Sharazād Boutique Hotel — Hotel in Unguja

Sharazād was more than accommodation for our family. It was our amazing family home for five wonderful months. My review is long, but please read on as staying somewhere for this amount of time really gave us an insight into this wonderful unique boutique hotel on this beautiful island. How we found Sharazād We were extremely fortunate with our timing. Having arrived on the island to find that the original villa we had rented was unsuitable for our family of four to stay long term, I reached out to Zanzibar's social media groups and among the many people who offered us solutions, Francesca offered to show us one of the two self catering apartments that are available for rent. The apartment had everything we needed for family life, and we had the additional advantage of having the resort to use, with three pools, two bars and restaurants, fitness, yoga and spa. Family life became easy, as well as catering for ourselves, we could also eat out, play and socialise with the many guests who came during our stay. The whole vibe Sharazād is a very special place, the staff and management are thoughtful, friendly, professional and really care about their guest's experience, we soon became welcomed to the "Sharazād Family". There was really nothing that was too much trouble, with the management helping us to order in our food supplies and arrange trips and transportation. The many events and entertainment provided appeals to all ages, from art classes with wine tasting included, special romantic dinners arranged on request, babysitting services, and occasional evening entertainment with both local musicians and those visiting the island made for great entertainment. We enjoyed memberships for all the family for the boxing, dancing, fitness, yoga and water sports. The place is a tropical paradise, with carefully managed gardens, lots of wild space, private areas and a secure environment for children to play freely. What has been created here is truly unique, a wonderful experience for guests of any ages. Food and drink The restaurant is well managed, our favourite dishes were the seafood platter and seafood curry... Both unmissable! Our children really liked the thoughtfully planned kids menu, spaghetti bolognese and fresh homemade fish fingers were their firm favourites. The bar and waiting staff can't do enough to provide the best dining and drinking experience, the cocktails are delicious and the South African Spiers Pinotage was our favourite red wine. Then also well worth a mention is the truly amazing "Duyen" Vietnamese restaurant where the dumplings and shaking beef dishes were among our favorites! Special touches We celebrated Christmas, New Year, birthdays and specially our ten years wedding anniversary where the entire staff sang, danced around us and celebrated with cake and bubbles.... It was truly magnificent and we were so overwhelmed with the warmth of the entire team, from management, kitchen, restaurant, housekeeping, gardening and maintenance.... All staff are obviously happy with their work and treated so well by their employers. Family After five months of paradise we left with not only heavy hearts, but with a new family.... Built upon the brilliant relationships with the staff, owners and guests alike!!! Francesca and Simon have a wonderful team, and their plans for improvement are in true fitting with the whole ethos and vibe that is truly the reason we stayed so long. We could not have been luckier to have chosen to spend our time in Zanzibar at Sharazād, for us the East Coast has everything we needed to have our experience on this...

Sharazad indeed is like oasis where you can distance yourself from everything and everyone. The distance between the benches, hammocks and awnings along the palm trees is optimal so even if there are other beachgoers nearby, you won't disturb each other at all. It is a really intimate place, not like some other places on the island. Total relax! 🙂 The rooms are very nice. Being able to get out of bed in the morning and reach the ocean shore in a few steps is a great experience. It is no coincidence that the hotel restaurant is among the most popular in this part of the island. The food is great, but the language barrier sometimes is a problem, which grows into delays and inaccuracies with orders. Since I visited the hotel during CoVid-19, there were introduced the relevant rules and measures. The restaurant did not use menus, which is completely understandable, but for each order we had to wait for the waiter to write a separate bill, which is then signed by the customer, and when ordering from the bar is written a separate note from the kitchen. Of course, no one orders their entire dinner menu at once, as well as drinks for the whole evening so... That's why we were constantly dealing with various flying bills... This whole procedure took a long time! 🙂 As you can tell there is no clear distinction who orders what especially if two or more couples eat at the same table. Expectedly, when we were leaving the hotel there were many mistakes in keeping this type of “financial report”. Personally, I had to return three times to make payment after payment of consumption notes that popped up somewhere. Each time I asked if everything had already been paid and if everything is finally settled, but ... Anyway! The unique privilege of withholding 5% of the card payment amount is also "encouraging" in case you don’t want to pay cash. In the end I have an overall good impression of Sharazad and the friendly and welcoming staff, but the whole quarrel with the payment and check-out tilts the scales to a lower overall rating. Zanzibar remains a preferred destination for me, but with this colossal competition between accommodations, it is advisable to have a strict organization. Enjoy this paradise if you...

I booked this place for a 2 night stay. I was SO excited to stay here I had planned this trip for months! This is an hour+ away from the airport. My flight has been delayed. I missed the entire first day/night- the entire 2nd day… and landed at 2:30 AM in the 2nd night. After renting a car, finding a gas station, and making the long track over crazy roads- I arrived at 5 AM. I requested for a later check out multiple times prior to arrival and upon arrival at 5 AM. I had to drag my suitcase 1/2 way before the gentleman who let us in the gate realized we hadn’t been there before and came to assist. I checked in and AGAIN requested a later checkout. The next morning we were told check out was at 10 AM and they would not grant a later check in. I paid for 2 nights and got a TOTAL of 5 hours. I am not holding them responsible for the flight delay—- but with as much communication as I provided their STRICT- “get out” at 10 AM left the WORST taste in my mouth 😕 I can not and will not recommend this place as there were many others available close by that I feel would have been flexible and understanding to the circumstances. This place seemed to just want filled rooms and leave. NOT the gooey family owned atmosphere as was touted on the website that had me give them my money. I asked because I was SO upset/sleep deprived/ frustrated with the non flexible 10AM check out of I could be refunded breakfast at least for the day I wasn’t able to be there therefore eat. I was told absolutely no refunds. I could not get out of there fast enough for them. It felt terrible after spending so much time and money on this trip to be made to feel like we were an inconvenience to the property- very much - give me your money and get out vibe. I could NOT have been more disappointed. Luckily my next accommodations on the north end of the island were very- accommodating and let my sister and I both check in early… and check out late on the day we left. I can not recommend this location and would stay...