Pongwe Bay Resort

We stayed here during our visit to Zanzibar. A beautiful place, great location, a walk to clean, well maintained beach. 5 mins walk to Kongowea Pier restaurant. Hotel rooms were great, cleaned daily, evening curtain drawn, insecticide sprayed, mosquito net drawn. Lovely relaxing porch, a ladder provided to hang swimming suits by the porch, Breakfast was well organised so was lunch and dinner. Pool was wonderful, small, exclusive and relaxing. The staff are amazing, friendly, helpful and always smiling My only frustration was the sand on the path, walking on with sandals at dinner time was always a challenge and frustrating but had to give in after a day, was time to relax so ditched the sandals and bare feet walking was the thing. Will definitely visit again.

We have just had a fabulous week at Pongwe Bay Resort. This is more like a wellness retreat than a hotel. The layout is fantastic. Our chalet/villa was situated on the beach within 50m of the magnificent restaurant and pool. The beach area is idyllic with ample palm tree seated shelters. A 300-meter wooden pier leads to 'The Club' a further restaurant/bar within the Indian Ocean. OUR VILLA We were in 302, which had a seated verandah, a 4 poster bed with mosquito netting. Ample space for clothing and luggage and a spacious bathroom. It was cleaned daily and also visited in the evening to turn down the bed. THE RESTAURANT/BAR It is an awesome structure that is aesthetically beautiful. There is plenty of room for everyone. The food was both varied and plentiful. Some evenings were a la carte and some buffet. Every other evening, an event took place, including a beach bbq, a poolside gala dinner, and a Masai show. THE POOL Beautifully clean with ample sunbeds and parasols. No deep end, so really safe, too. THE SPA Predominantly for a large selection of massages, but what massages they were. The best I've ever experienced. If all of the above sounds good, they all come a distant second to... THE PEOPLE Tanzanian people have a reputation for being super friendly, and Pongwe Bay has delved deep into that gene pool when recruiting staff. Everybody and I mean everybody was an absolute pleasure to be around, and the teamwork was so good to witness. The resort is owned and managed by Italians, and they have assembled a Tanzanian workforce to be very proud of. Everyone was so welcoming, and smiles were in abundance from morning to night from all quarters, whether that be the cleaners, waiters, reception, and bar staff to management. There are far too many to mention them all but a big shout out to the following who left a lasting impression. Manjeet - The ever cheerful restaurant manager with a great eye for detail. Carolina, Irene, and Jennifer - just 3 of many waiting staff, but these in particular always stopped by to chat and make sure we were happy. Janenth- Cocktail maker extraordinaire Openda & Fatima - the girls with magic hands. Seriously good masseuses!! Davide - Fabulously attentive member of the management team and a Laziale too!! To conclude, if you are looking for an active break with plenty to do, then this may not be for you. On the other hand, if you want one of the most peaceful, relaxing, and chilled times of your life, Pongwe Bay Resort ticks all the boxes. 5* all the way. Asante Sana.

My husband and I stayed here for our honeymoon, which we took on our 1yr anniversary. We were welcomed so well there by the team. They helped arrange EVERYTHING for us. Our arrival was splendid. They welcomed us with this very tasty homemade passion fruit juice. Our first dinner was amazing, the portions were bigger than we'd anticipated. Their lobster pasta? In fact their whole seafood dishes! Every morning at breakfast, they had the freshest selection of fruits. We really loved our stay here and will definitely go back on our next trip to Zanzibar.

This was our second visit to Pongwe Bay resort. It still is a beautiful resort, with fantastic staff. A few points of attention: the food in both restaurants. We had hoped that there would be a little more variety, especially in the jetty restaurant. But there is a small menu. Which means that vegetarians and meat eaters in particular don't have much choice. Loud guests: there was large group they were loud. There were shouts and yelling at each other from a great distance. There was so much commotion that we thought something was going on, that we even went to the manager. But this group was not held accountable for their behavior. Very unfortunate because all that shouting meant that other guests couldn't really relax. I would like to end on a positive note by saying that we really appreciated being allowed to check out late without any extra charges.

We had a great stay at Pongwe Bay Resort! As soon as we arrived we felt taken care of and comfortable. We got to Zanzibar quite late but when we arrived we were welcomed with cool hand towels, our luggage was carried to our room for us, and our bed had beautiful hibiscus flowers laid on it. It was the perfect relaxing getaway! Prices were really reasonable, AC in the room was strong, and they arranged airport transfers for us which was convenient. WiFi was a bit of an issue- we had to go to the front desk in the morning most days and ask for the new password as they had to keep resetting it due to poor connection. The WiFi didn't seem to work in our room either so when we sent messages we had to go the main communal areas. Another small concern was when we wanted to explore the beach during low tide, as there were quite a few locals who would come up to us and try to take us on "tours" to find sea creatures or monkeys etc. They were always friendly and listened once we said we were not interested, but we felt bad always turning them all down. I didn't think it would be an issue since the resort has a "private beach," but we didn't like being followed around so it kept us close to the resort pool most days. Other than that though, we had an excellent time and would be back! :)

Loved our stay at Pongwe Bay Resort. The beach is beautiful, the gardens are so beautiful and the staff is amazing. The east side of the island is so calm and quite which was exactly what we needed.