Paradise & Wilderness

Dream of Zanzibar Resort & Spa

Dream of Zanzibar is a small premium all-inclusive on Uroa beach on Zanzibar's east coast, for couples and families who want a compact, quiet resort. It is the beach week after a safari rather than a big complex, about 45 minutes from the airport, with 36 suites, one restaurant, one bar and one pool on a lagoon shore. Everything is close and the days are unhurried, which is the appeal, and which is also why a week here suits people who are content with one dining room. Guests praise the beachfront setting, the size of the suites, the attentive service, the pool and the convenience of a plan that covers drinks as well as meals. The complaints are the limited dining variety, the swimming, which comes and goes with the tide, and the cost of excursions and transfers. The thing people wish they had known is the tide: the east coast has large tidal differences, high water is when the lagoon is for swimming, and low water exposes a broad shallow flat. The plan covers meals, drinks, cocktails and appetisers and a stocked minibar; the spa treatments, the excursions, safaris and the airport transfer are extra, and 24-hour room service is available but not fully inside the plan. The Garden Suite, at 70 square metres, is the value room; the Grand Ocean and Penthouse Ocean suites are the water-view categories worth paying for. There is no kids' club. Anyone who wants several restaurants, or a beach that swims at any hour, should look to the north of the island.