Overall Ratings & Reviews The Sands Beach Resort Zanzibar

Our villa was super spacious, it was cleaned regularly, and it was nice to wake up in that beautiful garden. Service was very good, Mr. Ally and the team made us feel welcome and helped us with the early check out and late check out because of our flight times.

Great hotel to stay to escape the busy hustle and bustle lifestyle. It is beautiful and quiet. Food is great. The only crtique i have is there are frequent power outages in the evening. Overall I would visit again.

We did book a villa with an ocean view. And we got a very nice villa, clean and very comfortable. I would say it’s a bit of wasted money for the ocean view, because the villas are a bit behind the palm trees. But in general very beautiful and nice. Staff is very polite and friendly. Was a good experience.

We really enjoyed our stay at the Sands Resort. Each suite is actually a separate bungalow with large, comfortable rooms and wonderful AC. There is an onsite restaurant that serves all day as well as a beach bar that serves snacks/meals during the daytime. It was very relaxing to be able to have all of our meals on the property. The staff were all very friendly and professional. Everything about the staff and property was wonderful. The hotel also offers excursions. The nice thing is that they are private which entailed having a driver and tours that were just for our party. However, I would not recommend doing the "swim with dolphins" excursion because there are too many other boats doing the same thing, and we didn't feel safe going in the water with so many boats moving around quickly to try to bring their passengers close to the dolphins. So, we stayed in the boat. Also, there were no life jackets available, and it was unclear how we would get in/out of the boat without a ladder or rope; the snorkel and other equipment was old, and we didn't get a chance to try the snorkel/mask before going on the water. We also did the Jozani Forest/Butterfly excursion, which was interesting to do to see the monkeys, mangroves, and butterflies, but the price the hotel charged seemed disproportionately higher than the experience merited; please note that I say this without knowing how much the hotel paid the driver to stay with us for several hours and for the forest guide.

We had such a Wonderful stay at the Sands. Great service and premises!

The staff at this hotel were incredibly welcoming and helpful throughout our stay. The rooms were immaculate and very comfortable. We also enjoyed the delicious dinner every night.

Quite good stay Excellent food and location on the ocean side Optimum service and very kind personnel

Very nice, quiet place with a lovely beach and excellent staff. Very good food, too.

Absolutely stunning. Service beyond amazing. Quiet with gorgeous gardens and beach. Easy access for SCuBA diving. Incredibly friendly staff and felt completely safe with masai warriors guarding the hotel. Food was phenomenal Would absolutely go back.

The service was excellent. Everyone was very friendly and courteous. We really enjoyed our stay here

Location was tranquil and just what we were looking for at the start of our Zanzibar holiday. All the staff were amazingly welcoming and friendly. The team led by Ally are a credit to the hotel. The dining experience was quite special and we very much enjoyed the fresh barbecued fish at night, especially the huge tuna that a slice and thickness of your liking was cooked there and then and served to your table….in fact the staff even do your toast for you in the morning ! Overall hotel was perfect for our family of 4 including teenagers - if staying I would recommend a rental car to explore the local area, good deals can be found on arrival at the airport, we paid $30 USD a day and rental car company collected from hotel anywhere on the island for $20 USD.

It's a great hotel, with great staff. Very simple, yet clean and well kept. No TV in the rooms which could be nice as the evenings are quiet with not much activity around the area

We had a marvelous stay. Incredible beach staff went the extra mile always. We cant recommend this destination enough. 5 stars all the way.

We had a great stay at the Sands. The staff were amazing, from Mr. Ally the GM to the executive chef and the cooks like Thomas who took care of us. The food was first class - this goes for breakfast right through to dinner. Amazing food and fantastic service. The beach was beautiful, clean and safe. We could not have asked for more. Even the Masai security guards were great! We loved it. Would definitely recommend the Sands in Zanzibar. We'll be back.

The resort was 5 star! The staff was so helpful and attentive.. Ally the manager made sure everything was perfect! No only would I recommend this resort … we are going back! The perfect place to kick back a d get away from the hustle and bustle. Stone town is not far and a flight to Dar es Salaam was on 34 Dollars !!Just go and relax !

The Sands is a terrific resort, located on a beautiful beach, with incredible facilities, terrific food, and an amazing staff. Highly recommended. Go Deeper: The Sands Zanzibar Beach Resort is amazing. We stayed here with our two daughters in July 2023 and had an incredible time. This followed a safari on the mainland and then two nights in Stone Town at which point we were ready to relax and enjoy the beach. The Sands was exactly what we needed

The Sands was amazing! It was an oasis of beautiful beaches, a large pool, and great food. Highly recommend!

We recently spent 10 days at The Sands Beach resort. If you want entertainment, night life and things to do this isn’t the place for you. There doesn’t appear to be much on the main road leading to the hotel and the nearest town of any note is Paje a 15 min drive away (taxi $25 return) Here there are lots of bars and restaurants. There was a slight mix up with the transfer the hotel arranged but this was quickly sorted out. We were met with drinks on our arrival and cold towels. Much appreciated as we had 2 long flights. We arrived at the hotel early 10am and were shown straight to our room by Ally, the guest relations manager who goes out of his way to ensure that you have a great stay. The hotel was very quiet probably no more than 5-6 rooms occupancy out of 20 rooms for most of our stay. Our room had been upgraded to a sea view. The rooms themselves are basic but huge. The bedroom consists of a comfortable king size bed with mosquito nets and crisp white sheets, a chair, desk and luggage storage bench. A separate area had a wardrobe, shelf space and a safe. The bathroom was huge, with shower and one sink. There is a water heater but this only sufficient for one shower. The soft furnishings in the rooms need updating they are dingy and old fashioned, plain brown curtains and brown light shades with tassels on. This could easily be improved with some bright colours. Outside you have 2 chairs and a table on the veranda. The rooms are cleaned daily to a good standard. Isaya a

We visited Sands Beach resort in mid-June for three nights. On the plus side, the staff (including Ally, guest relations manager) was consistently friendly, welcoming, and aimed to please. They were VERY accommodating, allowing a very late checkout with no additional charge, since our unit was not booked the evening of our checkout. The grounds of the resort were quite beautiful too. As was the beautiful pool area. Also the villas were very spacious. The meals were great and the servers were very attentive. They "hovered" a bit too much, but I'm sure they were trained this way. Americans may not appreciate "hovering" quite as much as Europeans. Not sure. Beach bartenders were also wonderful: Hassan and Isaya. Even the massage therapist was terrific! On the negative side: Our villa (and most others, we were told) had no WiFi. This was only available at the pool, restaurant or beach. The villa had very low lighting. Ally did offer to change to brighter bulbs but we opted not to bother them. Also the cabinet doors in the kitchen were all broken. We didn't need these cabinets but this issue was easy to spot by routine housekeeping, so they may have a limited repair budget. Finally, the resort would occasionally have power issues. They have their own generator when the local utility goes out, but if it ran too long, they might need to shut down ALL the WiFi. This happened just once or twice. Normally, the WiFi in the public areas was great.

Outstanding resort in Nungwi. From the time I arrived until my departure the service was top notch. If there was an issue it was resolved quickly to ensure you had the best possible time at The Sands resort. The gentleman named Ally was like having a vacation angel watching over you to make sure you were enjoying your time there. He constantly checked on us and other guest. We appreciate him for doing so. The food was delicious and each day a different selection of items. There were 2 chefs and both visited out table after dinner on various days. They did a great job. On separate days there was the whole tuna carving station one day and dorado carving stations another day, delicious as well. One of the chefs tried out his recipe for American pancakes on us Sunday morning and this recipe definitely needs to be a permanent part of Sunday breakfast, they were so good. The wait staff was great we had one gentleman a few times and he was great at anticipating our need’s and making dinner a pleasant experience. The beach bartenders were funny and great with the drinks and food service for lunch. The housekeeping staff was also excellent. I had to do some work one day and observed them cleaning the room. I doubt there was a spot missed as they were very focused on making sure the room was refreshed properly. When I return to Zanzibar I’ll split my time between Nungwi and Kendwa. I will definitely revisit The Sands resort in Nungwi. I wish all the staff the very best.