This hotel, as far as me and my wife could work out, goes by three different names: Beach Club Kiwengwa, Villago Bravo, Kiwengwa Strand Hotel. It caters for mainly Italian package tourists, who seem to love it.

Positives:
- Absolutely stunning surrounds - the white sand, the azure sea, the palms, a wooden jetty poking its way out into the ocean - a picture perfect postcard setting.
- The hotel grounds itself are really nice, thatched roofs, lovely pool, nice bedrooms - all in all, things were looking up for this hotel until...

Negatives:
-The Surliness of the staff
Let me qualify this a bit more. Firstly, not all of the staff were surly, for instance the men working the reception desk were always courteous and polite. The man manning the towel booth was perhaps the most polite member of staff full stop. If I were the manager of the hotel, I'd have him pulled out of there immediately and placed in a more front-line customer service type duty. No, the real pains in the neck were the bar staff in the main restaurant. One woman's attitude bordered on actually hostility.

Now I know that these people are probably paid a pittance for what they do, and they see rich Europeand demanding their free drinks (the hotel is All Inclusive) and probably get a bit irked sometimes. But on one occasion, I went up to the lady in question (the evening of November 17th if any of the hotel's management are reading this) and asked for a glass of beer for myself and a glass of wine for my wife. When the woman eventually acknowledged my presence she shook her head and told me I couldn't have any because I hadn't brought glasses with me. I gestured to the array of glasses next to her, clearly waiting to be used for the very purpose I'd asked for, but she shook her head. I explained that the glasses from our table were being used for water and could I please just use the glasses in front of her. Humphing and puffing like an oversized teenager, she reluctantly poured me a glass of beer. Not a smile, not a nod, only undisguised annoyance.

The previous day, this young woman hadn't been working the bar, instead an equally surly young man stood there. As I approached him, a waiter sidled up to the barman. "Can I have a beer please?" he mimicked. "Give me a beer!" I was shocked and indeed asked for a beer, to which they both lauged and had a brief (but cleary funny to them) conversation in Swahili.

Neither episodes were a nice way to start our evening meals.

Speaking of the meals, the choice was actually quite good with lots of fish and pasta. That said, and though my wife and I have travelled in India, West Africa, South East Asia and not contracted any sort of stomach complaint, twelve hours after eating in the hotel, we both succumbed. Coincidence? I think not.

And this is a major failing of staying in an all inclusive environment, especially in location where there were no other options to eat.

Another niggling thing was the racous noise coming from a DJ until 2am one night. This din may well have occured on other nights, though we didn't hear it. At one point in my tossing and turning I heard the bass thump of a song by the Black Eyed Peas. The song: Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night, was at odd to my current mood. Twitching with mosquito bites, cramping with abdomnal spasms, and now being kept awake by the aforementioned song was almost too much to bear.

Joking aside (though at the time it didn't seem funny at all), the hotel could be so much better with not much effort. A staff training day on basic customer service is of paramount importance. And making sure the food served is piping hot is another basic necessity. Because if these two things had been in place, the hotel wold have been almost perfect. But as it stands, the Sea Club/Strand/Bravo hotel is not somewhere I could recommend.

We visited Sea Club Kiwengwa and it was the best hotel we saw in terms of size, facilities and most importantly the price.
It is a nice big hotel well spaced out with a huge pool.
The bathrooms are nice and spacious and the rooms very cosy.
The public areas are also quite nice BUT be warned that this is an Italian hotel so the cuisine is also geared towards Italians.
Stay here as its nice and best value for money.
The beach is also very nice with hardly any rocks as you see in most beaches in Zanzibar.