Reviews of Breezes Beach Club

"Places like Breezes are always difficult to critique fairly because after the excitements of safari your needs are very different and expectations lower. We have tried several 'post safari' places like this in Mozambique, Malawi and most disastrously in Mauritius, but I think for all of us Breezes has come out as our best. The staff were, without exception, delightful. Our room was vast and extremely comfortable. The food was overwhelming in choice and quantity at times but of such high standard. Best curry ever!

Lovely pool, empty beach. We played tennis every day on a good quality court but if I had one slight niggle I would moan about the quality of the fencing around it - just a low wall on one side and some ill fitting wire on the other - which meant you felt beholden to the very obliging man to constantly retrieve your balls.

Should also mention Fishermen Tours here who were always punctual and efficient. We arranged a Jozani Forest trip to see the colobus (had no idea quite how close they would be) which I'm very pleased we did but they charged 50 dollars each for what amounted to a half hour taxi there and back. By the time you tipped the guide it was an expensive few hours." See all these reviews: 7n in Tanzania; 7n in Zanzibar

"Our standard room was spacious and comfortable and we appreciated the tea & coffee making facility. The standard rooms are a bit of a walk from the dining room and pool but we didn't mind the exercise after the big meals!

Staff were very welcoming and the service was good. You didn't even need to move from your lounger as the bar staff would come & take your order.

We liked the alternation between theme buffet nights and served set dinners and the way the waiting staff's outfits and tablecloths/seat backs changed to the theme of the evening - it just made it a little more special. The food was varied, hot and well presented. We also tried the al la carte restaurant and lunch restaurant by the beach and enjoyed both.

There was entertainment on most nights - sometimes just a group playing music but also some exciting dancers, a bigger band and acrobatic group - and this started at a reasonable time of the evening. (We've been to other resort hotels where the entertainment doesn't start until 10 pm and half the guests have gone to bed.)

We would definitely recommend the spa - lovely surroundings and very well trained practioners of the various treatments available.

The lounges, reception etc. were beautifully decorated in particular Arab & African styles." See all these reviews: 8n in Zanzibar; 6n in Tanzania

"Prior to our trip we had read some negative comments regarding Breezes so were a bit apprehensive. This was not justified, we had booked a suite, the room was very large, well equipment with a dressing room and very nice bathroom with an excellent balcony with sunbeds, sofa, chairs, table for when you wanted to be on your own.

The food was good, although sometimes the service in the restaurants was slow.

It satisfied what we wanted for the end of our holiday, from a cold and damp mountain, to early mornings on safari, this gave us the relaxation that we needed for our five night stay." See all these reviews: 5n in Tanzania; 5n in Zanzibar; 4n in Rwanda; 1n in Kenya

"The rooms and general facilities at Breezes were exceptional and we were very impressed with them. The food was fantastic - there were a huge number of choices covering a wide range of different tastes and absolutely everyone in a party of 10 was happy with every meal.

Our main disappointment was the fact that so few of the water sports were available to us. Unfortunately, because of the location with the reef immedieately in front of the hotel, the tide was out when the wind got up on the few days we were there which meant that windsurfing, sailing and, particularly, kite surfing had to be abandoned.

Additionally, one of the major factors in choosing Breezes had been the dive school. For a number of reasons, only one of our party was able to dive in the end and because he didn't have a "buddy" to dive with it seemed he was not going to be able to dive for the entire time we were there. Fortunately on the last day he was invited to join a group and was able to get a dive.

One other fact I would mention is that the water sports centre advertises a "reef walk" when the tide is out. This is downright dangerous. You struggle out there trying to avoid stepping on sea urchins and scratching yourself with coral and have to return "blind" with the sun and ripples on the surface of the water. We all arrived back with several coral cuts and sea urchins needing to be removed. Fortunately there is a nurse on site who was able to administer antiseptic and remove urchin spines!

Otherwise our trip was very much enjoyed. Fishermans Tours were excellent - far more helpful than the hotel's own staff when we asked about tours. They arranged everything exceptionally well and we spent a very enjoyable day in Stone Town and visiting a spice farm with an excellent guide, Ramadan." See all these reviews: 5n in Zanzibar; 3n in Tanzania

"We have mixed views about Breezes Beach Club. The rooms were very good and the hotel is set in a beautiful location. Service was varied - good sometimes but very slow (particularly in the bar next to the restaurant) at other times. The food was good and varied every evening eg Buffet, Barbecue evening, Spice evening, set menu.

The Water Club were very helpful (particularly Sara, the Danish girl) but a lot of the actiivites are very dependent on wind and tide conditions. My son had 1 kite surfing lesson but was unable to get onto the water because there wasn't enough wind. The children were also not able to windsurf because of lack of wind. The snorkelling trip was good but expensive.

The Padi Dive Centre were not very helpful and my husband was very disappointed because he wanted to dive on the Monday we were there but because he didn't have a buddy they wouldn't take him out. They did take him the following day at a cost of 190 dollars.

An additional tip - beware if you decide to do the reef walk at low tide. We were all wearing reef shoes but on the return walk it was very hard to see where you were walking in the sunlight. You have to avoid treading on coral and sea urchins - 3 of our party had to visit the nurse to remove sea urchin spikes!" See all these reviews: 5n in Zanzibar; 3n in Tanzania

"Our view is that there are better hotels in Zanzibar.

Swimming in the sea only posible for 3 hours per day at high tide.
Staff are not as interactive as at other hotels such as La Gemma Del Est, i believe now called Diammonds." See all these reviews: 10n in Zanzibar; 6n in Tanzania

"Breezes was lovely - clean, pretty, well run, fabulous food, lovely accommodation.

It does need an all 'inclusive option' though; it is tedious having to sign for everything and their exchange rate when settling the bill wasn't good. We would have paid in Tanzanian schillings if we had known" See all these reviews: 10n in Zanzibar; 6n in Tanzania

"The rooms seemed quite dingy after Beho Beho, but this was due mainly to the lighting. The bathrooms in particular could do with a decent light for shaving, contact lenses, make up etc! Housekeeping and cleanliness was excellent. Always plenty of sunloungers, particularly overlooking the beautiful beach.

Staff brought round fruit kebabs mid-morning. We regretted not taking reef shoes, as there are coral and sea urchins everywhere in the water, although shoes can be borrowed from the water centre for a small fee. We sailed and canoed from the Breezes water centre, and learnt to scuba dive at the independent Rising Sun Centre (this was very expensive - $500 for scuba diver level and $655 for open water diver per person).

Charges at Breezes for drinks, lunch, laundry etc all very reasonable. I had an excellent Thai massage at the spa. The service in the bar and restaurant was friendly and very good. Food was generally good, and different each night. The breakfast buffet was excellent.

It was a relief not to have TV and phones in the bedrooms - our teenage sons watched an Arsenal match in the TV room which pleased them!" See all these reviews: 7n in Zanzibar; 4n in Tanzania

"After 6 days on safari Breezes was a good place to unwind." See all these reviews: 7n in Tanzania; 4n in Zanzibar

"We arrived in Breezes after our transfer from the northern Serengeti and immediately hit a problem. There was a long delay and eventually the assistant manager appeared and told us there was a problem with our rooms. He said that another family with the "same name" had arrived earlier and had been given our rooms by mistake! As a result it meant that our teenage daughters were in a completely different part of the resort (at the back of the property) whilst we were at the front. Now I can accept that hotels make mistakes with bookings and that rooms are shuffled around depending on circumstances, but this is the first time I've heard this excuse. Surprisingly we didn't meet the family with the same name during our entire stay here!

The manager said that this was only for one night and that they would put us into a pair of rooms (the villa) which were attached with a sitting room the next day. This rather dampened our spirit but we were assured that these rooms were more suitable and they also offered us a complimentary lunch. The next day we were asked to leave our bags packed and after spending some time on the beach were contacted just after lunch to move them. I went to see the rooms and whilst they were OK they felt very hot with a bit of a musty/damp smell. I assumed that this was because the air conditioning had not been switched on, it was also disconcerting that someone else's bags were still in the room. I went back to the room later in the afternoon at about 3pm with my wife as she wanted to unpack and the air conditioning was still not working and the room smelt even worse. My wife was rather upset by this and I went to speak with the assistant manager. We sat around whilst the air conditioning was fixed in one room, however it was incredibly noisy in the second room and the smell was still present. Eventually I asked them to move us to some different rooms which provoked a lot of head scratching. I gave them an hour to come up with a solution. Eventually they said they had asked another family to move rooms as they were leaving in the morning and gave us two rooms next to each other, however there was another delay of an hour whilst they organised this and cleaned the rooms (they wanted two hours which would have meant we didn't get into our rooms until gone 7pm).

Once we got past this initial issue and we were able to settle down the hotel was fine. We got our lunch and a bottle of wine one evening, plus the girls were given a massage voucher. It's just a shame that the first couple of days were handled in this manner and that I had to threaten to leave the property before a solution was found. Expert Africa were great in helping us resolve this as they applied pressure to the hotel on our behalf as well. Other gripes: The welcome drinks reception was a bit of a joke and basically an excuse to sell you additional services. The diving centre is good, however be warned that they don't take credit cards, only cash.

The location is excellent, we were lucky with high tides and didn't suffer from problems with sea urchins on the reef walks. We found that the sunbeds had gone fairly early when we returned from a diving trip at 10am, however there were plenty at the side of the pool. Lunch menu is great, drinks were good and the meals were reasonably varied during the week." See all these reviews: 7n in Tanzania; 7n in Zanzibar