Great location on the southern end of Stone Town - an easy walk to explore the lanes and doorways in the old centre. Beautiful pool, great restaurant (breakfast), spectacular sunset, lovely room. Staff were friendly and helpful.

I would definitive recommend this hotel. You really do get best of both words! Being so close to stone town and then also being close to the beach was amazing. The views from the rooms facing the ocean are AMAZING. The ONLY thing I would say they could improve on is the mattress. It was SO hard - but this seemed to be the case with many of the hotels we stayed at in east africa. Overall, this was one of the best hotels so stay here!!

We stayed here at the end of a 2 week safari and wished we could have stayed longer. The rooms were fine (A/C not able to really cool the room but not too bad).I don't know the price or value since it was part of a package, We had a room in the Chinese doctor's home portion of the hotel with a nice bathroom that overlooked the ocean. Our friends had very small bathrooms and no view. Staff was pleasant even if their uniforms were kind of kitchy. Upon arrival, they greet guests with cool cloths and a glass of mango juice. They tried to accommodate us with a slightly delayed checkout but it was still hours before our flight so they provided a place to shower before our flight home. Make a reservation for seafood at the outdoor Terrace Restaurant. Everyone had great food with a fix prix menu- fabulous and generous portions. I have never left lobster on my plate before. I liked it so much I ordered lobster both nights and could not finish the large portion either night. Yummy! The pool is a delight although the beach is not. It is fun to see the dhows go by filled wiht me who hop into the water to be dropped off where ever is closest to home after a night of fishing but no swimming for women there in this Muslim country. The hotel has a separate private beach, Mangapwani, 20 minutes away with a free shuttle - it's a great place to have lunch and spend the day. We hired a wonderful guide to show us the city, Mussa Abdallah. He gave a very interesting educational city tour and then took us to see door carving, a spice farm where we had a local meal and to a school where the students were eager to speak to us in English. It was great. Contact him at mussaabdallah@hotmail.com. Buy souvenirs at Memories of Africa - nice selection and good prices. At another shop, we bought a Tinga Tinga painting of animals but the shop keeper rolled it so tightly that the paint cracked. We had bargained down to $10 so no great financial loss but we wanted that for a grandchild's room.
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This hotel was a brief stopover between a safari and hitting the beaches in Zanzibar. Along with another couple we had both booked ocean view rooms, but upon arrival we were informed we had been upgraded to full ocean view suites. Our friends got the one that Bill Clinton had apparently stayed in but both suites were awesome. High ceilings, multiple rooms, beautiful woodwork, balconies with great views and very importantly great AC. We dined in the a la carte seafood restarant under the stars and were amazed by the food and service, even the buffet breakfast was amazing. The pool was gorgeous but the beach perhaps less so. This is an old hotel and we didn't see an elevator so that may be concern for some. The staff were great and our time here was far too brief. Stone town is kind of neat to wander but easy to get lost if you're on your own.