Kiwengwa Beach Resort — Hotel in Unguja

Overall, in our opinion this is a good 4* hotel. Some aspects are 5* but others do bring it down a little. We had a great holiday on the whole and would definitely return to Zanzibar one day. ||The hotel grounds are beautiful. The site isn’t too big or too small. It’s always very clean and the ground team are always friendly and seen to be working hard. ||There’s three pools, a family pool which we didn’t actually see any families in. This was sheltered from the wind and so got very hot. The main pool with music playing throughout the day, sometimes Afro beats and upbeat music, sometimes instrumental harry styles etc! Then there was a sea water pool but we never used this one. The family pool and main pool were good temperatures neither too hot or cold. Only once did we struggle to find a sunbed and that was coming back at midday from a trip. There didn’t seem to be any excessive sun bed reserving in the early hours. The beach is nice but there are so many Masai that will pester you it put us off spending any days there. The only time we swam in the sea was at 0630 before they arrived. ||Check in and check out was seamless with porters helping with luggage. We would say it would be hugely beneficial to receive a welcome pack with information such as restaurant and bar opening hours, pool opening hours, a map of the hotel, check out times and info about late check out option, information such as how you collect towel cards to exchange for pool towels (we weren’t told nor given any on check in). Also we didn’t know how you book the specialty restaurants either and had to ask at reception and no idea how you’d book the rosini or see the menu/prices before. We think information like this would be nice to have in one pack on arrival to make things smooth and help you settle in, but you soon learn from asking others. ||The staff are all so friendly and happy. One of the best hotels I’ve stayed in for a long time in terms of staff and their friendliness. We had an incident one night with a massive spider in our room and we are wimps with spiders- we phoned reception and they sent someone to come and get it for us which was lovely! ||The rooms themselves were the first let down. We stayed in the giraffe block in the 300s. The room had an awful smell of damp and it was unbelievable how damp everything in the room was. The bedding was wet by the time you got in it from the damp. Also- just to note we booked a double room and ended up with twin beds. Turns out that’s correct (we booked through a travel agent so didn’t physically select a room) so it’s worth noting you should request a double bed if that’s what you are expecting. We did ask to change to a double bed but they didn’t have any so staff came and pushed the beds together. Not ideal but it worked- we should have checked. There’s also lots of bugs in the room. Hundreds of ants. I’m not sure if it’s just the tropical location or if it’s because they put flowers on the bed each day. The rooms are spacious however and we had ample storage. We had a safe- but no instructions on how to use it so we didn’t but again this info in a welcome pack would have been ideal. Hair dryer and shampoo and body wash provided. ||House keeping was a big issue we encountered. We went 10 days without having our bed sheets changed, we know because there was two old blood stains on the bed that were there for the first 10 days. We ended up going to reception about it and they changed it that night. We also had issues with visibly dirty (from sand and mud) shower mat not being changed for days. And then when it was taken away not replaced. We had to phone again to ask for it. We also had a pillow go missing and not replaced until we phoned up. Hand towels taken and not replaced and water bottles not replenished. It just felt a bit lazy and we were always on the phone for things to be bought up and never an apology. We never had tea or coffee replenished the whole time we were there even though our mugs and tea spoons were changed. ||Food and drinks. The cocktails at this hotel were good- always strong, almost too strong at times. Good selection. Not sure if the ice was filtered water or not, but we didn’t seem to get ill and had it whenever offered. The buffet was alright. I’ve stayed in hotels with much wider selection but the food that was there was always nice tasting. We liked the themed nights better than international. Because we don’t eat sea food we were often limited to only one meat dish. The fresh pasta station was lovely though, a firm favourite of ours. Breakfast- always a lovely array of pastries. Fresh egg cooking station was amazing. Didn’t try anything else for breakfast. Desserts were the best of any all inclusive I’ve stayed in. Food was often cold but that’s not really the hotels fault- guests would lift the lids up and not put them down again 🙄 you’re supposed to be invited to the sea food restaurant and African restaurant once per 7 days. We stayed 15 nights and only received one invite. We went down to reception about this on night 13 as we kept waiting and waiting for it to come- they just wrote us up an invite there and then. We weren’t given a time slot and so was turned away initially but got there eventually. The food was really nice here but the serving bowls are so small they would run out so quickly. By the time you’ve waited for the meat your rice has gone cold and vise versa. A very common theme in the buffet was not being asked if we wanted drinks. Most tables seemed to but we weren’t. Maybe 3 nights on our whole stay we were offered drinks at dinner. I’m not sure if you’re meant to or not? Same in the African restaurant. We had to go up to a bar to bring our own drinks in. No comments on sea food restaurant as we did not visit. Rosini restaurant was amazing, the atmosphere, the food, the wine, spectacular. Worth visiting for sure. Ice creams you had to pay for- $2 usd per scoop. Pizzas were nice and freshly cooked, a little expensive at $16 usd per pizza. You could buy a pina colada in a pineapple for $10 usd but we didn’t get this. ||We ended up speaking with our travel agents tui about the constant house keeping issues and the fact we missed out on three restaurant visits due to invites not being delivered to our room. They arranged a meeting with the manager for us. He explained that bed sheets should be changed every day as should towels bath mats etc. He also showed us pictures of the dates we were meant to be invited to the restaurants and apologised for the fact they were never delivered to our room. As a gesture of goodwill he gave us a complimentary reservation at the a la carte rosini which if we were to come again we would absolutely pay to visit. He also gave us late check out for free as we had a 2130 flight (usually 50$). We were very impressed with how he handled the situation, and if anything wish we had spoke about our issues sooner as everything had resolved after speaking with him. We could not fault the customer service. And as we said before any issues, a quick phone call to reception and they were resolved instantly. ||Pros- ||Beautiful grounds which are lovely and clean, friendly and approachable staff, excellent customer service, lovely pools, good day time entertainment program, nice tasting food ||Improvement points- ||Rooms smell and cleanliness. Housekeeping. A welcome pack with information about your stay and hotel would be great. Things like ice cream and pizzas should be included in all inclusive. ||Overall we rate this a solid 4* hotel...

I stayed at Kiwengwa Beach Resort in Zanzibar and was disappointed in several areas, especially considering this is advertised as a 5-star hotel.

Negatives:

Coffee: The all-inclusive package only offers instant coffee. If you want a proper coffee (not even from a standard espresso machine, just a cheap automated one), you have to pay $2.

Food variety: While there is food to choose from, the variety is very limited compared to what some reviews suggest.

Seafood: For an ocean resort, I expected more fish and seafood options, which was not the case. Actually seafood was completely missing and there was only a variety of fish.

Cleanliness: Beach towels could be cleaner.

Sunbeds: By around 9:00 a.m., most sunbeds are already “reserved” with towels, making it hard to find a free one. This is specially referring to front row. See next comment.

I suspect many of the front-row sunbeds are unofficially controlled by beach supervisors, who allow you to sit there only if you pay them something. Effectively they do not let you sit event if the sunbeds are completely empty with only towels sitting there. In most of the 5* resorts sunbeds reservation is not allowed. But if you want to play this game I suggest you to take the beach towels in the room to have it for the next morning to reserv your beds because towel counter open only after 8:30.

Beach bar: Opens only at 10:00, which feels late for guests who want to enjoy the beach earlier.

Beach vendors: Walking on the beach in front of the resort is stressful due to numerous fake “Maasai” vendors or whatever they are trying to do because i was not intereted of their services. On my very first walk, one told me, “You are coming here, you need to respect us and pay money.”

Internet: No free Wi-Fi is available except loby area; you have to pay extra for it.

Rooms & bathrooms: Not at the level expected for a 5-star hotel. For example, some bathroom appliances were loose, and there were visible cracks in the walls plus ther aspects.

Drinks: All drinks are served in reusable plastic glasses, which is not very pleasant (I understand the reason for this). I recommend bringing your own drinking thermos.

Positives:

The staff were friendly and always willing to help.

The resort pools were well-maintained and always available for guests.

The gardens were clean, well-kept, and nicely arranged, adding to the overall pleasant atmosphere.

The location offers a beautiful beachfront and easy access to the ocean.

While beach vendors are in front of the resort, security guards ensure they don’t cross a certain line onto the hotel grounds.

Other observations:

All of the above should be considered in the context of a 5-star hotel expectation.

Outside the resort, moving into the local area feels like stepping into a completely different world—something neither the hotel nor guests can control, but still part of the reality. Poor waste management is evident, with garbage scattered on streets and around homes, which is very disappointing for such a...

it's not worth it!

Room - older, ugly, dirty. The closet door was falling off and the bathroom door was almost impossible to close. Windows size about 90x90cm - it felt like a shack to us. They have other nicer rooms with big windows and they are supposedly renovated. be careful which room you choose. When we asked to pay for an upgrade, they gave us the classic excuse that the hotel was full, even though some rooms were available. Towels - we were repeatedly given only one large towel (for 2 people in the room), some days they even re-hung the towel we had from the previous day - as clean.

Cleaning horrible - when I walked barefoot on the floor in the room and stood on the shower mat, my brown footprints were on it!

Food - level 3 stars maximum. Little choice. Meals were repetitive. No fruit in the afternoon. Lady at fruit very unhelpful, gentleman at buffet on the other hand nice.

Waiters in restaurants do not work, service is slow. It's better to go to the postmix in the dining room (I wouldn't call it a restaurant) where there is local juice and water (in plastic cups).

Bar on the beach - unhelpful staff who look annoyed (only one smiling barmaid in a week out of all the people who have taken turns there). To drink they have about 6 bottles of alcohol (only locally produced) + wine and beer. Other alcohol including e.g. martinis you have to pay extra (6USD).

Plastic - the fact that they pour into plastic cups made me happy at first (glasses would have been more appropriate for a 4 star hotel), because I thought they were saving the planet from plastic, but in fact they use small 0,5L plastic bottles and pour from that into a plastic cup. You also only get water in a plastic "glass" or they want $3 for it! At Allincl. I really wouldn't expect this.

The outdoor area of the hotel nice, the beach chairs were already occupied at 9am. Possibility of shade on the beach, outdoor environment of the hotel is nice - nice, mature garden. Not much around the hotel.

Wifi is extra, but beware 15USD per device - if you want to have wifi on your phone and work on your laptop you have to pay for additional access.

And one rarity - everywhere "Masai" who will not give you a room even for a minute! You can't even get to the sea without them.

Massages good, good quality.

We went with a yoga stay which was the best thing about the whole holiday - this, however, does not belong to the hotel.

I travel often, but even in Egypt there are hotels of better quality than this one!

A month ago I was in Mauritius (which is not that far from Zanzibar) also in a 4 star hotel and it doesn't compare. Everything worked there - the staff was nice(smiling), the food was excellent, the housekeeping was good, the hotel...