Until a few years ago just a village on the highway, UKUNDA is now a scruffily burgeoning town and the main service centre for the resort hotels, strung out along the Likoni-Lungalunga road, with a post office (Mon-Fri 8am-12.30pm & 2-5pm), Total petrol station, a couple of places with internet access (BTS near Casino Pub , for example), which is cheaper than at Diani Beach, branches of KCB and Postbank (both opposite Total) and hundreds of dukas . Only marginally touched by tourism, Ukunda has a life of its own, not all of it pleasant: the sprawl is an increasingly deprived area, and along with Likoni was a major centre of the ethnic violence that swept the region prior to the 1997 elections, in which some 100,000 "up-country" people were forced to flee. Still, if your holiday isn't otherwise adventurous, it's worth a visit to see something of Kenya a little less unreal than the strip.

 

If you need accommodation in Ukunda (and if you're on a budget, you could consider staying here and simply catching matatus down to the part of the beach you want), there are several cheap B&Ls , the best of which is Corner Guest House (PO Box 855; no phone; under Ksh500), just north of the junction for the beach road. Quieter is the family-run Combatto Lodge , 1.5km north (PO Box 16 Ukunda tel 0127/2571; under Ksh500), with reasonable B&L-standard rooms, awful mattresses, fans and a dozy bar. Located 400m back towards the junction, a more expensive option and the only one with a pool is Hotel Rock Paradise (PO Box 1266 Ukunda tel 0127/3492; all s/c Ksh1000-2000), though at the price you should be able to find a cottage in Diani itself.

For nightlife , almost anything here comes as a shock after Diani's more urbane delights. All the bars can seem (and sometimes are) pretty rough places, so go with a Kenyan friend if you can. Currently, the best are Jambo Nightclub , which has a DJ and a lively crowd; the more mellow Juhudi Club , set back from the main road, 600m south of the beach road junction, just before Total; and Casino Pub , just south of that.