Today, the majority have now opened and City Mall is the most modern shopping complex in Mombasa. Not only the spectacular re-vamped café with it's delicious aroma of freshly baked bread, but once you've filled up on that you may want to nip upstairs and buy exercise equipment from the Nairobi Sports House.

The popular Paper Connections from Ratna Square, have opened a branch of their stationery shops too, and more familiar Nairobi shops like Toy World and Woolworths are there to tempt us all in. Meantime there is talk of a small food court upstairs – the pizza place is already open, soon to be followed by a Chinese, and then rumour has that the ultra exclusive Indian restaurant, Haandi's is to join them – can't wait.

So, finally we can compete with Nairobi in the shopping experience, without the traffic, and there is more to come so watch this space.

By Sara Engel – Watamu Property Services