Riu Palace Zanzibar

Absolutely Perfect Stay at Riu Palace Zanzibar ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Everything was absolutely perfect from beginning to end! The beach was breathtaking, the rooms were spotless and beautiful, and the staff were incredibly kind, welcoming, and helpful. I especially loved how everyone greeted you with a smile and said “Hakuna Matata” — it really made the whole experience feel warm and special. ❤️ I would also like to give a special mention to Diana from Aqua Gym & Yoga. She was absolutely wonderful, so friendly, helpful, and full of positive energy. She made the activities even more enjoyable and was always there to help with a smile. Diana truly deserves special recognition! Overall, Riu Palace Zanzibar was an amazing experience, and I would definitely come back. A beautiful place, wonderful people, and unforgettable memories. 🌴☀️❤️ Thank you, Riu Palace Zanzibar, for such a perfect stay!

Me and my wife attended the hotel on our honeymoon for 9 nights, where we received a free room upgrade due to this, to a beautiful sea view junior suite - it was fantastic and much appreciated when we arrived! - The Grounds This hotel is beautifully situated on the northwest coast of Nungwi, meaning you can enjoy some of the most spectacular sunsets in Africa. The grounds themselves are very spacious, and it does give you a sense of freedom as you wander around the grounds. The walk from the reception to the restaurants are considerable, and if you are staying near the reception you will be required to walk uphill at the end of your night to get back to the room. There are golf buggy’s that can provide lifts to people that are less mobile, but we did not require this. The greenery is well maintained and their is always plenty workers around working on the upkeep of the hotel. You are able to access the neighbouring hotel the Riu Jambo if you stay at the Palace, which is good, but sometimes this was met with some confusion from the security guards of the hotel as to why you were trying to access. We actually got turned away by one saying we were not allowed despite our hotel insisting we had full access to their pools and bars. - The Staff We met some really nice staff here, none other than Yohana in Promenade and Catherine + Veronica at the bars. The service was generally very good and we had no issues, but these 3 stood out with their attentiveness and overall kindness - always having a chat with you and making sure you are happy at all times! - The Room As mentioned, we received a free upgrade due to our honeymoon to a Sea View Junior Suite I believe, Room Number 223. This was a stunning room, very spacious, huge bed and a great balcony where we could enjoy watching the sunsets before dinner each night. The room was cleaned to the absolute maximum each day, with a different bed design every time using flowers to spell out a simple message such as ‘Have a nice day’ to pictures. The time and effort this must take the cleaning staff was definitely noted, and much appreciated by us. We never had a single issue with the room and came back to it spotless each and every time. - The Pools There are 3 pools at the hotel, however we only really used 2, mainly the main pool, and the smaller breeze pool located next to the culinary restaurants. The pools were of decent size and the main pool had in-water sun loungers for when you need a dip to cool down and a lie down at the same time, however we did notice as this part was shallower often kids would play here which could disturb your relaxation. Not against kids playing at all, but we were quite bewildered to find there was no adults-only area at the hotel. We found this odd as this used to be an adults only hotel, and actually was still when we booked it initially. We were quite disappointed to learn a couple months later than a new hotel (Riu Palace Swahili) was being built and taking the Adults Only status, meaning families were free to use the hotel. Obviously for our honeymoon, we preferred it being adults only, but it wasn’t a dealbreaker however we would have expected a least one of the pools to be available as just adults only, I think that’s only fair. We initially thought the Breeze bar pool might be that, with its close proximity to a bar and more private area, but unfortunately it wasn’t still available to all guests. I was even more surprised when we went to Riu Jambo one day to use their pool swim up bar to notice that this pool was adults only. Considering this was originally known as the family friendly hotel, I found this crazy seen as Riu Palace did not have the same facility. This was a disappointing part of our honeymoon. - The Food We understand food is subjective, so we will explain OUR own experience with it. There are 4 restaurants to choose from at the Palace, 3 unique culinary options and 1 Buffet restaurant, The Promenade, where you would have breakfast and lunch every day. There was also a snack bar - Pepes, which was very poor. We had a look one day at what options was available, and it was stale fruit with some meats and undercooked chips, a very small selection and very disappointing. We believed you should have been able to order burgers, hot dogs and even pizza here, but it was nothing like this and I’d honestly say to just avoid this place. Promenade is fine, you can find some beautiful tables overlooking the ocean here. Their was ample selection of food, and at the start of the holiday we were always returning to our tables with full plates, however some food is definitely better than others. Their is a lot of boned meats for example, which isn’t our favourite, especially in a curry and having to pick the bones out as you eat. Also I felt that their wasn’t enough description of what food was what, often their would be their names in swahili, which no actual description as to what it even is, and also with the sauces. They have plenty sauces available, but there are never any labels on the actual pots, so it can be a guessing game at times to what you’re actually getting on your plate. Towards the end of the holiday, we were going off the food and eating very little, although we did develop a stomach bug at the same time which curved our appetite. Whether this was caused by the food we do not know, but the food soon became repetitive and uninspiring. We tried both Krystal restaurant, an ‘Asian Fusion’ restaurant and the Steakhouse, self-explanatory, but were quite underwhelmed with both. We did not try IA restaurant as we aren’t big seafood eaters, so cannot comment on this one. The service at these restaurants were excellent, as the waiting staff were mostly very attentive and provided a good run down of each menu item. However, I’m unsure about what part of Krystal is asian fusion. The menu certainly did not portray this belief. We had steaks here, we asked for medium rare, but they came more well done, which ruined our experience here. Wouldn’t recommend in all honesty. Steakhouse I had a burger, my wife a steak, and her steak was the same as Krystal, overcooked despite asking for medium rare. I must admit the burger was very nice though, as the burger meat at Promenade generally wasn’t good and mostly dry, so I enjoyed having a good burger here. - The Beach The hotel doesn’t have its own private beach apparently, but it does have access to the beaches. The beach itself is beautiful, and the water was crystal clear, we often went for swims. However, my annoyance with the beach would be how many traders there are trying to sell you things. As soon as you step foot on the beach you had people approaching you trying to sell you excursions, wooden carvings, football tops and even shoes. We did a stroll along the beach one morning and was approached probably about 10 times. It very quickly starts to get on your nerves when you are just trying to relax. Initially whenever they approached to ask how we were, very politely I must add, I would always be polite back and tell them, but this seems to be the wrong thing to do as it opens the door for them. We figured this out as the trip went on, just either ignore them or tell them you’re not interested. It does seem rude at first, but to be honest they don’t really care how your day is going, they only want to make conversation to sell you something. I know the hotel can’t really do much about this, but it is an annoyance and made us reluctant to have a walk on the beach. - Riu Jambo As I mentioned before, we attended the pool bar here. Again, originally when we booked (it was almost 2 years in advance with a travel agent) it was advertised as Palace guests being able to use the full facility of the Jambo, including the restaurants - however it became apparent on arrival we unfortunately could not use their restaurants. I wouldn’t say it was as far as false-advertising, but it would have been nice to know prior to arriving - seen as we did choose this hotel because of all these amenities. With it changing from Adults Only and then removing our access to certain parts of the Jambo, I felt we had perhaps overpaid on the holiday - especially as this is what we believed we booked. To not get these things was quite disappointing, and in all honesty, had we known it was not going to be Adults Only before booking, we probably would have never came. It was our honeymoon after all and this is what we expected. The restaurants at the Jambo had a beautiful setting, on a pier out into the sea, with a bar in the middle. We did actually get use of this bar once during our trip, it’s where we pictured we would spend most of our nights before arriving, but unfortunately it was sometimes too much hassle to go. I would also suggest that there should be a clear path to go back and forth from each hotel, without the need to have to walk down onto the beach to access. When you have dressed up for the evening, sometimes you don’t wish to have to walk along a sandy beach and get sand in your shoes. I didn’t know why their was not easier access considering it’s all the same hotel. This bar actually was very nice though and their staff were great too! Also, the White Party at Jambo exceeded all expectations. It was brilliant and a credit to all of the staff at Riu for making it happen. This was a highlight of our stay for sure. - The Entertainment The entertainment was a bit of a mixed bag, with the Freedom Dancers standing out by far out of all the entertainment we saw at Palace. These are a real joy to see and we saw them twice! However, the saxophone man, the band and some other dance groups (they felt like knockoffs of the freedom dancers and a little repetitive, even the ‘Acrobats’ turned out just to be dancers too) were average. We would rather opt to playing Uno or something else unfortunately whilst these acts were performing. On the night we returned from the Jambo however, as we were leaving, we noticed they were doing karaoke, and it looked great! The atmosphere and vibes were great, and it was really fun to watch, as karaoke is (I do think the arena is a lot better for entertainment at the Jambo) but we did think the Palace could really benefit from having something like this Overall, we would give the hotel experience a 7/10. We appreciate the grounds, the hard working staff and the drinks selection, but the food, entertainment and lack of adults only areas was disappointing. With us booking it before it changed from an adults only hotel, it was mildly annoying to us that we didn’t receive any alternative.

Excellent hotel, Staff who really look after the guests. Incredible, magnificent outdoor area. Spacious, comfortable rooms with air conditioning. Beach/pool towel service—a nice touch. Swim-up pool bar with unlimited cocktails and other drinks. Dining options: one main restaurant and six others requiring reservations. A minor downside: the desserts—lots of small cakes that looked beautiful but didn't taste very good. The fruit was a big disappointment; it didn't look appealing and didn't taste good either. The air conditioning unit within the complex was very noisy; we had to change rooms, but the staff switched us immediately without any fuss. A very good experience, I recommend it.

I have enjoyed stayed at riu palace services are good and Martin was special for real he was kindly and was fun in water volleyball

Juma from intertainment is very funy boy always make us enjeoy our holiday he is very friendly five star for him