Wonderful setting, beatiful rooms. personal treatment by extremely helpful and friendly staff. Hubby had his bed decorate "Happy Birthday" with bougainvilla petals. A cake and sparkling wine was complemantary. We shared the cake with cleaners and gardeners, but saved the bubbly for ourself. Highly recommended.

We were here back in 2007 after a safari in the northern part of Tanzania and remembered it as a brilliant place, so after a safari in the south we returned to this hotel, and are very happy we did so. Rooms are large enough, bathroom is good, and you don't go here to stay in your room anyway.

Breackfast is a large buffet with lots of choice, only the selection of cold-cuts is limited. In an Italian managed hotel I would expect some salami, mortadella, prociutto etc. Lunch and diner buffet in the main restaurant are as good as you can expect from a buffet, with a pasta station and a grill with fresh tuna or snapper. If you take your time between the courses (soup, salad, main course and dessert) you can easily spend 2 hours dining, just very relaxed.

Lunch at the pool is good with a choice of burgers, sandwitches, salads and pasta, and small snacks are available throughout the day. In the evening it changes to the Coral-Cove pizza restaurant wich I found was very good. Delicious tuna-carpaccio and nicely spiced pizza diavolo. Allthough the pizza place is included, they say you need reservation. When we were there, only 2 or 3 tables were used and I really don't understand why not more people used it.

On fryday the dinner is in the African Village with all the buffets outside, so you can have dinner walking barefeet in the sand. The other restaurants, which are not included, we didn't try. Absolutely no need for that. In general I would say the food is the best you can get in an all-inclusive hotel.

Drinks are good and plentyful. You get your beer in a bottle and wine in a normal glass, and not in a thimble like some other all-in hotels. Waiters are good and service is quickly. If anyone complains that he couldn't get enough drinks, that is really his own fault.

There is a gym with some outdated and ram-shackle equipment, but as it is in the open air, you don't need to work very hard to loose some sweat in these temperatures.

The coffee bar, where you can smoke the water pipe is a nice experience. The sunset bar is mostly quite empty, this may be caused by the sometimes really irritating music. Some nights there is a band, and the atmosphere brightens up immediately.

When you want to do an excursion, call a local tour operator (like Madeira Tours, and there are much more) and don't book at the hotel. A tour to prison island will cost you $ 100 each at the hotel, and $ 65 with Madeira. And it's the same tour.

We used the spa once, and had a hot-stone massage. Was quite good and not overpriced, but beware the stones are really very hot.

The only real downside of this hotel are the very frequent short power cuts. They appear several times a day for a few seconds. And every time you have to start the AC in your room by hand. For the rest it is one of the best places to relax anywhere.

My wife and I went there to celebrate our 10 years wedding anniversary. This resort really delivered against our highest expectations. The resort is well integrated in the environment and you really have the feeling to be in a tropical paradise but with all comfort at hand.
So for sure top rating on my side.
Specific strengths:
wonderful beach with white sand and super clean see. Easy access in all tides conditions (which is different from other locations in Zanzibar on the east coast)
Quality and variety of food. Always available grilled fish, meat, chicken, pasta, rice, vegetables and fruits. Good variety day to day
Cleanliness. Overall super-clean. Both the rooms and everywhere in the resort. Not only , all gardens and infrastructure were kept at top class standard
Weather. We went for one week at october end. This is low season and not the driest. However in the morning was mostly cloudy (3 days on 7) and in three occasions we had 15 min rain. While in the afternoon was always sunny. Temperature was always in the 30 degrees range. The big advantage of the low season was that the resort was just a bit more than half full. Giving really a feeling of quietness and higher attention from waiters.
Diving excursion. A must do is to go to Mnemba either for diving or snorkelling. Where you can see all you can dream of. While the excursion to Tumbatu was definitely a lower standard (mostly corals and few fishes).
Excursions. Very interesting the visit to local fishing village and giant sea turtles. Also nice the visit to a local farm. Going to Stonetown should be a must-see, but it was not worth in my view. In prison island you can just see giant earth turtles.
Surveillance. The beach is physically separated from the sea. You need stairs to access into the sea in high tides. However in low tides, down the stairs you have still 10 meters to the water. And durning these periods, local boys walk the beach to sell their souvenirs. This did not bother us at all because they are not allowed to stop and standstill. They normally greet you but if you do not want to buy, they just walk over. That's mainly because of the few guards always present at the stairs.
Personnel. Kindness and friendliness were at the highest standard.
African bar. Very nice, you can just relax and taste their good variety of coffee or tea while smoking the arghile' (water pipe).
All inclusive is really all... Beyond bier and cold drinks, even several alcoholic drinks at the bar like Martini or daily cocktails are included. You will need to pay for whiskey or so. Or if you really want your preferred brand of wine. Different from other resorts. You need to pay separately as almost everywhere the excursions, diving, spa and if you want the separate fish restaurant to eat lobster.
And now a couple of watch out's
Boutique. The range of offer is very limited even of local stuff. And it is amazingly expensive. As result it is always empty. We just walked in once to understand that it was better to buy whatever in Stonetown.
Beach side close to diving centre was noisy... Their machine to refill oxygen bottles for diving was noisy and constantly on till early afternoon. I hope they will replace it with something more quiet. For us, it was not an issue because there was always more than enough space on the other side close to swimming pool. But in high season i guess this will not be possible.
We did not use the Spa.

We visited Diamonds La Gemma for a 10 night stay...........and what a fabulous choice we made..................without doubt this hotel is in a beautiful location.......on a superb beachfront setting......with amazing gardens/grounds.
Our room was set within the gardens just in front of the sunset walk, with a view of the sea......................amazing
Food was of a good standard and the staff always willing to give a helping hand. We didnt have any touble with mosquitos, but we still took our tablets and had a plug in our room.
I would not hesitate to recommend this hotel to anyone wanting to visit Zanzibar.