Villa Dida Hotel in Zanzibar

We have been extremely satisfied by our choice given to the fact that we dislike "all inclusive" type resorts and Villa Dida is completely the opposite. The hotel offers 10 rooms only and is located on the beach by a local fishermen's village. This might be seen as a con but it did not bother us at all.

The Villa offers a small but clean pool, a main beachfront restaurant with breathtaking views of the ocean and a small bar.

It s true that the beach area is impacted by the tide phenomena but we had no problem in bathing there and we recommend anyway that you explore the island's many wonderful beaches.

And after all people should make their homework checking out facts and things before they leave for a trip instead of complaining afterwards for natural phenomena they should have been aware of in first place.

As far as tours are concerned we took advantage of the "discovery" package which included also a boat trip on a beautiful sandy beach and other activities.

The spice tour and the swim with the dolphins experience was the trip kids and parents enjoyed the most.

Packages offered at the hotel were fairly priced, well organised and we felt it was safer doing it with the hotel than booking one via the unknown beach boys patrolling the beaches selling souvenirs and excursions.

We felt some reviews where people expected a 5 star resort type of experience at the cost they paid for, kind of laughable. For this price range I dont expect the Ritz Carlton and I keep my expectations in the appropriate range.

To sum it up:

Do not go to Villa Dida if you are looking for an all inclusive resort with a young clientele and active nightlife.

I would not recommend it either to families with teenage kids

Do go to Villa Dida if you are a couple still enjoying each other's company and you favour small, simple, good value for money properties in an enchanting environment and you are ready to compromise a little bit on the occasional little problem that might occur.

You are in Africa after all!

All in all it was a wonderful stay especially thanks to the wonderful location and all the staff at Villa Dida from the manager to the waiters to the tour guides.