Overall: This resort is absolutely amazing. The beach is beautiful. I would whole heartedly recommend it for anyone: couples, friends, honeymooners and families. The grounds are beautiful and the customer service is 5 star! The water in the beach is so clear and the tide does not go in and out too much. Bedroom: The bedroom is one of the most beautiful rooms i have stayed in. The room is so large and plenty of space, the bed is so comfortable, pillows are not too soft and with large bathrooms. The TV has lots of channels and good airconditioning. The rooms are cleaned each morning and there is turn down service each evening. Each of the bedrooms had a partial seaview and looked over the hotel grounds so everyone had a great view. The balconies were large and clean and very nice to sit at and watch the sun set. Amenities: The bedroom came with lots of amenities i.e. hairdryer, gown, slippers, umbrellas, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, body lotion, soaps and sanitary bags. The water in the bathrooms is salty so they encourage you to use bottled water to brush your teeth. There is plenty of bottles of water in the room which they replenish each morning and evening, which is not chargable so you always have more than enough. There is also tea/coffee making facilities in each room, a safe, laundry service if you need and a mini fridge. Our minifridge only had bottles of water in it, which I guess the hotel has to do because they can't distinguish between all inclusive guests and other guests. Bathrooms: The bathrooms in each of the rooms were huge, and every clean. Our shower was hot and good pressure. They give plenty of towels. There was also a standalone bathtub which was beautiful to look at but unfortunately I didn't use because the water was not hot enough. The toilet area also had a bidet. Overall - great bathroom. Beach: The beach was absolutely stunning. It is amongst one of the best beaches I have been to. The water is crystal clear, not dirty and no sea weed. Water is calm and warm enough to swim in. The beach is comparable to the Maldives. Bright blue and so pretty to look at. The sand is fine white powdery sand which is so clean and easy to walk on. The staff of the hotel keep the beach area so clean, there is no rubbish in the sand. There are also sun beds on the beach. Guests should note that the beach is not fully private, it is a public beach so you do get local sellers trying to sell you stuff but they are polite. There is a point on the sand which they cannot go past so as long as you are within the hotel grounds, they cannot bother you. Activities: We thoroughly enjoyed plenty of activities during our stay. There is always something for everyone i.e. morning stretches, swahili lessons, village walk, sunset yoga, dance classes. There are timetables placed around the resort and in your room so you never miss out. My favourite was Aqua Gym, every day at 11:30am - this was so much fun, and good for all ages. The instructor was great and very enthusiatic. Pools / sunbeds: There are multiple pools in the hotel, the water is a very good temperature that you can stay in the pool all day long. The pools are not deep so you can stand in all of the pools. There are also plenty of sun beds to go around, no need to reserve first thing in the morning. Upon arrival you will be given towel cards which can be exchanged for towels at the towel station for use on the sun beds. Staff / service: staff are so friendly and welcoming. Right from check in when they greeted us with a refreshing drink and cold towel. They always say hello, smile and see how you are. They go out of their way to cater for your every need. The make the time to have a conversation with you even if they are in a rush. The attention to detail as well is impeccable. They are always cleaning the hotel grounds, sweeping the leaves and tending to the plants. The sand and beach area is so clean and so is all the other areas of the hote. Arm bands: If you are an all inclusive guest, you get given an arm band (wrist band) to identify you so that you are not charged. The wristbands are sort of like the ones you'd get in a festival so cannot be removed unless cut with scissors. This avoids anyone trying to share wristbands. Food: There is the Main buffet restaurant "Spices" which serves a buffet three times a day for all guests. The buffet is amazing. Lots of vegetarian options to choose from. The buffet variety options change everyday so it doesn't feel reptitive. Food is replenished constantly so it never runs out. The area is clean and kept very tidy. There were no queues. There is also fresh cooking for eggs / pancakes etc during breakfast. And during dinner there is also many different live cooking stations - all of which had different vegetarian options. The chefs and managers also constantly walk around to check on guests to see if everything is ok and any improvements could be made. I suggested having more serving spoons to avoid spoons mixing at the buffet stands (annoying for vegetarians as spoons are re-used for veg and non-veg stuff) and this was listened to and implemented the very next morning! And there is one more "Cliff" restaurant which serves a la carte for lunch and dinner only. For dinner it is mainly seafood offering. Lunch has more variety as sandwiches / wraps / pizza / pasta etc. Dinner guests have to be pre-booked but lunch you can walk in. The a la carte is great - there is a menu to choose from and items can be adapted to suit your needs. So a number of dishes were adapated for us as we were vegetarian. There are some inclusive items on the menu for the all inclusive guests and some other parts of the menu were chargable as extra. We really enjoyed the cliff as the views are better, food is prepared for you directly, the service is more personalised and definetly better for portion control. Every thursday, there is a gala dinner for all hotel guests when the main buffet area is closed. Here there were also loads of vegetarian options to choose from which was great. It would have been helpful if the hotel would inform guests in their rooms in advance before the dinner so we can dress for the occassion, i.e. in other hotels they have just slipped a note under the hotel inviting all guests to the dinner. Food was always freshly cooked and tasted great, especially the indian food which was packed full of flavour. Drinks: There drinks were so good. There are a number of bars that you can use. If you are on all inclusive like us, there is a "inclusive" drinks menu to choose from which includes some cocktails and local spirits / beers. There is also an "exclusive" part of the drinks menu which is chargable as extra. Drinks are also served during meal times. We asked for Masala tea at breakfast which was very good. Fresh coconut juice was not an option. Other Services: The hotel has a spa which we didn't use but looked great. There is a local shop on the resort and a cashier. If you buy anything at the local shop, it can be charged to your room and paid on check out in case you don't carry around money with you. The hotel also offers its own scuba diving / snorkelling at a charge. Location: The location of the resort is about one and half hours away from the airport. Its on the north of the island in Nungwi. Far away from any other local traffic or pollution. Cons: Air conditioning unit in rooms is quite loud. The turn down service is great but could be better done by staff removing dirty towels and replenishing them. Aside from the main meal times there is no other poolside snacks like crisps / nuts / spring rolls. The hotel could benefit from offering a pool menu outside of meal times. There is an afternoon tea, but because there are no other pool snacks...the food from afternoon tea goes so quickly and is not replenished. So if you are not fast, you won't get any. The hotel does not have pool attendents taking drinks orders, so if guests are on sun beds all day, you have to keep getting up to go to the pool bar to get a drink. There are too many local sellers on the beach. You cant go more than 5 mins without being approached by someone trying to sell you something. The hotel should do its own coconut cart on the grounds for fresh coconuts to guests. Have it as chargeable, I am sure guests would buy it for a small price and guests are looking for this. Similary the hotel could do an icecream cart. More info on the hotel could be provided in the room like a catalogue of services i.e including a resort map, spa services menu, local excursion ideas etc. The hotel rooms could benefit from some added amenities i.e. cotton pads, sewing kits, vanity kits, plastic comb, dental kit. There could also be a pen / paper pad on the bedside table. The only think I would say about the drinks is that the fruit juices are not fresh which is unfortunate. It would be good to have some fresh watermelon / pinapple or orange. Arm bands: the edges of the wrist band are quite sharp and scratches if you are not careful. The hotel should consider other wrist band options. Sunbeds: The only thing I would say about the sun beds is that they are leather. So unless you are the shade, the leather will get very hot. And if you are sleeping on it, it will stick to your skin. The beach towels are also too small to cover the whole sun bed. We had to get two towels per sun bed to cover the whole area to avoid our skin rubbing against the leather. I would suggest bigger towels and changing the material of the sun beds. I understand why it is leather because when it rains the water can just be shaken off. Activities: The timetable of the activities should be a bit more clear about the location of some of the activities. We missed out a few times because we didn't know the starting point. Also, it is good to double check the timings as the activities board outside of the main buffet area is wrong for the evening entertainment, our room leaflet gave a different timing which was correct. …
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.