We spent a relaxing week in Samaki after travelling in Tanzania mainland. The staff and their service attitude is exceptional. Food is very good, and we found it good to have a buffet: even children find always something to eat. Room was very clean and nice - not luxury, but good quality fot the price. Unfortunately we needed medical services several times, and fortunately there was a doctor in the hotel, and another in the near by hotel.

What we didn't like too much was that the pool was rather small and the Italian guests seemed to have different understanding of hygiene: both children and adults jumped into to pool without showering, with sun cream, sweat and sand...

The place and the beach are nice, even though you can't swim during the low tide and there is nothing but the hotel in the area. What we missed were taxes which you could take and make spontaneous trips in the neighbourhood. Now you had to plane in advance everything you wanted to do, and book the ride in the hotel day before.

In general we didn'l like Zanzibar as much as e.g. Goa, where there are paradise beaches too. One time was enough for us.

Baieti... daca dorit o adevarata septemana de vis... cu plaja alba si deosebita, mancare de nota 11 si, sa nu lipseste nimic ... o baie cu dolphin in mediul lor... trebuia absolut sa venit pina aici.

Proprietar italian (si bucataria la fel) si staff de localnici are o grija constante despre voi, bere este buna si rece mereu, si mancare la buffet nu desamageste niciodata.

Fabio Cristina Rebby

We spent a week at the Samaki after volunteering in Tanzania for 3 weeks in March, and during a 6 month trip around the world. It was the most beautiful week of our trip! The owner is Italian and the food was superb, with fresh local fish each day pastas, salads, and beautiful desserts. Very clean and comfy rooms, lovely pool and white fine sand beach. Domenico is a true gentleman and so generous and thoughtful ... He treated us like family! All of the staff went out of their way to make sure we were comfortable. One of them made us a CD of African music when we mentioned that we liked the music that was playing! As our 6 month sojourn was spent volunteering we had to conserve funds, and Samaki was amazingly affordable. Thanks so much to "Il presidente" Domenico and staff from your friends Dr. Patrick and Debra on the US!

This is an OK hotel in an OK location.

I was travelling alone and didn't want to be in a big hotel complex, but in honesty staying here was a mistake. There is nothing around the hotel to walk to or go to, the beach is really not great and a little dirty. The tide goes out for miles, making it difficult to swim in the sea here.

I booked half board on the hope that there would be local places around where I could have lunch, but there wasn't so it was either pay $15 for buffet lunch (which was a lot I felt) or wait till the evening. You couldn't purchase a snack and there was no where local to go

A lot of reviews say the food was great, I would sooner say it was OK. The hotel wasn't that busy whilst I was there (as it was right at the start of the season) and maybe this influenced the food, but I felt it was very similar every night and certainly if you had lunch as well it was the same as dinner making it very repetative. Drinks (given the captive audience) were reasonably priced and a nice touch was that you could get mineral water free at any time from the restaurant.

I had a room in the grounds of the lodge, near reception, which was clean, quite large and very comfortable - so absolutely no complaints there. The pool and loungers were good and they regularly cleaned the pool through the day too. Hotel felt very safe

This is definitely a resort favoured by Italians - the hotel is owned by Italians, all the staff speak Italian and I was one of the only non-italians there. The guy that organised the tours (who goes by the name of Gian Luca Zambrotta) is very amusing and definitely slightly mad!

Overall, reasonable value for money and a reasonable hotel