I stayed in this hotel with 5 of my friends for 8 nights in June 2012. We had just spent 3 weeks in Arusha, Tanzania for our elective, as we are all dental students.
We were kindly welcomed by one of the Italian members of staff, who gave us our key, A/C controls etc and our little bracelets to wear showing we were half board. She was very kind, and explained everything clearly.
It was a beautiful setting...lovely main building with thatched roof, wall art, little compartments for the shop, excursion office and massage parlour along from the main reception. Everything is clean, well-furnished and finished to a high standard.
The room itself was gorgeous - we chose a Sea Front Room, since there was a 15% off deal, and payed around £427pp for 8 nights, so just over £53pp per night..which I found reasonable.
The Sea Front Rooms, of which there are 8, are very spacious, clean and beautifully decorated. They are only available as triple rooms, with a very large double bed, and a separate single bed, lovely ensuite bathroom and little veranda out the front where you can listen to the waves lapping in.
When we arrived, there were fresh tropical flowers placed on the beds, dressing table and in the bathroom - would have been lovely for a honeymoon couple! I was staying the room with my friend, but we loved it all the same.
The rooms are cleaned every day, and the beds turned down and mosquito nets sorted out, which is nice to come back to. They also come and spray insect repellant in the evening, although, one night there must have been a sneaky mosquito under our net, and I hadn't put any repellant on my face...so woke up with 7 bites on my face! Be careful.
The hotel grounds are just lovely, with little paths leading in between tropical plants and flowers. The pool is brilliant - huge and clean! There was a jacuzzi, but it was never turned on, and when it was turned on once after the guy saw we were in it, it wasn't warm! No big deal though.
The beach in front of the hotel is very nice, and before you reach the beach, there is an area of sand with sunloungers and straw umbrellas, and a stone path, which is where you can lie and relax/sunbathe. You don't actually lie on the beach, but it's not a big problem as it is right in front for you to appreciate :)
The tide is out until about 2pm-ish, which means in the morning you can take a walk out for ages and look at what lies under the water. You could really do with jelly-shoes or sandals that stay on if you do this, as flip-flops will break! When the tide is in, it is lovely to bob around in the sea, lovely temperature. The sand is beautiful and white! There is some seaweed about, but really not too much that it's a problem.
The beach is relatively quiet, with some locals and other guests of the hotel walking along it occasionally. Just the right amount of busy. Only a few guys trying to sell you excursions but just say no thanks or 'hapana asante' and walk away and it's fine. Once they have spoken to you once and know you aren't interested then they usually don't bother you again.
The food available at the breakfast and dinner buffets was okay; not the best, but not the worst. Breakfast usually had 2 types of cereal - rice crispies and cornflakes. There was also baked beans, bacon, a live egg station where you could get any type of omlette, continental breakfast like cold meat, cheese etc, bread, cheese spread, sweet pastries. A nice selection!
The dinner buffet usually had 1 or 2 pasta dishes, potatoes, vegetables, vegetarian options, lots of seafood, with usually a big 'catch of the day'. There was usually a live pasta station too, which was good as I love pasta! Got pasta with the tomato sauce. There was always fresh salad options too, and a selection of 4 or so desserts (weren't always the best - but we knew tanzania wasn't big on desserts!)
As mentioned in the title, it is only the service in this hotel that let's it down. By this I am referring to the bar and restaurant staff - at lunchtimes, we had to order lunch since we were half board, and it would usually take a very long time to come, with everyone's meals coming at different times who were at the same table - this is just not good service! And is simple to rectify. At dinner also....I would often have to ask for cutlery if a place wasn't set for me, and it would take ages to get the staff's attention, and then a long time until i received it!
One night we didn't have our drinks order taken for about half an hour or more - not really acceptable!
It was often a painful process ordering things, mainly because of the language barrier. But, we actually knew some Kiswahili, and used it when ordering, for numbers etc, but even then, things were wrong when they arrived!?
In general, the service is way too slow and not efficient enough. For the management to improve their hotel and get 5 star reviews all the time, they really need to invest in some more training for their staff to improve the standards.
Also, I must say that near closing time, the Bar Staff at Bar Rafiki were acting very strange, and it almost seemed like they were high on drugs - no joke! We encountered this with 2 members of the bar staff, so perhaps this needs to be addressed!
I would recommend you do Soft All Inclusive, because it was a pain having to pay $1 for a litre of water, and I drink a lot of water. It would be good if it was provided for all guests. Lunch prices were okay: $6-12 for a pizza/pasta etc. We wish we had done full board/soft all inclusive though, to save the hassle of paying more.
We organised an excursion with the excursion office on site, which was a day involving: Spice Tour, Stone Town Tour then Prison Island and some snorkelling. The prices originally quoted were too expensive, and we were aware of the 'mzungu price' phenomenon they have in Tanzania...so we managed to get the price of this tour down to $50 per person, which was reasonable for the 3 elements. I would recommend such a tour.
The weather was rainy some days, and on such days, there really isn't anything to do in the hotel. We never got any massages because it was again quite expensive, and the shop onsite is extremely overpriced also. TAKE SUNCREAM, as it's $24 for a bottle: ridiculous. They can scam people from this because there are no other shops near the hotel. The souvenirs are also extortionate, so don't expect to buy stuff in there!
The hotel really doesn't have any other restaurants/shops/facilities near it, so you can feel a bit bored and isolated at times, especially when it's raining! It could do with some entertainment on-site...such as a pool table! Even that would improve it.
Every second night, there was some sort of evening entertainment, which was a nice touch. It was mainly bands, but also a brilliant acrobatic group - very good entertainment! I would say that they could do with bands that play more traditional Tanzanian music, rather than the Gipsy Kings and things you would hear on holidays in the Med - too cheesy!
To summarise: If you are looking to chill out on a beautiful island, and just sunbathe and swim, even for honeymoon/couples, then this is the hotel for you. It really is gorgeous and I don't feel like I wasted my money, had a lovely time. 8 days was a bit too much though, when there is no entertainment on site! The boys in our party got bored, but I love just relaxing so I was okay!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
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