Eden Paradise Zanzibar — Hotel in Unguja

I booked the hotel for thirty days and ended leaving after 4 days.

The pictures may look pretty and filtered, and the name sounds wonderful. But the experience was not, this place should be named Eden Encampment. How this is labeled as a 3 star hotel is beyond me. This is at most a 1 star hotel on its best day.

It was advertised on hotel.com as having free wifi, to my dismay there was NO WIFI. The owner tried to play it off by providing me with a sim card 2 days later, I was charged for loading data on it for some internet.

I booked a queen bed on the 2nd floor, and was put on the first floor with a full bed. The wooden bed frame itself makes you feel claustrophobic, I can reach both ends from head to toe, and I am only 5'6". There is only a ceiling fan in the room, and often times there is blackouts in the city. One night the power went off for at least 6 hours, leaving for a sweltering night without the fan. The breaker box was also outside the wall of my room, making it more intrusive everytime the maintenance guy reset it.

The shower had barely a trickle for water pressure. The toilet kept flowing past the fill line, I would have to adjust and wiggle the fill sensor.

Only the owner has the only key to the front entrance, they will sometimes open it when they are there, most of the times it's closed. You will have to use the backdoor. It leads to the beach about 160 meters away through a narrow alleyway. The only problem is you will either walk through Sansi Kae resort or the other end of the beach to access restaurants and the mini market. It's about a 10 minute walk one way to the end of the beach. Owner should really give a front entrance key copy to guests if they had any sense of customer service.

They claim there is an inclusive restaurant. But it was only a kitchen with a cook. Restaurant implies a menu and selection, which they do not have. Breakfast was included and basic, and some of the fruit given was not fresh.

I ask that my room be cleaned every few days out of respect for privacy, but the cleaning lady entered daily.

At the time of this writing, the nearest accessable ATM is 1.8 miles away, without any security guards around. Make sure you bring cash, or can walk/taxi the distance prior to traveling to Michamvi. Or go to Paje for an ATM with security guards if you want a safer withdrawal. Max is...

We had booked a triple bedroom on Booking but when we arrived we had the bad surprise to be underclassified !! The room was the same than the one for the staff, it was dark and we felt oppresed. It was upstairs, no space to open the luggage and to walk. Also, there was no air conditioning in the bedroom and all the nights we had problem with electricity and water. It was impossible to sleppe because of the heat !!! There was no shampooing in the bathroom and we heard all the nights people closing doors and speaking ! The breakfast was too simple compared to others hotels we did (we also did 3 stars hotel). Good point is about the staff who was very...

E' davvero un paradiso l'Eden Paradise, gestito da Sandra e Salum, due persone magnifiche. La struttura in stile swaili è molto caratteristica e curata in ogni dettaglio. Le stanze sono piccole e semplici ma fresche ed al primo piano, dove eravamo noi, si poteva star fuori nel balconcino a sentire i profumi dell'Africa... La colazione come gli altri pasti vengono serviti in uno spazio comune, una specie di grande veranda col tipico tetto in paglia intrecciata. Le chapati della cuoca sono semplicemente deliziose. La spiaggia di sabbia candida è a meno di due minuti a piedi e spostandosi verso sinistra si può raggiungere una foresta di mangrovie e una lingua di sabbia che scompare con l'alta marea. Con la bassa marea, invece, si possono fare passeggiate lunghissime anche verso destra: ci sono alcuni locali sulla spiaggia dove si può ballare e bere qualcosa. Con l'alta marea si possono fare lunghi bagni perchè l'acqua è bellissima e pulita. Salum è il re delle escursioni. Memorabile il blue safari a Pungume: lo snorkeling nella variopinta barriera corallina; l'arrivo su un isolotto di sabbia bianca completamente deserto, abitato solo dai granchi; coralli, conchiglie e stelle marine dalle forme e dai colori meravigliosi; il pasto squisito, sulla spiaggia all'ombra di una tenda e da ultimo il bagno con i delfini in pieno oceano... un'esperienza che ci ha fatto sentire in simbiosi con la natura e che ci ha profondamente colpito!! Grazie Sandra e grazie Salum... sarò volentieri il tuo ministro dell'economia quando tu sarai presidente... ci sto già lavorando... Arrivederci a presto, anzi, MPAKA...