Upendo Beach Boutique Hotel Zanzibar

We came here on our honeymoon and it’s been an absolutely fantastic experience. We’ve been brilliantly looked after throughout. We arrived at midnight to a cool, clean and gorgeous room (with excellent anti mosquito defences!). The food, team looking after us and location have been out of this world! My only complaint is about the amount of weight I’ve gained…!

My husband and I visited on the last leg of our honeymoon, following 6 nights on safari in Kenya. We were sadly not overly impressed by our stay here. We were greeted by the manager, who was very friendly and receptive, and did his best throughout our stay to ensure we were happy. We had no complaints about the hotel itself, rooms were lovely, the hotel was clean, and a lovely white beach / ocean view. However, this hotel / location is just missing something. We were on a half board catering basis, and although the food was really delicious at Upendo, it was the same small menu & cuisine every day, and we very quickly got bored of the food / had everything that we fancied over the 6 days we stayed. The restaurant has a very relaxed vibe / not a very romantic setting - it's more of a day time beach bar, which is fine for lunch, but we expected somewhere more formal for evening meals. We felt this was generally the same in all eating places along the beach, and we really struggled to find somewhere to eat each day, particularly Valentines day. There were a few issues during our stay including building work going on right outside our room (at the place next door), palm trees bashing against our room throughout the night, sewage smell coming into our bathroom, and the hygiene of the staff who came to turn down our room each day. This is not a reflection of the hotel itself, but sadly meant that our experience on holiday here was not what we had in mind. The hotel manager did do his best to rectify some of the issues and we were grateful of that. Another thing to note, is we were not aware before about the crime / culture / safety on the island - upon arrival we were advised not to walk right along the beach, but even walking left, we were harassed by children looking for money / staring at our pockets and felt very uncomfortable. We did not feel at ease to leave the hotel despite the multiple day trips on offer, which was a shame. Overall, the food offerings and variety let this down for us, and lack of formal restaurant / no atmosphere.

Service is slow, trying to get attention of the waitress but they ignore me and went their own way. The waitress who served me talks with an attitude when I was expressing my concern. Toilets had no water had to find someone to fix the problem so I can use, but it’s takes long as they had to fix another person to do that and for me had to leave and go to hotel to use washroom. Food is nice and it came right on time. No complains on that.

This small hotel is a wonderful experience if you are looking for total relaxation. The staff are super attentive and the manager goes beyond to make you feel welcomed. The accommodation is spectacular with private pool and views of the splendid ocean. We did not take any of the optional trips, but looked interesting. The walks along the beach is uninterrupted views of white sand and the bluest of seas. This places comes highly recommended for couples in need to total relaxation.

We visited Zanzibar with our family in October 2023. We visited Upendo where we had sundowners and after we had a great dinner with the best view on the Rock. After dinner my kids hang out with the belgian sheppards while looking over the ocean.

This was probably the nicest meal we had in Zanzibar! Super fresh, great flavours and a really nice option of food. Views are stunning and the vibe is great. Highly recommend! We even came back again since it was so much better than other nearby restaurants. I got the pad Thai both times and the piri prawns for starter and my fiancé had the beef tatatiki which was like a whole beef fillet and the butter chicken curry! Super delicious.