The staff at Distant Relatives were absolutely the best! I stayed during the low season of the hostel when there weren’t too many other people around which was great for relaxing, but Maureen, Rose, Mohammed and Derrick were all amazing in making sure I was comfortable and never lonely the whole time during my stay. They even went so far as to help me fix my laptop cable when it broke! Paolo the manager of the hostel was also super friendly and kind, I can’t state enough how lovely everyone is and how comfortable I felt as a solo female traveller at the hostel 😊 I had the tree dorm to myself pretty much the whole week I was there too, the dorms are lovely and very charming. The outdoor shower is also wonderful, so long as you don’t mind a few monkeys spying on you. The location is very close to the beach and cheap to get to, and the walk down to the creek is also very convenient. The food in the restaurant was also great, thank you Distant Relatives for a great stay 😊

Out of everywhere in the world, this was my favorite hostel ever! Meant to stay 4 nights and stayed 2 weeks and didn’t want to leave. The property is HUGE and so beautiful. They were constantly cleaning and all the facilities were well maintained. The staff, especially Beth, Brian and George were incredible. There’s hostel pets we fell in love with as well. Can cook there too! Just beware monkeys will enter the dorm rooms constantly! So don’t bring food in there. Couldn’t recommend enough.

The kitchen could definitely use more kitchenware. No microwave, and only one knife. But more importantly the thing they desperately need to change is the pillows. Every single one is full of mold, both in dorms and outside. Also, sadly the people on the beach are very pushy with asking for money which took away from the beach experience, not hostels fault though. Still recommend 100%.

It is truly an eco-lodge that practices what it preaches, including permaculture, composting toilets, grey water systems, and more. The huts are cleverly spaced to provide privacy throughout the thick bamboo and indigenous plant forest. The outdoor bathroom was expansive and beautiful. The creekside beach is lovely and great for swimming. The green papaya salad was divine—the best in Africa!

The windows could've had screens, despite the good bed nets. However, I was afraid the monkeys running my outdoor bathroom might enter even with the curtains and grates over the window openings. They did not. Bring your own soap as that is not provided.

nice pool beautiful showers amazing staff

wifi is very spotty and didn’t reach the tents they don’t provide free drinking water which is INSANE and a human right. charge you A LOT just to refill. it’s very far from town and the moto taxis outside WILL rip you off really wish they would clamp down on this.

Distant Relatives gets everything right: beautiful surroundings, a lovely pool, super friendly and helpful staff and a great mix of locals and tourists. We arrived super early as we'd got the overnight train from Nairobi but the staff were really welcoming and showed us to a quiet space where we could lie down and wait for reception to open. Make sure you take the five minute walk down to the beach for a night swim in the glittering (literally, due to phosphorescent plankton) sea.

I quite liked the location. I was conflicted whether to stay along the coast or to stay here and decided to come here for a different experience. It was worth it to go because if I picked the coast I don't think I would have made the trip out here. It's quite tucked away, but has access to the creek beach where you can get picked up to go for a sunset cruise (definitely worthwhile). You're surrounded by nature and I saw a large land crab and hedgehog! They had some live music on Friday and it wasn't super busy at this time but still easy to meet other solo travelers.

It was a bit far to get to the beach, approximately a 15 minute piki piki ride.

Really nice place overall. Bathrooms were always clean. Dorm is quite big and enough space for everything. There are also some shelves which is quite nice. Beds are big and not only standard small. Wifi overall good, sometimes bit spoty but works for calls. It is a place with quite some locals. Kitchen has the basic things.

Food is quite expensive. For example small small plate of chicken wings for 500 which is a lot. There are no lockers in the dorms, which would be nice. Fans don't really help the top beds so quite hot.

We got upgraded to bandas and so we were very lucky in this respect. Great staff, atmosphere, chill space, incredible bioluminescence, activities, games, mangroves and local snorkelling, huge food portions. We loved it and easily could have stayed longer.

The shared kitchen needs some attention to make the place perfect; bigger fridge, more pans, more kitchen equipment such as bowls, cutlery and serving spoons etc, spices. I think there should be some thought put into an eco water filter system for drinking water to prevent people buying single use plastics. Constructive criticism but kitchen could be improved.

The staff were friendly and greet you by name (amazing!!) We we’re late arriving due to a flight delay, I received a message asking if I wanted to preorder dinner before the kitchen closed, and the menu was attached. The property was kept clean the entire time. The atmosphere is really casual and relaxed.

They had a and on the Friday night. They were great, but had some technical issues, which meant they started late and finished late. The music was going past 2am, which is fine for a lot of people. However I’m old, an go to bed by midnight, so it was a little much for me. But it wouldn’t stop my going back.

I loved the different options for accommodation (from tents and firms up to private rooms and huts) and the many cosy places where you could spend your time during day and evenings. Pool was fresh and clean, toilets also very clean whenever we went there, the tropical garden created a fresh micro-climate and wonderful atmosphere and the innovative ideas of upcycling and low waste management is an encouraging step forward. Food was delicious (I loved the baobab smoothie!!), couldn’t get through all menu points we wanted to try! All staff was super friendly and helpful! if you book tours, don’t miss sunset dhow trip with ‘Popote’!!

Nothing we disliked; If you order food don’t expect low prices, but for us it was worth it. I was worried first (rainy season) that the open windows in the rooms might give big mosquito trouble - but with huge Miskito nets and fan they have - no problem at all. We hope they’ll continue developing even more sustainable ideas in the future!