Reef and Beach Resort

We recently spent seven wonderful nights at Reef & Beach Resort in Zanzibar, and overall, we had a fantastic holiday! We booked a Suite Ocean View Room, and we would happily recommend this resort to anyone looking for a relaxing tropical getaway. Exceptional Service from the Management Upon arrival, there was a slight misunderstanding regarding our room, as we had specifically requested twin beds. However, Calvin, the Resort Manager, handled the situation quickly and professionally. He went out of his way to resolve the issue and also upgraded our room. His friendly attitude, professionalism and willingness to help made a wonderful first impression. Thank you, Calvin, for making sure our stay got off to such a great start! Our room was beautiful, comfortable and well maintained. The entire resort is clean, neat and beautifully kept, and our room was cleaned daily. Restaurants and Dining Experience The resort offers three restaurants, providing a good variety of dining options. Please remember that reservations must be made 24 hours in advance if you wish to dine at the Italian or Indian restaurant. Our personal favourite was the Indian restaurant, where we thoroughly enjoyed the food. A special mention must go to Caroline at the Italian restaurant. She is an absolute gem! Her friendliness, warm personality and genuine dedication to making guests feel welcome really stood out. She goes above and beyond to ensure that guests have a memorable dining experience. Caroline is amazing and a real credit to the resort! All-Inclusive Drinks and Facilities The all-inclusive package offers a great selection of beverages, including wine, local beer, cocktails, local spirits and non-alcoholic drinks. There was more than enough variety to choose from, and we were very happy with the selection. One of our favourite places to unwind was the Jetty Bar. Sitting there with a drink while watching the sun set over the ocean was simply beautiful. It was the perfect spot to relax and soak up the peaceful island atmosphere. There are also plenty of swimming pools with sun loungers available, and pool towels are provided, making it easy to spend a relaxing day enjoying the sunshine. Evening Entertainment – Room for Improvement One area where we feel the resort could improve is the evening entertainment. Although entertainment is offered at Mango Bar between 9:00 pm and 10:00 pm, we felt that the variety of shows and activities could be expanded to offer guests a more diverse experience throughout the week. The acrobatic performance was definitely our highlight! It was an excellent show and something we really enjoyed. However, seating at Mango Bar is limited, so we recommend arriving early if you want to secure a good seat. We believe that a greater variety of entertainment would make an already enjoyable holiday experience even better. A Special Shout-Out to Sally – Guest Relations Manager Last but certainly not least, we would like to give a very special mention to Sally, the Guest Relations Manager. Sally does an absolutely fantastic job! She is always friendly, approachable and willing to take the time to chat with guests. She genuinely cares about their experience and regularly checks whether there is anything she can do to make their stay even better. Her warm personality, dedication and attention to guests make a real difference. She is a tremendous asset to Reef & Beach Resort, and we would happily give her 10/10 for her outstanding service. Thank you, Sally, for helping make our holiday so memorable! Final Verdict – We Would Definitely Return! We genuinely enjoyed our seven-night stay at Reef & Beach Resort. From the beautiful room and well-maintained surroundings to the variety of drinks, relaxing Jetty Bar sunsets and, most importantly, the outstanding hospitality of the staff, there was so much to appreciate. Calvin, Caroline and Sally deserve special recognition for the positive impact they had on our experience. It is people like them who make guests feel welcome and turn a good holiday into a memorable one. We would absolutely recommend Reef & Beach Resort to others, and we would love to return in the future! Thank you to the entire team for a wonderful holiday and beautiful memories of Zanzibar!

This was our second time in this resort came from United Kingdom first time was 2024 (when a lot of construction works were happening) still had an amazing time though so we decided to come back for 2 weeks, stayed in room 302 right by the main pool. Room was clean and comfortable although no toilet door and when travelling with friends not the best. Food in the buffet restaurant is not the best sometimes cold but lots of variety to choose from just very repetitive after 2 weeks, breakfast egg station was my favourite omelettes, fried egg, scrambled and poached. The worst thing I can say about this buffet restaurant was down to the guests and lack of manners. Various times we witnessed people sticking fingers in food and not using utensils provided very off putting and absolutely appalling behaviour even witnessed a woman pick up a biscuit smell it and put it back eurghhh. The Bahari restaurant is nice but again food is very repetitive. We tried the Italian restaurant a few times, they display the menu for different days outside we chose a Thursday as we were leaving 2 days later and I have to say the service in there that night was absolutely shocking, we tried the buffet options then went to order a pizza to be brought over the staff who are behind the counter cooking the pizza very rude she asked for my table number which was not present on the table I told her this and showed her where we was sitting, other peoples order after us and were brought their pizzas out after waiting over half an hour we ended up leaving and going to the makuti restaurant instead. Most of the bar staff are really nice, my favourite was monika at the mangrove bar always made us feel welcome and very accommodating. Also the makuti restaurant there’s a little lady (sorry didnt catch her name) but she was always friendly checked in on us daily at breakfast and lunch and always made us feel very welcome. The monkeys and bush babies were an absolute delight. If you don’t like cats this is not the hotel for you as many cats around always very hungry we would take food from restaurant to feed the 2 kittens. Animation team had various activities on throughout the day and a show every evening from 9-10pm very limited seating to watch if not there early though. We did safari at Mikumi, prison island, jozani forest, Mtende beach (breathtaking), swam at kuza cave, half submarine sunset cruise for my birthday was amazing also did cheetahs rock which I definitely recommend. Overall had a really amazing time and would recommend this hotel to others. Shame about the things that did let it down though.

Just returned from here, we had an ocean view swim up room which was really lovely. Massive comfortable bed, terrace with sunbed , table and chairs overlooking ocean. Kept spotlessly clean by housekeeping team every day. 2 large bottles of water provided each day. All staff were wonderful, friendly, smiling and happy to chat. We always found sunbeds free no matter what time we went to pools or jetty bar. Jetty bar great for a sundowner. Special thanks to Anastasia, Nives and Daniel in the restaurants but to be honest all staff are wonderful. Felt a bit intimidated by the Masai who take up station on the beach as the tide goes out but when you bite the bullet and talk to them they are really funny and lovely. . Go to see their shops at end of resort -barter for a good price- and have a starfish walk with them, the starfish are unlike anything I have ever seen. Take small denomination dollars for tips but you can also do what we did and tip into staff box on reception as there are so many people involved in making your holiday so good. Hopefully the tips are shared equally as everyone in the resort makes it special. Evening entertainment each night is quite good, acrobats were really good. Occasional short power cuts but rush out and look at sky while it’s dark, quite beautiful but obscured by resort lighting. Be prepared to feel bad about contrast between resort and the poverty you will see in the villages and towns. I have come back with such gratefulness for what we have in the Uk and will try not to complain ever again! The colours of the sea have to be seen to be believed. Overall one of our most relaxing and beautiful holidays. All management and staff deserve high praise for how well kept and run this resort is.

I spent 9 days at Reef & Beach Resort after doing a 3 day safari in Nyerere National Park, and my time in Tanzania and Zanzibar was honestly incredible. I’ve travelled quite a lot over the last three years, and this has probably been my most memorable trip to date. The hotel itself is beautiful and huge, with so much to explore. The ocean view rooms are incredible. I was actually lucky enough to receive a free upgrade for the first two nights before my safari, and I absolutely loved the room and the views. When I returned from safari I was in a pool view room, which didn't quite compare to the ocean view, although it was still perfectly comfortable. Because of the location of my room, I could hear some of the workers outside and occasionally the cows, but honestly it didn't bother me at all. If you're considering booking, I'd definitely recommend upgrading to an ocean view room if you can, but the pool view rooms are still more than sufficient. The staff were fantastic. Everyone was so friendly and would always greet you with a smile and say hello. The Masai who you see around the resort and on the beach were also a lovely part of the experience. They do try to sell you things, of course, but what I really appreciated was that when you said no, they accepted it and remained friendly. I've experienced the opposite in other places, so this really stood out to me. The food was great, with plenty of choice, and the Italian and Indian restaurants were particularly good. I actually celebrated my birthday at the Italian restaurant and they decorated my table beautifully and sang to me, which was such a lovely touch and made my birthday really special. ❤️ I travelled here as a solo female traveller and felt completely safe throughout my stay. I also did lots of excursions, so although the resort is in a fairly remote and peaceful part of the island, you can easily make the holiday as busy or adventurous as you want. There are plenty of excursions and activities available around Zanzibar. The drink selection was good, and one thing I'd definitely recommend is bringing plenty of small dollar notes for tipping. Tipping is a big part of the culture here and the staff really appreciate it. One of the biggest highlights of the resort for me was actually the red colobus monkeys. Seeing them around the hotel was incredible and definitely one of the highlights of my entire trip. There were also a few friendly little kittens around the resort, which I absolutely loved. 🐒🐈❤️ Overall, I had an amazing time in Tanzania and Zanzibar. Reef & Beach was the perfect place for me to relax after my safari, while still giving me the opportunity to get out and explore the island. If you're looking for somewhere peaceful, beautiful and relaxed, particularly as a solo traveller, I'd definitely recommend Reef & Beach Resort. I honestly can't fault the experience and I'm leaving with some very special memories. 🌴☀️🌊

We had an amazing holiday here. The monkeys in the hotel are an added bonus. But they do not beg for food (and you don’t feed them) but will walk over your sunbed while you are on it. The staff are all really good but sometimes they had a learned script as their English is often not too great. The tide is often out but as I am not really bothered about the beach it didn’t affect us. Food was plentiful. Not very many western food dishes but there was always something we could eat. The on-site Indian restaurant and the on-site Italian restaurant were amazing and switched it up from just the buffet. We attended both restaurants several times. All staff in the restaurants were pleasant and hardworking. The alcohol didn’t not seem very strong. Cocktails were not very strong. Sometimes had 4 shots in them and still were perfectly drinkable. The pool on the beachfront has blue paint around the edge which comes off and damages your swimwear if you lean against it. Trying to get two swimsuits sorted out took 2 days and several visits to reception speaking to about 10 different people before Calvin finally sorted it out. The swimwear was washed in what I believe to have been white spirits and the smell was horrendous. They denied any strong chemicals were used - I dispute that. One manager (petite short woman) was observed in the buffet picking at her hair which didn’t seem appropriate. All in all we really enjoyed our holiday despite the swimwear incident.