Reviews of Serena Inn

"Very well placed city hotel for a short stop whilst visiting a most interesting town" See all these reviews: 17n in Tanzania; 6n in Zanzibar

"We were warned by you that Stonetown was noisy, and thought we'd be able to avoid this by staying at the Serena, but no!

At 2.am the staff started cleaning the corridor outside our room with industrial cleaners, and a lot of verbal noise. When my husband went out to see what on earth was going on they wre unperturbed, and the racket continued, with another round at 3 am. When we raised the matter next morning with reception they were frankly indifferent.

As against this the hotel itself is nice, and in a good position. The food was good, and at breakfast the lady in charge ordered me a special ginger tea to help with my lost voice. Most of the staff were very helpful, maybe only the cleaners had a problem! This does need to be addressed.

On reflection I dont think it was necessary to stay in Stonetown to see the sights, and it would be better to do this by going on a tour on the way from one destination to another" See all these reviews: 7n in Zanzibar; 1n in Tanzania

"The hotel met our expectations pretty well. The breakfasts (the only meals we ate there) were terrific and the room very good, with one exception.

The bathroom was not nearly at the standard you would expect of a hotel at this price and while this only detracted a little from the overall experience, it should be noted and fed back to the hotel management - they really do need to re-think the design. The fittings were tired, to say the least, and so their replacement should accompany the redesign." See all these reviews: 9n in Tanzania; 5n in Zanzibar

"Lovely welcome, very helpful staff. Hotel well placed in the centre of Stone Town.

We would highly recommend hiring a guide (the hotel got one for us) to prevent being hassled as you walk around the alleys. Ours was informative about the area, and took us to the market at our request. Unfortunately, the evening we stayed was quite cloudy so we missed out on the sunset which would have been fabulous from the bar area.

The restaurant is a lovely room, with windows over the beach and sea. Our dinner was very acceptable, although one of our sons had an upset stomach that night. The hotel management were very accommodating the following day when he still felt ill, and allowed us to use one bedroom for 6 hours after the checkout time at no extra charge." See all these reviews: 7n in Zanzibar; 4n in Tanzania

"Top place, great setting, very professional, excellent food and service.

A perfect one or 2 night stopover from which to explore the old part of StoneTown" See all these reviews: 9n in Zanzibar; 8n in Tanzania

"Fantastic hotel, service and staff." See all these reviews: 8n in Zanzibar; 4n in Tanzania

"Outstanding room (top floor, corner on to sea and pool area), airy balcony etc. Efficient friendly service (restaurants, front desk)

Good food, excellent on Terrace restaurant, worth reserving table there to get sea front table

Serena generators worked perfectly to provide all services day and night. (Stone Town and all Zanzibar suffering from major power shortages)

Hotel organised one "spice tour" for us which was just what we wanted.

Hotel was not full, perhaps recession in Europe? Plenty of room at pool and all facilities.

We actually returned as scheduled from Chumbe and found it very convenient to have all-day use of a room (paid separately) before catching late afternoon flight" See all these reviews: 6n in Zanzibar

"Can't fault it. Staff were so friendly and service was excellent." See all these reviews: 6n in Zanzibar; 3n in Tanzania

"When we arrived we were told that our room would not be available until 5 or 6pm, however to make up for this, we were upgraded to a suite (room 40) for our stay, which was a very nice set of rooms.

One down point to the hotel was that we were surprised a couple of times by hotel staff entering the room without seeming to knock first. Although since it was a suite they didn't walk uninvited into the bedroom.

On one of the evenings the area around the pool was booked for a private cocktail evening and, given this was the main outdoor restaurant area we felt we had to go outside the hotel for dinner. The hotel did warn us about this earlier in the day and the party did finish when promised." See all these reviews: 7n in Tanzania; 7n in Zanzibar

"Although our stay at Serena was excellent, we have rated Serena as 'good' because of few small details.

There was a mix up at check in. They apparently didn't have our reservation - however there was a John Taylor from the UK on their list. Luckily we had our coupon handy and the matter was quickly resolved.

We were under the impression that Serena's restaurant was the best in town. We dined on the terrace, which was beautiful, however we were disappointed in the quality, taste and presentation of the food. The following evening we crossed the street to 'Beyt al Chai'. We loved their crab coconut soup so much that we returned the following day for lunchl! Also, the Serena's internet, when working, was very slow, so therefore we felt it was overpriced for the time required to use it. Although when the system quit on us, they were considerate enough not to charge us

A walking tour around Stone Town is a must and our guide, Soloman, was excellent. However, Fisherman's Tours didn't have our names on their roster for the day trip to Chumbe, and as the tour was booked up, we were not able to participate - no matter how much we begged! To fill in our day, we went on the half day trip to Prison Island. It was fun to feed the tortoises, and interesting to see the prison that was used as a quarantine station. I had great expectations for the snorkeling, but it cannot compare to snorkeling in the Caribbean. The fish were small and not exceptionally numerous or colourful. There were a great variety of corals and anemones, but the colours were not vivid.

The highlight of the day was on our return boat ride when 2 dolphins, not normally seen in this area, briefly swam along side the boat! That afternoon we rested, which was exactly what we needed after being on the go for the past 12 days. So, in the end, it was fortuitous that we had not been registered on the Chumbe day trip! Our last morning we visited Jozani Forest. As we had experienced so much wilderness and wildlife over the past 12 days, we did not find viewing the monkeys to be as exciting as we had anticipated.

With all this in mind, we would have preferred to visit Stone Town at the beginning of our African visit, staying for only one night at the Serena - enough time for a walking tour and to visit the monkeys at Jozani Forest. This would have been a good initial interaction with wildlife. If we were to stay longer on Zanzibar Island, then we would leave Stone Town and stay in the beach areas." See all these reviews: 10n in Tanzania; 2n in Zanzibar