Travel reviews by Mr JC from SE London

"Wonderful location, the staff were excellent as was the food! Plenty of safari options during our 4 days there and we would really recommend the fly camping experience. We saw plenty of wildlife and it was always just us watching, there were not loads of other Land Rovers suddenly appearing.

The knowledge of our guide Edson was superb and he went out of his way to make sure we were happy and comfortable. The rooms were very comfortable and had fabulous views overlooking the river where we could listen to and watch plenty of hippos. The management and staff at Sand Rivers were also very friendly and made us feel very welcome.

Highly recommended."

"Great experience which we are so glad we did. Beautiful location next to a lake and the staff couldn't have looked after us any better, food was again excellent.

A real experience knowing that there were so many crocodiles, hippos within 20-30 metres of where we were eating, sleeping in the pitch black!"

"Pure paradise, best beach you could ever wish for with beautiful clear turqoise waters. We stayed there 11 nights and absolutely loved every minute. There isn't much to do other than enjoy the location, food and relax - which we certainly did.

The food was excellent and varied and the staff made us feel very welcome.

We would love to go back!"

"We stayed there for 1 night and loved the individual character of the spacious rooms and hallways. Great, quiet location to explore Stone Town from and the staff were very welcoming.

We had an excellent dinner at the restaurant in the evening which, although was more expensive than you would typically pay in Stone Town, was still excellent value for money."

"We stayed here for 1 night at the end of our honeymoon. Lovely hotel which is very comfortable but we were really disappointed with the service and attitude of some of the staff when we arrived at 12.30pm. We were made to wait for half an hour when we checked in and were told initially that our room would be ready in a few minutes. At 1pm I asked how much longer we had to wait and eventually was told that our room wouldn't be ready until after 2pm, so the Receptionist suggested we went and had some lunch which we were happy to do, and they would come and get us when our room was ready.

When we tried to have lunch by the pool we were initially told in a rather unfriendly manner that we weren't allowed there as we didn't have a room. Eventually we were allowed but overall it was a rather frustrating and unfriendly welcome we'd received. No one came to find us to say our room was ready so at 2.30pm I went back to Reception...and waited another 20 minutes whilst they tried to find us a room.

Our room was very comfortable and quite stylish but was not a sea view as booked. When I questioned this with Reception they were aware of this but said we would have to wait longer for a sea view room to become available - frustrating so we stayed with the city view room we'd been given.

On the up side, the pool and spa is very nice and Level 8 bar and the Oriental Restaurant are both excellent and very popular."