Kikadini Villas is located on Zanzibar's beautiful east coast, about an hour's taxi ride ($60) from Stone Town. The beach is pristine; the water warm, clean and stunningly beautiful. Kikadini's facilities are evocative of the region's Swahili/Arabic cultural roots. And no effort or expense is spared to delight the guests' senses. The accommodation is truly 5-star in every way and the rates seem modest compared to what is offered!

The food is very good, though the menu is a little limited for a stay of several days. The only downside is that credit cards are currently not accepted. This made it very difficult and inconvenient to transfer the required deposit to secure our reservations.

We stayed at the Villa Kikadini complex for 5 nights. In summary, the place has huge potential with a beautiful location, great new complex and pool. It is definitely the nicest accomodation on Jambiani Beach and the recent huge investment should mean an even more fantastic place in the future. However, there has been an large influx of new staff, including a new general manager and head chef (only there 3 weeks or so). Therefore, we were plagued with many service issues, including
-our villa (we rented Villa Maroc) still being cleaned as we walked in,
-we were served fish when we ordered chicken (we were served things different than we ordered more than just one)
-we were told we could not have dinner at our villa the first night because they were short staffed. We were served in our villa after that though
- our kitchen and minibar were not being stocked when we arrived. It was finally done whenl we asked,
-They did not have particular food and wine that was initially offered to us
- They arranged a dhow boat tour to see marine life at the wrong time of day for snorkeling
-We were told that a tour should last 2 hours. It actually lasted 2 hours but with another 2 hour drive to get to/from the place, something that we were not told even though we confirmed we would be back in 2 hours!
-breakfast took 2 hours to be served at our villa most days (we know we are in Africa, but 2 hours?)
In additioin, the complex is still under construction. While the major work is done, they are still laying down walkways (the one in front of our villa was done when we were staying there!), putting in landfill around the pool, and need to put up light fixtures, etc. We would not have minded but we did ask before arriving if all their work had been done and they confirmed yes.
We do believe that Francois the general manager will eventually resolve all these issues, but be warned until that happens. WHen he does, this place should be great. And Jambiani is a great beach....beautiful turquoise water, white sand and a great local scene with fisherman and seaweed farmers at low tide. We highly recommend the beach.

I was curious to see that place, and discovered the most elegant and romantic accommodation on that coast. No big hotels or resorts next door, just local fishermen on the beach and excellent staff. GO !! it is a wonderful place.

Kikadini Villas is beautiful and well appointed, and appears the most luxurious resort in Jambiani. The villas are constructed beautifully. The staff is attentive and accessible, but at the same time try to offer their services "at a distance" for privacy. The staff consists of a housekeeper, John the affable host, a waiter and the chef. The personal chef provides excellent food, cooking in your villas' kitchen at any time you specify. Half-board is standard, but you can request lunch, which is $13USD per person. After sampling several local hotel restaurants, we came to believe that the food at Kikadini was far and away the best, and by the end of our stay we were taking all our meals there.

We stayed in Villa Maroc, which we enjoyed immensely. Although another review reported that part of it was used as an office, we had the entire villa to ourselves. There is a fantastic second-story patio, with beach chairs where we had complete privacy.

The bedrooms all have a small refrigerator, and have beautiful beds romantically decorated. As nice as the beds look, they are not as comfortable some of the extravagant bedroom sets we've seen at high end bed and breakfasts. There is great furniture as well, but one important omission is a room safe. Each villa does have a stereo that plays CDs, but there is no radio, television, or even telephones.

The stretch of Jambiani beach by Kikadini villas is not private, and can be populated by fisherman, seaweed farmers, and freelance tourguides ("beachboys") of Jambiani village. It is a beautiful stretch of beach, with a great deal of tidal variation, so swimming needs some degree of timing.

The resort itself does not organize activities, but at your request can provide a reputable local guide for snorkeling, village tours, dolphin tours on the south of Zanzibar, and tours of Jozani forest. Solicitations for such services by "beach boys" are common, and you are free to make arrangements on your own, but the the staff prefer to steer you to guides that they trust. They also discourage bringing outsiders into the compound, such as the numerous beach women who offer henna painting and massage.

The villas are generally very quiet, and when not busy, the resort seems desolate. There is a primary school nearby, and though the owners erected a large wall as a sound-barrier, the sound of children permeates the air at times during the day. Though this did not bother us at all, in fact is was quite pleasant, this may potentially turn off some guests who want absolute quiet. Besides this though, the villas are very quiet, and there is no road or traffic noise whatsoever.

The resort lacks a restaurant and a pool, which would be very nice. These amenities are in the process of being built. Each of the villas has a wireless internet connection, which is generally slow by western standards and during peak hours may not be functional. The village features an internet-connected computer which amounts to a single laptop in a small one room building. The cost is 3000Tsh for 30 minutes. Besides a few corner-shops, there is little that the village offers in terms of commerce.

The resort and Jambiani is also very isolated, about 70-90 minutes from Stone Town. This is a consideration when planning excursions.

We decided on Kikadini after several very helpful suggestions from our tour operator, Expert Africa. Their website was helpful in determining the type of resort we wanted, as they have many good reviews organized by region in Zanzibar.

Overall we had a fantastic time, the staff was wonderful, the food great, and the beach gorgeous.