The six
None of them is the bedroom
Which is where nearly all the browsing time goes, and which at this level is lovely nearly everywhere.
| Variable | Why it matters | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Which coast | Decides whether you can swim on demand — the biggest variable here | What does low water look like in front of the property? |
| The pool | On the east coast it carries the middle of the day | Is it shaded, heated, and how big? |
| Number of rooms | Decides whether the place can bend around you | How many rooms — it always has an answer |
| Board basis | All-inclusive, half board and B&B are different products | How many restaurants, if all-inclusive? |
| Transfer time | An hour or more to the east coast eats an arrival day | Forty minutes or ninety, on the actual road? |
| Air conditioning | In the hot, calm months this is not a luxury | AC in the room, or a fan? |
Why the coast outranks the hotel
Because a good hotel on the coast that suits you beats a grand one on the coast that does not, and the gap is not close.
If somebody in the party wants to swim in the sea at four in the afternoon, a beautiful property on a coast where the sea is four hundred metres away at that hour is the wrong booking however many stars it has.
This is the single most common way a Zanzibar week goes wrong, and it is entirely a planning matter rather than a hotel matter.
Why the room count tells you most
A hotel of twenty rooms can arrange a table on the beach, a boat at short notice, a late breakfast, or dinner at a time that suits you. A hotel of two hundred has service times and a system, for the same reason that a large safari lodge does.
Neither is better in the abstract. But if flexibility is what you want, the number is the thing that predicts it, and it is public.
Transfer times, which nobody checks
The airport is near Stone Town in the south-west. The north coast is about an hour; the east coast can be an hour and a half depending on where exactly.
On a four-night stay that is a meaningful slice of the holiday spent in a car, and it is worth knowing before rather than after. A property that quotes the time honestly rather than optimistically is telling you something about itself.
What not to compare on
- The bedroom photograph. Lovely nearly everywhere at this level; the variable that discriminates least.
- Star ratings, which are not consistently administered here and tell you very little.
- A famous name, which reflects a marketing budget rather than a beach.
- The infinity pool shot, which every property on the island has now taken.
The one sentence version
Choose the coast first, the kind of property second, the board basis third, and the bedroom last. Almost everybody does it in exactly the reverse order.
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