Essque Zalu Zanzibar

From the moment we arrived, the staff was incredibly welcoming and attentive, making us feel at home right away. The room was spacious, clean, and had a beautiful view of the ocean, which made for a perfect start to each day. The food was excellent, with a variety options for all meals. I also enjoyed the range of activities they offered, from snorkeling to cultural tours. I would highly recommend this hotel for anyone looking for a relaxing yet adventurous stay in Zanzibar. Can’t wait to visit again!

My fiancé and I spent 4 nights at Essque Zulu in January 2025. Our stay was fantastic. The resort itself is beautiful and filled with breathtaking views and tasty food, but for us the highlight was the service. The staff were attentive, friendly and respectful, and made sure that our experience was a great one, and were available for all of our questions and impromptu needs, no matter how short notice. Maureen was particularly exceptional, going above and beyond to help me to plan and organise my engagement dinner, photoshoot and personally oversaw the transformation of our room for this special occasion. It was a flawless stay, and we will definitely be coming back to Essque Zulu in the future.

Overall a good stay. Nice pool with nice views. MEANT to go back, but will never never never again. BE AWARE.. they charged me twice for my 3 days stay. It has been 3 months and I still don’t have my money back after a ton of emails and paying interests on that charge. They actually stopped responding. I only signed 1 receipt..This was clearly intentional.. they keep asking me for all type of proofs.. i sent them my credit card statement with all the information.. yet they act like it’s so hard to see the money come in into their account. Last email they said i will be refunded.. it has been a month since and no more answers to my emails. If they dare deny this i will post all our communications. If i don’t get my money back i will make sure to forward my story with all proofs to all relevant social medias. Started and ended well but the aftermath is a nightmare

We stayed for one night only at the Essque Zalu and our experience wa beyond disappointing. It started with a confusing check-in where the hotel did not realize that my friend and I had booked 2 different suites, one sea front and one ocean view. Taken by surprise, they provided us with an ocean view and a garden view, which we did not accept as we had paid for a sea front. After investigating further our reservations, the hotel admitted their mistake and provided the right suites. At check-in, we were told in a very casual way that the beachfront resort did not have actually a beach that one can swim at or even sunbath at, but that they provided a free shuttle once per afternoon to the beach of another hotel, chargeable. While the suites were big and overall clean with comfortable beds, the blankets provided were dusty (made in wool?) and inappropriate for a beach resort. I ended up having an allergy reaction and used bath towels instead to cover myself during night (when it gets quite chilly). We had breakfast and dinner at the hotel. Breakfast was ok but dinner buffet was very poor, certainly not a 5 stars one. We booked a car with the hotel to take us to our next hotel on the island. The driver drove so carelessly that we had to ask him to adjust his behavior. We were charged 50$ for a 30 minutes car transfer. Overall, we felt that the hotel did not care about the guests’ satisfaction as no efforts whatsoever were made by the management to enhance our experience or to make it up for us for the multiple disappointments we had in a single day of stay.

What an awesome experience! The views are absolutely beautiful, the staff amazing and we had the best time. Swimming with dolphins was the highlight of our trip. The entertainment every night was very enjoyable. This hotel is highly recommended!