Zanzibar Sunrise at Bandas

After a week of safari in Tanzania, we were looking forward to recovery and lazy days by the beach. We arrived at Zanzibar Sunrise and were welcomed by friendly staff, a beautiful garden with pool and peaceful background music. The breakfast alone is a reason to stay at Sunrise, choosing from fresh fruit and vegetables, egg dishes and great coffee, at any point of the day. We had a base of shakshuka all mornings, because of delicious. The staff helped us find and book activities for our stay, a private boat picked us up outside our house and took us snorkeling with fish and dolphins at the reef of Mnemba. We went reef walking with one of the hotel’s knowledgable gardeners, to see sea urchins, starfish, sea cucumber and more, the tide can be quite dramatic on this side of the island. The lovely manager Farah handled some early quirks with our stay in a swift, understanding and professional attitude, we couldn’t be more grateful for that. The entertainment manager Michael played a key part in creating a life memory of a romantic honeymoon dinner, with flowers, small lamps. white cloth and an exuberance of flowers framed the evening. This memory will be with us always. The food overall was so good and we didn’t find the need to visit other hotels for dinner. The wine list was mainly south african and somewhat scarce due to the approaching end of season, but we had some great pairings to fish and seafood. (The tiger prawn curry in papadum bowl is to die for). Thanks for making our honey moon so special, we cannot recommend this place highly enough!

We have just spent a week there and it was a great and relaxing experience!! The resort is really nice, clean and cared, and the staff is extremely friendly. They offered yoga classes during the weekdays and we got one of the best massages in our lives in their spa. The food was great and the nights of live music (Tuesdays and Fridays) were top so we really enjoyed a lot our stay there. With regards to the area (not sure if this is the same in all Zanzibar), important to know that you cannot swim in the sea during low tides as the floor is full of stones and sea urchins but it is Ok in high tides. In the beach you have a lot of people trying to sell you things. They are quite Ok when you tell them “no, thanks” but the recurrence of these interactions can be a bit annoying. Last but not least, the sound of the sea during the nights in high tides is very very loud. We got used to it but it took for us a couple of nights.

We loved our stay at Zanzibar Sunrise! From our charming cottage right on the beach, to the fabulous food, beautiful pool, yoga, reef walk, and perfect location we had an ideal week. Farah and the staff were incredible and took excellent care of us. The live music exceeded our expectations! I cannot recommend this place enough!