A group of friends and I spent 1 week in Seacliff over New Year 2012/2013 and had mixed experiences about this hotel.

While the setting of the hotel, the gardens and pools are very attractive, we were not impressed by the service and, especially, by the food.

Staff is willing, but uncoordinated and therefore appears to be somewhat chaotic dealing with requests. The food, mostly presented in buffet style, lacks refinement, choice and could be better presented.

The same is somewhat true for the rooms. Our deluxe room was big and had a marvelous view on the ocean. the finishing and attention to detail was in our view not on a 5 star level. This is also true for the cleanliness in general.

All in all, we spent a very relaxing week at the Seacliff in Zanzibar, but expected a bit more given the very positive comments about this hotel.

Excellent concierge and porter service. Very helpful and polite staff. Good size room and well lit (for a change) bathroom with great amenities. Excellent air conditioning which was very welcome after a day of meetings and sweltering temperatures. Good Indian restaurant but don't expect too much from the food. However, to be fair, I never really eat a good meal anywhere in Dar Es Salaam. Even though the hotel has excellent views and a magnificent sunrise this is not a beach resort so don't expect sandy, white beaches - go to Zanzibar for that.

The Sea Cliff in Zanzibar is in essence a brilliant resort. What you get here is a 4* star hotel and spa with literally all the amenities one would need on a beach holiday. The rooms are new, well maintained and of decent size. The bathroom was actually great with ample space.

The resort is also coupled with tennis courts, a squash court, pool tables, spa, full fledged gym, a long infinity pool (albeit a little shallow) and an even better secondary pool that overlooks the ocean. The kids also have ample activities so its all good for you to drop the little buggers while enjoying a sun downer by yourself.

The not so good include the lack of a proper beach (the beach is a good 15 min walk and isn't exactly the cleanest on the Island, not to mention the abundance of nosy fishermen) and the food. The food was basically very average buffet style coupled with some a la carte lunches. The chef seemed somewhat confused when making a few dishes: Chicken Tika Masala on American Night? Think he confused Indians and Native Americans there!

Finally, there seems to be a "lack" of activities to do at night. Don't get me wrong, during the mornings, you will be spent but at night things get a little boring. There's a fantastic jetty right on the sea but its empty. Why not put a coffee bar there? The whole resort feels like its lacking potential but nevertheless still a very safe bet if you don't mind the lack of beach access.

Stunning setting.
Food average- (chef never heard of pork with apple sauce or lamb with mint sauce, he suggested tomato sauce!!!) This is not 5 Star service or food.
Language was a huge problem as majority of the staff could not understand simple dining requests in English, also, they were over attentive unable to leave us in peace.
Rooms- we had to complain to housekeeping about the cleanliness of our room on arrival and the bathroom toiletries had not been replenished from the previous guests' stay. Next day it had such a stench due to dirty floor mops being used. We almost had to beg for this to be rectified. Our pleas fell on deaf or non comprehending ears however eventually, through the help of Daneela van Niekerk (Food and Beverages) and Dean the Food and Beverage Manager we got a clean room.
At night pungent smelling chemicals were sprayed in the gardens which was so foul that it woke us up.
There was a lack of communication to the guests regarding the daily activites so we had to make our own enquiring about any Xmas Eve celebrations or functions.
The person responsible for the above must ultimately be the General Manager at the resort, Abrie Esterhuisen, however he seemed unaware of any of these problems or issues. Maybe he was too busy entertaining his family for the holidays.Even though we had expressed our dissatisfation of the service and maintenance issues there was no follow up from him to ensure that our dissatisfactions had been resolved. All in all a bad experience we will never recommend any traveller to visit Zanzibar or the Sea cliff resort.