Reviews of Unguja Lodge

"The Unguja Resort was a good place to relax after a hectic 8 day safari however we couldn't help but feel a little disappointed after our outstanding experience at Beho Beho. Both Ralph and Elise (the hosts) went out of their way to make us comfortable but they lack the skills of the Beho Beho and Sand Rivers teams. We think this is because it's a lifestyle choice for Ralph and Elise rather than the desire to be hoteliers (and they had just had a busy Christmas / New Year). They have to run the resort so they can live where they want in the world and I think they would prefer to do this without hotel guests! In saying this, it was a nice resort in a beautiful setting and a great place to relax. The negative was that there was nowhere to go in the evenings for a drink or a walk outside of the resort. We should have done more research as after being in the bush for 8 days we would have liked the option of walking to local restaurants and a bit of night life – if only a couple of low key beach bars.

We stayed in lodge 3, with magnificent views of the ocean and sunsets. A lot of thought has gone into the design of this large lodge with lots of open spaces to relax and enjoy the view in private. One of the best things was just how clean everywhere was and how friendly all the staff were. The early morning room service of coffee/tea was a nice touch.
The food, although the choice limited (fixed menu with only one option) was of a very good quality. We only had breakfast and evening meals. The specialty of crab in pepper sauce was outstanding. The fact that you are asked at breakfast if and what you wanted for lunch was annoying. Unfortunately after the first night the bar ran out of tonic water for my evening G&T and I am surprised that no new stock arrived for the rest of our stay.

We did three trips whilst at the Unguga and all but the guided walking visit to the local village were disappointing. The half day Spice Tour turned out to be 2 1/2 hours around trip in a taxi with a 50 minute trip around a tourist area showing all types of spices grown on the island plus very expensive spices on sale. Although this was interesting we expected a lot more for our $120. At least a lunch or more than one place to visit. We gave our negative feedback to Ralph in a hope that they will improve this. This was organized by the resort and no connection to Expert Africa.

Our dolphin trip was dreadful. We organised this through One Ocean. They only seem interested in diving and getting the maximum amount of money for the minimal amount of effort. They charged us $35 each for just over an hour in an open small boat with 6 other people. We (along with a number of other boats) spent the hour chasing a small number of dolphins and then scaring them away by all jumping over the side. We tried to tell the skipper if they stopped chasing the dolphins and making so much noise getting into the water they might have more success. He was only interested in getting us back - he had done his job and found us dolphins!. Although I am a PADI qualified open diver I have limited diving experience and having looked at the Open Ocean operation and experienced one of their tours I decided not to go diving with them. Something about them didn't feel right.

In summary, it's a great place to relax and unwind in a beautiful location. The food was good (if limited) and the overall cleanliness was superb. However don't expect five star service, any spa treatments or nightlife. Three nights rather than 5 would have been a better option for us but I can see why some people would love to stay longer." See all these reviews: 10n in Zanzibar; 8n in Tanzania

"This was not our style, but very suitable for families.
Owners were brilliant and helpful organising great tours for us to the Jozani forest and a spice farm.
Food was average and no flexibility eg we asked for a cheese sandwich for later lunch after a return from a tour and the chef said it was too difficult, otherwise all staff were very helpful and friendly.
We found it more humid that the other resorts - don't know why.
Loved the splash pools in the chalets and also thought the art was fabulous.
Didn't use the swimming pool, and did not go diving.
Found the openess of the chalets a bit disconcerting.
Didn't like all the grey concrete on the floor - would suggest staining and polishing.
Noisy Russians annoying" See all these reviews: 11n in Tanzania; 5n in Zanzibar

"Elies and Ralph could not be more welcoming or obliging. The whole place has a delightful feel. Although there are well-established grounds or gardens, it is not possible to walk in them owing to the rocky nature of the terrain.

The rooms are amazing - far more spacious and luxurious than the write up in your brochure, which did not prepare us for this magnificence. In addition to the bedroom, there is a delightful sitting area looking out to sea, and a separate "lounge". The toilet is in a room separate from the shower, so you have a choice of 3 wash basins: one in the toilet, one in the shower, and one in the bedroom! The bedroom is spacious, and there is a second "bedroom" up a flight of stairs, on top of the main bedroom. Your brochure write-up does not do the rooms justice.

However, although the rooms were better than expected, the beach was the opposite. Your brochure says: The beach at Unguja is beautiful white sand, but it's not the fine, powdery-white sand of the east coast – it's slightly coarser and has fragments of crushed shells in it. Unguja's beach is far more secluded than most on the east coast, and there are very few people around. Well, that is correct, but what is not said is that to reach the beach you have to walk either along 50 - 100 metres of cliff path, or over a lot of stone/coral. When you reach the beach, it is rather short (less than 100 yards would be my guess). Beyond a small headland at the far end of this short beach, there is a further piece of beach, but this is where the village of Kizimkazi is situated so it is not at all "secluded". All of this beach can be accessed only at low tide. However, in places there is indeed plenty of "fine, powdery-white sand".

Another problem with the beach at Unguja is that in a space of only 20-30 yards I picked up over a dozen pieces of broken glass, which were covered by the sea at high tide. Swimmers beware.

Shells: the hotel is giving mixed messages. In the welcome literature, you are asked not to take away the beach shells, etc. Great stuff! But when you look at the room, you find a display case showing off a variety of different shells, other shells scattered loose in a wicker tray, and the welcome note has a shelll stuck on the front. The hotel's paths are surfaced with a mixture of small stones and crushed shells (which appear to have been taken from the beach). The hotel's excellent conservation message is diluted. It would be more forceful if they practised what they preached! How many guests tear off the shell attached to their welcome message and return it to is natural place?

Zanzibar: The tours of Stone Town, the spice gardens and Johozi forest were all very good. Zala, however, was a mess. In an effort to please the visitors, individual animals and snakes are removed from their pens and handed over to the visitor for inspection and photography. There was a particularly distressing scrum round a poor chameleon with people trying to grab hold of it and pull it in different directions. The chameleon was clearly stressed. Guides could perhaps be "retrained".

We did not take a dolphin watching tour. I had previously met some people who had and they told me a distressing story of how the boat drivers chase and harrass the dolphins in order to get close to them and steer them in a desire direction." See all these reviews: 21n in Tanzania; 5n in Zanzibar

"Unguja Lodge is a stunning facility at a marvelous seaside location!!! We wished that we had an extra 2 or 3 days to soak in some more sun, sand and surf.

We were warmly greeted with a cool drink and towels by management. All of the staff were very friendly. Food was generally buffet style. We particularly liked the soups and deserts.

We took advantage of the water activities desk with a coral reef snorkeling excursion and a dolphin/snorkeling excursion. The coral reef was excellent. We have never seen coral in such great condition!!! coral pieces were whole and not broken off as we have seen in Hawaii, Mexico and Carribean. This was attributed to the area just being opened to visitors and coral not broken by anchors, clients, etc.

Our stone cottage was outstanding: bedroom, sitting area, bathroom, shower room with sea views and patio. There was also a loft (unfurnished in our unit). The ceiling was extremely high, appearing to go up at least 50 feet. The cottage was in excellent condition and appeared to be very clean. When you were in your cottage, we had the feeling that we were in a private home, without neighbors, even though the cottages were actually very close to one another. The laundry service was very good.

There was only one area of concern. At times the common areas of the resort feels very family orientated and at times more couple orientated. The first evening, while we were having dinner in the restaurant around 8pm, kids were running through the restaurant screaming and apparently playing tag. The manager stopped by our table to ask how dinner was and we asked to move to another table to avoid the noise. As we moved to the back of the room, I asked if the screaming kids were going to stay all week. She said yes...some of them are mine.... (oops....). She did talk to the kids and they were a lot quieter. During the day, it could occasionally get noisy at the pool with the kids. You could tell by the looks on the faces of the honeymoon couples that they were not expecting noisy kids. I think at times 3 or 4 of the cottages had kids." See all these reviews: 7n in Tanzania; 4n in Rwanda; 3n in Zanzibar

"Friendly staff - but were pretty slow, did not know about ettiquette in the same way as all the other places we stayed at (brought out the wrong wine on one occassion).

Nice to have tea on our doorstep before breakfast and a nice welcoming card on our arrival. We had a good village tour that we really enjoyed. Washing clothes was relatively cheap.

The bungalows were amazing - extremely spacious and well equipped with air con etc. However our private pool was not cleaned throughout our 4 night stay and by the end we would have not liked to have shared pool with all those fellow insects...

However this was the one place where we did not feel like we were on honeymoon. We did not have any 'special' dinners or complimentary wine, or any little special honeymoon touches. Was rather disappointing given that the rooms were fantastic.

the bar was pretty loud and not particularly relaxing. They often played loud music (which again did not make us feel like we were on honeymoon).

When we relaxed on the sunbeds, we felt that there were not enough around the pool for all guests at times.

the vegetarian food was the most dissapointing part of our stay. We felt like we were awkward guests by having dietary requirements. they did not have an a la carte menu for lunch, so we felt obliged to have a full three course set buffet meal for lunch (or at least pay for three courses, even though we probably had two courses at the most) - which was not brilliant for veggies. Having no real choice when we were there on a half board basis was not great. Despite this, they did make us veggies some chips for lunch, which were nice!

We both feel ill while we were there and think it was related to the food we had there one lunchtime (think that we had a cold soup which probably hadn't used boiled water). This didn't help our stay there.

We found it really strange how they would ask guests straight after breakfast whether they intended to have lunch with them. We were there ona half board basis and so would have liked the option to have lunch if we felt like it later on in the day. but to be honest deciding just after a meal, without knowing what was on the menu, seemed rather strange. When you're on holiday, you don't want to be making food decisions at breakfast!

At first we did not have to sign for our meals and so it meant that we had no idea how much we were spending.

We made a few enquiries while we were there - one asking about why our room safe was not working - another about whether there was anywhere we could go for a massage. we felt rather disappointed that we had to ask twice before anything was done." See all these reviews: 13n in Zanzibar; 3n in Tanzania

"Unguja exceeded all of our expectations; Ralf and Elise have created a beautiful and tranquil retreat, perfect for relaxing after the excitement of a safari and an ideal honeymoon location. We spend lovely and calm days in this beautiful surrounding. They both made it a very special stay.

Because they have only ten "huts" (which are absolutely amazing) it is a very familiar atmosphere and all the people we met there, were nice and kind.

Ralf and Elise spend so much attention to the details. That is what makes the place even more special and gives you the last kick.

In other places were you might have expected that, Govenor's camp for instance, there was a complete lack of details, it all felt a bit "military". No flowers, not attempt to make it nice..." See all these reviews: 8n in Zanzibar; 4n in Tanzania

"The resort was very picturesque.

Rooms / lodges were marvellous, however there was a real lack of communal areas & space, esp for the evenings. I probably would not recommend this lodge (but also fait to say it had to compete with beho beho), and I thought the food was average" See all these reviews: 7n in Zanzibar; 5n in Tanzania

"A spectacularly well-laid out and maintained resort, in a non-touristy part of Zanzibar. The accommodation was great - we had a fabulous view of the sea.

The pool area was always well maintained and spotless.

Our hosts were friendly and helpful, and created a nice ambiance to the resort.

While the food was good, it was not as good as either Gibbs Farm or Suyan - but maybe we were already spoiled by the unexpectedly high quality food in Tanzania.

Its worth noting that Unguja is fairly isolated from other main centres, and the cost of taxi travel is high. Having said that we enjoyed it thoroughly." See all these reviews: 10n in Zanzibar; 3n in Tanzania

"Attention to detail from the moment you step inside a unique environment, from the owners personal welcome at the bar, local soaps & shampoos, kangas & kikoys provided to encourage joining Zanzibar.

We felt more like friends than guests. It apeared to be well away from the main tourist routes meaning that the unmissable guide tour to the local schools and village will never be forgotten." See all these reviews: 9n in Zanzibar; 4n in Tanzania