We spent the last 4 days of our 2 week trip to Kenya at Mida Eco Camp. We stayed in the Zanzibar Hut which is by far the nicest. We slept outside on the top floor iin 2 single beds with mossie nets as it was hot during our stay and loved going to sleep under the stars. You live very close to the village and its lovely hearing and seeing simple village life all around you. Don't expect frills, the rooms don't have their own bathroom but it is only a short walk and an open air shower has to be the best way to go in a hot country. The pace of life is much slower and we found we really relaxed. We did the Mangrove Walk, Village Tour and Island trip all of which i can recommend. I would strongly recommend going for 2 nights or more so you can really relax and enjoy the trips on offer. This is the place to get away from tourists!

We had a fabulous time at Mida Eco Camp this July. We wished we had booked more than the 3 nights we stayed as there is so much to do in the area. We went to the National Park, visited the Gedi ruins, went snorkelling out on the reef, went canoing, visited the local village (and tried the local moonshine), and did the Mangrove boardwalk!

The accomodation is fairly basic but this is made up for by the friendly staff and the fantastic food. The location is amazing and all the buildings really take advantage of it; stay in the Zanzibar hut if you can and you'll see what I mean!

The only problem we had was transport to the camp. We found it easier in the end to take a taxi from Mombasa airport as we'd just arrived in the country. If you find your feet a bit before heading there it is possible to take the Matatus. Once we were there we got around mostly with the Matatus and found them cheap and not too scary!

We enjoyed our stay at the ecocamp so much that we returned for a second visit during our 5 week stay in Kenya. The camp is built to benefit the local people (and is run byu locals) which was very refreshing as most of the other accommodation we had stayed in in Kenya had been run by Europeans. The camp is very small - only three accommodation options but this made for an intimate stay. We took the day trip out on a kayak which was excellent fun if not a little uncomfortable! The food is excellent and the home made bread and samaosas for breakfast were to die for. A very friendly place, we would certainly return if we were in Kenya again.

I loved this place. My friend and I camped here for 2 nights. Here's what we loved: the outdoor showers (it was refreshing to be naked outside under a beautiful sunset!), the lantern lit dinner atmosphere, the friendly staff, Coco the donkey, the seamless marriage between the camp and the environment, and the environmental and cultural morality of the place. We would definitely recommend it to fellow travelers.

Tips:
*If you'd like to help the local Giriama community, donate a simple box of pencils for the school children.
*If you camp, definitely spend the extra 100 ksh/night for a mattress! It comes with clean sheets, so worth it.

Complaints:
*We expected fruit included with our 300 ksh breakfast, but did not receive any- fruit was even listed as part of the breakfast on the website.
*Some sort of lined rubbish bin in the toilets might would have made it easier for both guests and the plumbing system, there was nowhere to put sanitary items except down the toilet.
*non-alcoholic drinks were not included with the dinner cost, so bring your own water if you're on a budget, they sell the expensive brand (Keringet) at the camp.
*for campers: only one mattress was available to both me and my friend- I let her have it. I would have been happy to pay an extra 100 ksh/night to save my back from the hard ground!

I wrote Mida Ecocamp a letter with these suggestions after my stay there- they never responded, so I don't know if they took my notes. Please speak up to them about anything that would make your stay better, let's make this awesome place as good as it can be!