefit from 24 hour room service. All have bathrooms with showers en-suite.
There is air-conditioning and fans throughout, & rooms also have mosquito nets, personal safes and room fridges.
We offer a wide range of international styles, ranging from sophisticated recipes with delicate sauces to simple cooking of the finest ingredients.
We obtain farm fresh vegetables and fruits from Kenyan farms at Lake Naivasha and Timau in Nanyuki, with fresh vegetables and flowers flown in on a daily basis, whilst our own fishing boats bring fresh fish for the kitchen daily.
Over the centuries the influences of the trading routes have brought a medley of cooking styles to Africa. Couple these with the best seafood, mangrove crabs, lobster, and fish of all types, and our chefs really have the opportunity to excel.
Our ‘table d’hote’ menus are a mixture of international and local favourites, with daily vegetarian options. We are always happy to offer second portions and to cater for the large appetite or for specific dietary needs.
We have buffets on Wednesday and Saturday evenings and Sunday Curry Dinner and these include Mongolian, Italian and Indian specialities. Live cooking is a major feature including not only main dishes but also our pasta and salad stations.
During the calmer months (November to March) dinner is served on the terrace, with the sounds of the sea, the light of the moon and the stars, and the rustle of the trade winds in the palms for company.
And for those who fish, our Chefs will prepare your catch exactly as you would like it. You might fancy Japanese style sashimi, finely sliced with soya sauce and wasabi, or maybe blackened Cajun style fillets, or just simply steamed! Whichever way, you will never eat fish fresher than this.
Hemingways is the ideal venue for your first big-game fishing trips, owing to the diverse nature of the Indian Ocean. The Watamu area boasts a large number of fishing grounds of widely differing nature, all within an hour of the hotel. These include oceanic tidal rips, shallow bands, and undersea mountains.
It is therefore possible to fish a number of different fishing grounds in one days’ fishing, maximising ones chances of success.
This abundance and variety of fishing of Watamu is particularly important for the first-time big-game fisherman. On your first few trips, you want to catch plenty of fish, and not have perhaps just several large specimens to show for a whole weeks fishing.
What will I catch ? – When is the fishing season?
We fish from July through to mid April. The southeast wind (Kusi) blows from mid March to sometime in November and is cooler than the northeast breeze (Kaskazi) which blows the rest of the time. The seas are warmer and calmer during the Kaskazi months.
Most fish are passing through and not resident in the area and although we have a good idea of when and what fish will be around, they don’t read the record charts and pop up at times of the year that they should not be here and vice versa.
The main Billfish (Sailfish and Marlin) season runs from November to mid/late March but Sailfish and Black Marlin often come inshore in numbers in August (and this month has been fantastic for Black Marlin these last few years).