Hotel Riu Palace Zanzibar — Hotel in Unguja

A great place to stay in the north of Zanzibar with some improvements required to make it perfect. Check in was quick, taking less than 10 minutes and our room was ready early. We received a free upgrade on check in, and were welcomed to the resort with cold towels. Disappointingly the only way to book the a la carte restaurants is via their app. Which displays ‘fully booked’ for every evening immediately on check in. You cannot book any prior to arrival, so you can now find yourself unable to enjoy any of the 5 a la carte restaurants they have to offer. We managed to find late bookings (21:00 and later) early in the morning (Possible some customers cancelled) and what made it worse was the restaurant was half empty, with the staff telling us that tables had been empty since 19:30. So why is the app showing fully booked? The app booking system does not work, and needs a complete re-working. You cannot charge customers a full package that includes a la carte, when they cannot enjoy it, or can only book too late times. This was a massive disappointment for us, and we have stayed at many resorts with similar booking systems that work well and fairly to all customers. We managed to get a 19:30 slot on our last evening, but this involved multiple visits to the restaurant beforehand, and waiting on the basis of someone not turning up (which of course they didn’t) It shouldn’t be this difficult. Our room, was spacious and clean, with a nice view of the distant ocean from the balcony. Iron and ironing board provided in the room (However I would advise to bring your own, as it couldn’t iron any of our clothing well) The beach is beautiful with clear waters, white sand, and surrounding tropical palm trees giving it s very picturesque setting. However for those looking to stay, please know it is a public beach. You will constantly be hounded by sellers, fake “Masai” dressed people and water sports companies. It was actually disappointing that you couldn’t even enjoy a peaceful stroll on this beautiful beach, without being surrounded every 5 minutes. There is security on the beach at multiple points watching them, and they are not allowed to approach you on your sunbeds, but still it completely ruins the feel of the beach, and put us off going down there. It is a massive shame it is not private, or that they cannot move these sellers onto somewhere else. The sellers walking monkeys on leads was particularly disturbing to see, especially after most guests have come from a Safari. I’m surprised that this is allowed and nearby animal welfare companies are not on top of this. The food itself is very good, The buffet (Also extremely over busy with people) offers multiple food options which all tasted great. The staff are extremely friendly and when seated attend to you immediately, offering drinks and other options. The only thing we found disappointing was that breakfast does not start until 07:30. Which was quite late if you have excursions booked, or are up early. The a la carte restaurants were fantastic, with great tasting food on both occasions. We managed to book the Krystal restaurant and the Beef Steak house. Which we highly recommend. The Krystal restaurant could do with some light music inside, as the restaurant itself is completely quiet when dining. We recommend sitting outside for a better ambience. Both swimming pools at the resort are clean and welcoming. We would recommend going early, as every single sun bed on the resort will get used during mid morning. Including those on the beach and surrounding areas. It is a very busy and large resort, so expect a lot of people to be here during your stay. Watersports area is very convenient and we recommend using. From paddle boards, to Kayaks and jet skis. The hotel also offer several affordable snorkelling excursions and scuba diving packages. Overall we enjoyed our stay. However a little too busy for our liking, with a disappointing experience on such a beautiful beach with the sellers and our stay let down by the ridiculous restaurant booking system which...

For Christmas we decided to spend a week in Zanzibar and we booked our stay at Riu Palace. We booked a Junior Suite, located halfway between the reception and the beach. The resort is huge so if you’re not feeling like walking under the brutal sun everyday make sure to ask for a room closer to the beach. They also offer a golf cart service to take you around the resort but honestly the only time I asked for a pick up it took forever and I ended up walking from the pool to the reception in the heat. Back to the suite: the room was quite big, with a nice terrace overlooking the gardens and the ocean. Huge bathroom and closet area. In my opinion the Junior Suites need an update ASAP, they look pretty tired: our door and windows were almost broken, the air conditioning was super loud and also used to stop working randomly in the middle of the night. I also woke up more than once because it was raining on me from the ceiling over the bed - probably drops of water due to condensation -. Bed was not the comfiest: hard mattress, thin pillows and you couldn’t move without making noises. No USB outlets. As part of the All Inclusive plan, mini bar is filled with water, sodas and beers. No coffee machine. Room was clean, turndown service only on our first night. I’m not a fan of All Inclusive and buffets, but I have to say that Riu Palace food & beverage was pretty good. During the day the only restaurant open is Promenade (buffet) and Pepe’s Food for snacks (this one should be closed, it’s not inviting and no one goes there ever). The buffet is extensive with plenty of choice for everyone and the quality is really good. As a guest of the Palace you’re also allowed to visit and dine at Riu Jambo. We booked all the restaurants we wanted to try via the Riu App with no issues, just wait till they open the reservations and check the app daily. There are many bars around the resort and they’re all serving good cocktails, we had many mojitos and Negronis! It would be great if there were a bar (or at least bar service) also at the beach. Also, a proper place for snacks is missing (there’s one at Jambo where they serve pizza, burgers, fries etc right by the beach). One word about single use plastics: since Riu is claiming to care about the environment and got rid of plastic straws, they should also stop using that insane amount of water bottles and install a water purifier instead. The amount of plastics in the sea in Zanzibar is disturbing, I used to collect a crazy amount of trash on my daily beach walks. Also, as tourists enjoying this fragile environment, the bare minimum for us is to take back home and recycle there our empty bottles of sunscreen, shampoo, etc. Kendwa, where the Riu Palace is located, is famous since here tides are minimal and you can swim in the sea all day. The beach is supposed to be one one of the bests on the island, with its white powdery sand and turquoise waters. Unfortunately on our last days there the sea was kinda rough and the water got “milky” (not crystal clear), still beautiful tho. There are 3 different pools at the resort, everyone is different and everyone has its own bar. Plenty of sunbeds everywhere, no need to rush to get one but still, there’s people leaving towels in the early morning to get a spot in the best places. Side note: the sunbeds on the artificial upper beach are terrible: they have a brown plastic mattress that gets super super hot in the sun. Also, beach/pool towels provided by the hotel are on the small side and they give you just one per person daily. They can change your wet towel as long as they have clean ones (usually in the afternoon they run out of towels). What we loved the most about this place was the incredible hard working staff, always nice, always greeting you with a smile and trying to do their best to accomodate your requests and make your trip unforgettable. I would not consider the Riu Palace a “real” 5 Stars hotel, there are some flaws, suites are in need of a makeover, but in the end, for the price we paid we had a lovely trip and can’t...

We spend 10 nights (mid of November)

The start was a bit disappointed to be honest. We arrived very early at the hotel due to our flight. We were welcomed shortly and than were asked to pay the taxes. I mean nothing against paying that however, it would have been nice to be welcomed like we saw it was happening later with the other guests:

We did not receive a welcome drink, where not handed out the bracelet (which costs trouble with the staff and security downstairs), and our wifi was not working for couple of hours while waiting for the check in. Where we saw that other guests who arrived later received all that mentioned above directly. For the wifi we had to go back in total 4 times in order to fix that issue.

But what I was most disappointed at was that we did not hear any congratulations on our honeymoon. I wrote them and email before so they knew that this was a special trip for us and I would have appreciated and expected a different welcoming from the receptionists and riu ( we have been to other Rius before).

BUT the rest of the staff is more than just on point.

Starting with all the cleaning Personal who is there to keep all the area (which is super huge) clean at all times, with the gardeners who keep the beauty flora in tact, the housekeeper Lisanne who cleaned our appartment everyday and left beautiful creations on the bed, the bar and service Personal who are always more than welcoming and attentive and where the service is super great!

Just to mention some as unfortunately we cannot remember all of the namens:

Olivio who always welcomes us with a big smile at the main restaurant. He treated us so well and we felt very good taking care of. Ramadan one of the cooks who prepared one of the amazing dishes. Abu who served us at the steakhouse restaurant with an extraordinary service. Reheana with the service from the pool area who always serviced us cool and warm drinks. Ernest who always waited for us at the bar with a big smile and kindness! I could go on and on. Also I would like To mention two animators: Jackson 4 and Ronaldinho with who we did yoga sessions in the morning, the Aqua Fitness and aqua Volleyball. The only thing I think would be nicer to stretch the offers a bit as all the mentions above activities happening in the morning quite shortly after each other. Which means in the afternoon there is not much. Every evening there is a show / performance (which repeats after one week). The performances are from dancing, singing and Musik everything and quite good. After that there is always a „party“ untill 12:00 pm. The Musik is not quite diverse and it’s always the same songs and group dances - here I would love to see some variety ;). If you want to have a bit more celebration, would recommend to go to the jumbo hotel in the evening - the people are a bit more in a party mood and the dance floor and dj is a bit better and bigger.

In regards to the facilities we really loved it and liked that the ways were longer and you had to walk a bit (for example: from our room to the main pool we had to walk about 5-7 min) Also that you as a riu palace guest can use the facility of the jumbo hotel is great plus (as the beach part is a bit nicer with palm trees over there). Great is also that you can book separate restaurants - we have been to two and both of them were amazing (food and service vise). Furthermore you have the possible to rent out standup paddling, kayak and paddle boat for free (30 min). We did the Kajak and had a great and fun time.

We had a junior suite garden view. The room was okay, but nothing special. We really only used the room for sleeping and for that is das sufficient. Be aware that as it’s very humid and cloths and bed sheets feel a bit wet.

All in all we had a lovely time and enjoyed our stay and would recommend the...