Bawe Island Resort — Hotel in Bawe Island

Bawe Island Resort surpasses any expectation we had. The Location is just heavinly, the ocean magestic with low tides to explore and wander during the day and then higher tides to swim and enjoy the light waves in the afternoon. The food is really good, they have kep a wonderful and much respected authenticity to the location, we also tried the Chef’s Grill which is a live cooking dinner with really good dishes and an Italian restaurant that was pleasantly good. It was our anniversary as well and the staff/management were so amazing that they organized a romantic dinner celebration for us (thank you Amine & Asifewe) which was magical, 5 course delicious menu, a chef’s special desert, and then an anniverdary cake which we still canmt get over!|The Views bar is a MUST for sunset, it is breathtaking - sitting over the ocean cliff with a delightful drink watching the glorious colors of the sunset - breathtaking!|We also had the chance to experience two of the theme nights, the White Party and the traditional African Night which was an absoloute blast - local traditional dishes, sweets, dance shows, and we ended up as well dancing with the dancers and staff which was a perfect add-on to the entire vibe. |The Villas are very well equipped, high end and top quality - private pool, outdoor big seating area and tanning beds, indoor had a seating area which was really sizeable and not overarching to the sleeping area, the outdoor bathroom and shower were surprisingly a very nice touch to the whole atmosphere, and the overall design is just simply pleasant to the eye and soul!|The place is very well maintained and it is evident that they are keeping regular mosquito, bugs, insects control! We faced no issues with this whatsoever! They also keep bikes customized for the guests infront of the villas with names tagged to them which is really nice.|As for the Staff, the private buttler who was helping us, Asifewe, is an absoloute gem! Since the moment we arrived, her joyous smile, welcoming spirit, and continuois support were consistently refreshing. Attentive, witty, professional, Polite, and knowledgebale of every detail we asked about - We can’t thank her enough!|Carine from The Sand restaurant was amazing as well! She made sure we had everything we needed during our meals, we really appreciated that. The Resort Manager, Amine, has shown the highest level of hospitality and professionalism we have ever seen. He genuinely cares about the well being of the guests, attentive to every detail, and his passion for his job and to Bawe is evident and remarkable! At Bawe, you don’t feel like a guest, because of them, you feel like this is a sanctuary, a place where you just want to run to for serenity and just don’t want to leave!|By far, our favorite holiday, our favorite location, our favorite resort. We arrived to Bawe as guests but we left Bawe with memories to cherish forever, a place we will definitely come back to, people we will be glad to call friends, and an anniversary that was nothing less than our honeymoon! |Definitely recommended, can’t thank Bawe Island Resort Team for making this vacation one for the records! Keep it up guys and we can’t wait to...

Overall experience: Maldives wannabe, but at the moment the product and service is far from it. Definitely not a five star experience. Not worth the money they charge you.

The transfer to the island by boat left us soaking wet. We arrived not at the jetty, but at the beach directly, which did not make the landing comfortable. We were greeted by waving staff, which was supposed be nice, but felt kind of awkward and unnatural (imagine getting off the boat in wet clothes after 12+ hours of travel to see random people waving at you 🙄).

The food was generally a poor experience during our stay. The portions in general were tiny and limited to the point where we could tell how many pieces of carrot and broccoli we were served the other day. There was no buffet and a la carte plates were small. The plates you were served were different from what was described in the menu (i.e. menu said "2 poached eggs on the wholegrain toast" vs we've received 1 egg on the wheat bun). When we asked about plates made to order, there were often mix ups - i.e. ordered green juice (celery, cucumber, kiwi) turned out to be orange with carrots.

The villa: it was spacious and clean. The bathroom is open air, so not everyone might like it. It was windy during our stay (toilet paper flying everywhere) and hot when you tried to refresh yourself, so please take a notice. A welcome bottle of sparkling wine was a nice touch.👍 There's plenty of space on the outside of the villa to spend the time and enjoy the sun: the pool was cleaned daily, there were 2 sun beds in the garden, there was a table with chairs and a rattan beach lounger with a canopy. The downside is that the garden does not have any sand - it's just dry dirt with some bushes and trees. During the low tide the view is quite miserable.

The island: it's about 15-20 mins away by boat from Zanzibar. Private resort, so there are no unwanted guests and locals - only hotel guests and staff. Most of the island shore is rocky and with limited access to the sea. Only several villas have direct access to the sandy beach and from the rest of the villas you need to walk to the beach at the southwestern end of the island. You can get around the island on foot, by bike (they seem in a pretty bad shape already) and pedal-powered buggies. Staff offer to pick you up by golf cars, too. Don't expect any palm trees and in general the plants are in the early phase of growth, what makes the general impression of the uncompleted development. The construction and landscaping is still going on, but that does not prohibit the resort from taking customers and charging them full price.

Service: staff are super kind and smiling, everyone is greeting you on every step and after a few days they all know your name. In some cases however, there are issues with English language (mixed up orders) and people still seem to be unexperienced and learning their way around the guests. Everyone gets a butler and you can get help from him and arrange activities via WhatsApp.

On the positive note, the attitude of all the people on the island is polite and helpful. The cleaning service team does a very good job showing up...

This is by far the best place my wife and I have ever visited! ||The scenery is spectacular the ocean the pool the location the weather simply breathtaking||The room is super clean and insect free which is amazing since its in the middle of an island with a jungle||The food is wonderful a mixture of swahili and sea food with lots of varieties we ate and ate and ate and ate some more! ||The best part about it was the service and the people in this resort||Asifewe our butler is a Gem!! She is the sweetest! Shes super kind very professional and supportive she is very witty and helps us out every single time and always rushes to make sure our needs are met she was so fun to have around we love her and cant wait to see her again!||Amin the General Manager of the resort, in no other resort did the GM come and meet us! He was kind enough to take some time from his busy schedule and meet us hes very professional kind and has a very solid grip over the resort his efforts are clearly visible by the respect and love the staff have for him and the strong management skills he has due to how amazing and well organized this resort is! We enjoyed getting to know him and very much look forward to seeing him again||Careen, she is one of the waitresses she is very sweet and kind and always attending to our needs whenever were having breakfast, lunch or dinner she went out of her way to make sure everything is in order for us shes awesome she is also a tribe member of the amazing maasai tribe!|||Khadija, the chef and the barman have been awesome with us as well with their service, their kindness and knowledge of the food and drinks||As for the rest of the team to be honest they were spectacular we didnt get the chance to talk to them alot but everyone was very friendly, kind and super helpful the whole team made sure to give us a very relaxing and enjoyable experience and we did thats why we love the place so much!!||We have traveled to many places before but this resort has topped out list and is currently our number one!! It ticks all the boxes for us regarding management, location, service, safety, cleaning everything is very high end and we are supper impressed! We even decided to make this place a go to every single year for us due to the fact that we enjoyed our time here more than we enjoyed our honeymoon trip!!||I cant recommend this place enough Bawe Island Resort is an absolute Gem! Its heaven on earth||Cant wait to come back here to this beautiful place that has stolen our hearts and my tummy (the food is great) swim in the ocean, the pool and most importantly see Amin and his...