Reviews of Sunshine Marine Lodge

"Beautiful place and location. We had Blue Wave Suite and best views out to the Indian Ocean. Loved the design of the hotel; so different to Emerson Spice, yet so good for a beach hotel. Open plan and spacious. Staff were really, really good. Half board option was great. Bar area lovely and pool was superb - I did a lot of swimming first thing in the morning, and loved it. Magnificent views. Wonderful breakfasts - just the fruits alone were enough, but lovely selection of choices and juices and all home made and delicious.

We used bicycles one day and very good way to get to beach and back.

Curio Shop - it would have been helpful to have items individually priced up, as some were and most weren't! So a feeling that prices might be made up or that we should haggle, when infact I would have preferred to just know a set price. Sometimes, haggling just gets one down in a shop which is in a hotel. Fine in a market!

We walked ourselves into the village, having asked at Reception, if this was Ok. It was really worth it. We ended up being shown around by two young men, whom we met on our walk back from the beach, and who were not after money. It felt very important to us to see how locals lived, and especially as I worked a long time ago in a very remote part of Kenya, I wanted to see the village nearest the hotel. We were both so glad we did this. The hotel did offer a guided village tour but at $35 per person, we felt this was expensive and perhaps too 'laid on'. Sure it would have been good but we opted to explore ourselves, once we had sought 'the ok' from the hotel.

All the staff should be congratulated for their warmth and great service.

My husband and son did the diving and despite my husband being sea sick due to rather rough conditions, said it was very good. My son, who is a keen diver, loved it.

Never met the owner, although read his very nice welcome letter in the room. Would have loved to know more about how the hotel was started up, and more about its history and ethos, but we all felt it was very eco conscious and had a really friendly feel to it. Did the Yoga class and it was very good indeed. Gardens beautiful.

Felt like we were truly away from it all. Beach worth walking to or getting in boat or on a bike for as so beautiful. A chilled out feel and we really were able to unwind. Our son, who was only able to join us for the weekend from Dar, loved it too." See all these reviews: 7n in Zanzibar; 5n in Tanzania

"The journey from the airport and the west coast by Stone Town across to the north eastern side of Zanzibar was more than worth it. Firstly I experienced the drive through multiple villages and changes in the vegetation. I went to Marine lodge principally to take up my diving again from 7 or so years ago.

The location with an infinity pool that stretches across the Indian ocean towards Mnemba atoll was stunning and more so because my lodge with its wooden balcony looked straight across at it. Set in a jewel of winding gardens and a lazy holiday atmosphere it was perfect for healing my broken heart at leaving the Serengeti.

A refresher dive in the pool and 2 days of diving helped cure all of that. I had swapped grassland for the ocean with octopus, groupers, stone fish and shoals of rainbow coloured fish. Tea and cake between dives was great and their level of attention and safety was extremely good.

I'm no chicken and although not a large person…gettin me into the water kitted up, well they deserve medals. We laughed a lot.

The hotel gave me everything I asked for, trips to the Spice farm…well worth itt…and the Stone town visit as well as a dubious sail in a small mango boat were on my agenda but the funniest part was the trip to the beach. The boat for transport to the little beach was broken so the barman would drop everything to taxi me to and fro, quite charming and bizarre at the same time. If I wished for anything, it would be that the plastic bottles washed up could be cleared away, such a beautiful coastline." See all these reviews: 6n in Tanzania; 5n in Zanzibar; 1n in Kenya; 1n in Zimbabwe

"fabulous resort, very relaxed and friendly" See all these reviews: 5n in Tanzania; 5n in Zanzibar

"We were really disappointed with Sunshine Marine Lodge. Whilst a great mid-range option for a family holiday, it was totally unsuitable for honeymooners. Fortunately we were able to be upgraded for a few nights, which made a huge difference, but it's simply not an appropriate recommendation for a romantic holiday. The standard banda rooms offer absolutely no privacy to the point that you could hear people coughing in the next door room - at one time my husband had to shout at a young boy watching me in the shower from the stairs up to his room through the mosquito netting! - the hotel did not seem to cater particularly for honeymooners, for the second half of the trip the place was over-run with kids jumping and splashing about in the pool, including, from what we could tell, the manager's kids, so we had very little peace - great for families (and we may even return in the future with a family subject to other improvements) but absolutely not right for a romantic trip in any way. This is obviously an issue with the travel advice provided by Expert Africa rather than the hotel, of course. We cannot emphasise enough that this should not be recommended for people on honeymoon.

On the hotel itself, the setting was great - really beautiful view of Mnemba and very secluded. It was a very lovely spot.

The standard rooms are quite basic but fine. The room we were upgraded to (room 1) was really lovely - again fairly basic, but much more spacious, much more private and with amazing and uninterrupted views. There is an odd habit of putting ant covered flowers on the bed for new guests, which means the bed is then over-run by ants... I would suggest that they stop doing this or wash the flowers first! If you are going then you must ensure you get the Blue Breeze suite to have any sort of privacy.

We went on an enjoyable snorkelling trip, though it was cut short because the manager had agreed to take out a group who had to return early for their flight. We didn't know this until we were on the boat and we weren't given any discount or any offer to stay out for longer or go out again, which is quite poor... I think we were in the water for all of 10 minutes on the second dip.

The service was mostly very average, on some occasions bordering on rude. It seemed to improve towards the end of the week.

Apart from the lack of privacy, the major problem with Sunshine Marine Lodge was the food. The upside being that I lost weight because it was mostly inedible. Given that there is no other option for food as the hotel is so remote, this has to be improved. It was really, really appalling and it should be so easy to offer simple and fresh seafood and salads. The food is genuinely terrible. Especially given we had been on safari the week before where they had managed to make amazing food in the middle of the African bush." See all these reviews: 7n in Zanzibar; 3n in Tanzania

"Beautiful rooms and setting. A week of complete relaxation." See all these reviews: 7n in Tanzania; 7n in Zanzibar

"We had a very relaxing and enjoyable time at the Sunshine Marine Lodge. The quality of the accommodation and service was excellent - and the food also very good.

The location and views from the balcony over the ocean and Mnemwe island were spectacular! Our 2 children learnt to dive at the specialist diving centre at the lodge - and we all went out to beautiful coral reef where we snorkelled and the kids dived. We all felt totally rested after our visit!" See all these reviews: 6n in Zanzibar; 5n in Tanzania