The Residence Zanzibar

We have stayed here a few times before at the same time of year and always found it to be a wonderful holiday. This time, we arrived in the afternoon and were very warmly welcomed with a quick check-in and cooling drink. The villas are large and beautifully decorated with air-conditioning to cool down in the hot weather and their own individual plunge pools which are regularly checked for water quality. The grounds of the resort are beautiful with a small troup of monkeys, but beware of them stealing food, and a lovely little friendly cat who comes round at meal times. All of the staff are very friendly and helpful and a big thank you to all of the staff in the restaurants, Hellen, Farida, Sulesh and everyone else. There is a buggy with a very friendly and helpful driver to take you between your villa and anywhere else on the resort that you want to go. We particularly enjoyed the swimming pool which is great for exercise or just for cooling down if the weather is hot and a mid-afternoon ice-cream service around the pool is a real treat. A great stay and hope to be back again.

We absolutely loved this hotel, the rooms are incredible (we had a beach villa) the food is beautiful and I am still dreaming about the cocktails!! The location of this hotel is exactly what we were looking for, we had just been on a week safari and this was perfect to relax for the second half of our honeymoon! The staff are amazingly friendly and they cannot do enough for you, we liked a drink in the villa before bed and they always made sure they brought them to us so we didn’t have to take them on our bikes! The spa is also lovely! The service is amazing and somehow everyone seems to know who you are! The only problems we had with the hotel are… 1. We were put in the wrong room initially we were given a garden villa, I wouldn’t have minded as they are beautiful, but we had paid extra for the ocean villa so asked to be moved, they moved us to one villa about an hour after we arrived (1am) I was in my PJs, they then moved us again the next day at lunch time after saying it would be 10am so we didn’t miss out on a morning while we waited around. But once we were in the right room it was incredible! 2. There are loads of power cuts at the hotel. It happens usually from about 3pm and goes on all afternoon and evening, we often ate in the dark and sat in the dark in the villa. We were told it is island wide however as we were the end villa we could hear that the property next door had music on. 3. There is no room service included in the all inclusive package, if you want room service you have to pay for the items and a $10 service charge. 4. Late check out. I was originally told that a late check out (5pm) was going to cost $250 however we negotiated to $100, we were then told at dinner that we had to pay that night (I assumed we’d pay with the rest of the bill on check out) so a buggy was waiting for us to take us to reception to pay. So we missed our last nights entertainment and last orders, which put a bit of a dampener on the last night. Those points aside I would absolutely come back to this hotel and Zanzibar to do some more exploring oh and get a mango martini!

Resort is beautiful. The. ViIlls was amazing. It would have been a great experience except….. The food is absolutely horrible. I mean terrible. Even the deserts were gross. By far the worst food I’ve ever had and you are trapped there. It’s an hour drive anywhere else so you are stuck with what they serve. I ate the same salad for every meal and it wasn’t great. It was just somewhat consumable. Even the pizza was bad. They offer no snacks. My husband will eat anything and even he struggled.

My sister and I spent an absolutely amazing week here! The quality of the Villa was first class, spotlessly clean and extremely well appointed. The private pool was beautiful and very clean, the patio had a perfect mixture of sun and shade. The ‘room ladies’ Margaret and Sofia were wonderful, friendly, helpful and efficient. The staff in general were absolutely fantastic, friendly and helpful, from the porters to the maintenance team. The evening buffet was varied and tasty, breakfasts were a delight, to sit in the open air looking at the sea! A special mention for Justina and Ibrahim who were so lovely to see every day at the buffet. Please remember to be nice to these people, they are working whilst we are living the dream! The hotel pool is huge, clean and in a wonderful environment. Safari Blue was a fabulous day excursion, as was a 1day safari to Mikumi National Park. The wildlife at this hotel is off the scale, Elephant Shrews, Hyrax, Pygmy deer, lots of different birds, colobus monkeys! I really can’t recommend this hotel enough! Power cuts are a small inconvenience when one is in paradise! We’ll be back. Thank you all at The Residence, Zanzibar.

The best thing about The Residence is the staff. They are exceptional! They always greet you with a smile and “Jambo” . They are attentive and always greet you with a smile. Genuinely lovely people. We had a prestige beach front villa that was great. Very spacious, clean and comfortable. Bed linen so fresh. Our own 1.2m deep pool was great. Lovely views across the sand to the ocean. Power cuts and WiFi outages occur most days but are usually limited although one evening power cut lasted an hour. But you’re in Africa! There are 2 meal choices. The evening buffet is ok. Not 5 star food but acceptable. The Pavillion offers a more intimate dining experience for couples and the food is superior - that said we got symptoms suggestive of mild food poisoning after eating the lobster. If you love a beach holiday and spending time in the sea The Residence is not for you. The beach looks lovely but the sand is sharp and coarse and you can’t walk barefoot in it. The tide goes out by a mile rendering the sea unusable for much of the time. It feels sludgy underfoot with a lot of debris. However, having your own pool was enough for us but we would’ve liked to walk along the beach barefoot on occasion but that’s not really a possibility without footwear. I’ve heard Zanzibar described as The African Maldives. Seriously it is nowhere near that standard. Would I recommend The Residence. Yes! But not if the beach is a big attraction for you. The fact this one is deserted tells its own story. Would I go back to Zanzibar? Probably not! It is lovely in places but is strewn with plastic litter everywhere including the beaches. No tourists no Zanzibar they say - so they’d better get their act together as it’s difficult to see past plastic bottles to admire the beach.