Albatross Ocean View

Takes about an hour to drive to from the Zanzibar airport but once we arrived we could not be more impressed with the friendliness and attention of all the staff. We took advantage of the half board option (breakfast and dinner included) and felt no real need to venture outside of the hotel for the weekend. We were surprised that WiFi was an extra charge (can buy for one hour, two hours or 10 hours, I believe) but that was a pretty small issue for us in light of how wonderful everything else was that weekend.

- Extremely friendly and helpful staff who go out of their way for you - Beautiful rooms and facilities - Situated right on the beach where you can swim or bake on the sand

A very nice little hotel on the beach and it's perfect for relaxation. The room/hotel was clean and the service of the staff was great. A great breakfast- and dinner buffet and a good variety of dishes for lunch.

Spotless hotel and rooms, more staff than guests ? And so helpful, nothing was too much trouble. Food was excellent and restaurant was kept open and fully staffed due to our late arrival ( 2 of us). Beach is used by the local fishermen in traditional canoes who are also very friendly and an opportunity to watch a very different lifestyle take please, so much better than just wide empty sea. We loved every minute of our 7days there and would not hesitate to return or recommend to anyone. Truly a very special place.

Absolutely fantastic hotel, especially for the price. Everybody were very friendly and helpful. The room and and rest of the hotel, including the pool were very clean and well maintained. A bit more quieter area of Zanzibar, which was perfect for us. Great snorkeling in near by Blue Lagoon. Certainly recommend this hotel warmly and we will return to the same one next year.

Hotel staff extremely helpful - they couldn't do enough to make our stay more enjoyable. Our room was great and the girls decorated it beautifully each day with flowers.

Fantastic small hotel on a wonderful beach. The staff are fantastic - very happy to always look after you. And you get to know both staff and guests as the hotel is small. The food is good without being awesome. I think there needs to be a wow meal every now and then. Due to its location, you have to eat there, so you are restricted by the food available. The hotel organises excursions at reasonable rates, but the days are long due to distances needing to be covered.

The room was spacious and the furniture throughout the hotel was lovely, still, the room was very basic with only a table and a bench in it. It has a lovely little bar area, however it was swarming with flies at lunch time. A bit of citronella wouldn't go amiss! Bar Staff were friendly and welcoming, but service overall was questionable. When the food was good, it was very good but when it was bad it was terrible! It had a limited selection, which meant there was noting to look forward to and the serving staff were intimidating!

We had an excellent stay at Dongwe Ocean View, we enjoyed all aspects of what the hotel had to offer but what really made it was the helpful and friendly staff who really couldn't do enough for you and were always looking for ways to make our stay extra-special. The hotel makes for an excellent quiet retreat for a couple, although between beautiful beach walks, visits to the Rock restaurant and going out snorkelling on a dhow are some of the activities which will ensure that although the hotel is quiet, there is still plenty to do. Rooms are cool and spacious and decorated daily with local flowers which was a lovely touch. The quality of the food at the restaurant was very good, although we did visit a couple of other locations for sake of variety as our stay was 10 night (taxis can be easily enough arranged).

It would have been a really great place to stay if the A/C had worked. That's really the only problem but it was very hot and we weren't comfortable in the room for more than a few minutes. Staff was very friendly and accomodating but maintenance couldn't get the A/C working and we had the same problem the second night in another room. Beautiful beach, great snorkeling, good food.