This beautifully designed Morroccan style hotel certainly has the 'wow' factor! Sitting on the edge of a beautiful stretch of palm fringed beach is this fabulous oasis. We stayed in villa Pwani - our bedroom had doors opening out onto a shaded seating area overlooking the beautiful turquoise sea. We could go up onto a private roof terrace (although be warned that the wooden stairs are very steep!) via a central courtyard area with fantastic views, a dining area and even an open air bath! A great area for sunbathing by day and star gazing by night.
The tide goes way out each day exposing a very interesting reef which you can wander out onto and watch the villagers going about their daily lives - women harvesting seaweed grown to export and providing them with a valuable income to help with their childrens education, and the men going out in their 'Dhows' to fish. You can also wander through the village and visit the local school.
When there is no sea to swim in, the hotel has a lovely deep blue mosaic tiled pool to cool off in and the staff are always ready to bring you an ice cold drink.
Talking of staff, what lovely people they are! Nothing is ever too much trouble and if there is anything particular that you would like to eat they will do their very best to make sure you have it. Everything is cooked to order and so there is no chance of the dreaded holiday tummy problems here!
The manager Francois lives on the premises and is very welcoming and extremely helpful. All in all, we had a lovely relaxing holiday and would thoroughly recommend this hotel.

Kikadini Villas is located on Zanzibar's beautiful east coast, about an hour's taxi ride ($60) from Stone Town. The beach is pristine; the water warm, clean and stunningly beautiful. Kikadini's facilities are evocative of the region's Swahili/Arabic cultural roots. And no effort or expense is spared to delight the guests' senses. The accommodation is truly 5-star in every way and the rates seem modest compared to what is offered!

The food is very good, though the menu is a little limited for a stay of several days. The only downside is that credit cards are currently not accepted. This made it very difficult and inconvenient to transfer the required deposit to secure our reservations.

We stayed at the Villa Kikadini complex for 5 nights. In summary, the place has huge potential with a beautiful location, great new complex and pool. It is definitely the nicest accomodation on Jambiani Beach and the recent huge investment should mean an even more fantastic place in the future. However, there has been an large influx of new staff, including a new general manager and head chef (only there 3 weeks or so). Therefore, we were plagued with many service issues, including
-our villa (we rented Villa Maroc) still being cleaned as we walked in,
-we were served fish when we ordered chicken (we were served things different than we ordered more than just one)
-we were told we could not have dinner at our villa the first night because they were short staffed. We were served in our villa after that though
- our kitchen and minibar were not being stocked when we arrived. It was finally done whenl we asked,
-They did not have particular food and wine that was initially offered to us
- They arranged a dhow boat tour to see marine life at the wrong time of day for snorkeling
-We were told that a tour should last 2 hours. It actually lasted 2 hours but with another 2 hour drive to get to/from the place, something that we were not told even though we confirmed we would be back in 2 hours!
-breakfast took 2 hours to be served at our villa most days (we know we are in Africa, but 2 hours?)
In additioin, the complex is still under construction. While the major work is done, they are still laying down walkways (the one in front of our villa was done when we were staying there!), putting in landfill around the pool, and need to put up light fixtures, etc. We would not have minded but we did ask before arriving if all their work had been done and they confirmed yes.
We do believe that Francois the general manager will eventually resolve all these issues, but be warned until that happens. WHen he does, this place should be great. And Jambiani is a great beach....beautiful turquoise water, white sand and a great local scene with fisherman and seaweed farmers at low tide. We highly recommend the beach.

I was curious to see that place, and discovered the most elegant and romantic accommodation on that coast. No big hotels or resorts next door, just local fishermen on the beach and excellent staff. GO !! it is a wonderful place.