Travel reviews by Mr B St Mary from UK

"This hotel is fine, though in need of a lick of paint in some places. Good location for visiting the falls themselves, but without the "class" and setting of the Royal Livingstone."

"The Lodge: great setting, food, staff, rooms. We and the kids were totally comfortable from start to finish. A special place with a special history.

The Guide (Willie Shuma) is simply the best. 360 degree, heat-seeking, infra-red vision with a perfect understanding and knowledge of the wildlife (including our kids) and the patience of a saint. A big personality who we missed from the moment we said goodbye.

The Park: blend of East African savannah and South African scrub. We saw pretty much all we could hope to see at close quarters and in good numbers. Memories and photographs to die for. Also the low number of guests per car is a huge bonus - everyone sees everything with no "waiting your turn" evident with cars from other lodges."

"There is nothing wrong with this hotel. The staff are friendly and attentive. The beach and shallow sea is terrific. The rooms are big and clean and the facilities are good. The details on the website are accurate enough. The gardens are terrific (but you wonder about the amount of scarce water being used to keep them that way). The manager, who is French, is good professional manager.

The problem is that - unless this is your first visit to an exotic location - Bluebay it is not special. The nightly themed buffets and "international music" (I don't think I can stomach the Lady in Red one more time) quickly become monotonous. It doesn't feel like you are in Zanzibar, and there is nowhere else to escape to in the evening. To be fair, I would guess that is common of all the east coast resorts. But Breezes (which we could not get into) may have been a better bet.

The huge disappointment for us as a family was the scuba diving. One reason we chose this hotel was for scuba diving, but the operator at the hotel (One Ocean) is seemingly the only PADI dive centre in the world that won't take children under 12 (PADI rules say 10 years) - and they did not have equipment for our (big) 12 year old in any event. There was no other dive centre within commuting distance.

If we had our time again, and Breezes was still unavailable, it might have been better to go to Fumba. Less idyllic beach maybe, but probably more personal an easier commute to Stonetown which is where the real Zanzibar experience is."

"This hotel has a very nice colonial feel and is in a great location. It is clean and very quaint - the fixtures, fittings, electrics and plubing all seem to be 50/6s vintage but they work fine (the room aircon units are modern). It is a good location to tour Stonetown which is a very interesting place that we should have spent more time exploring.

We woud not risk swimming on Stonetown beaches. They look nice enough but the water must be very polluted.

Only complaint would be that the mosquite nets were 3+ inches off the ground and we did pick up 1 or 2 bites."