Matemwe Lodge

Had a great few nights here. Couldn't fault the place. The rooms were lovely, the staff were all so friendly and welcoming and genuine. The location was very chilled out. I enjoyed the food a lot. A nice added bonus was the landscaping. The walk to and from our lodge was so enjoyable walking by all the various plants and even animals. Although there it was a very chilled place there were enough activities (scuba, snorkelling, walks, kayaking) to keep the easily bored entertained.

This is not a five star experience at all. We splurged on this place for our honeymoon and were VERY disappointed. The claim of a private chef is a lie, which was a huge selling feature for u as vegans; the chef is shared with the other villas and there is a fixed menu. Even though they wrote to ask about our dietary preferences in advance, the menu usually had exactly zero options that I could est. They did offer to make us something else, but didn't offer any suggestions and didn't know how to make a lot of things (like guacamole) and the food wasn't super tasty. The private villas are pretty for sure and good for instagram, but a super far walk from the beach (like 20 minutes). Many of the activities listed were not actually available, weren't on site, and were at an additional paid cost. The private pool had been recently repainted and the white paint would come off on your skin, which was gross. There were a TON of bugs everywhere. The air conditioning was ineffective, and they used very hard water in the shower. Overall just a bad experience. When we tried to raise concerns both while on site and afterwards, we were ignored. Temper your expectations if you decide stay here, and I would recommend you stay at Mnemba Island resort instead if you want actual luxury.

Very quiet place where you will feel spoilt. Staff is the best ever, food superb. Make sure you bring with you a good book as there isn't much to do except for laying on the beach and enjoy the view. The resort has only few rooms and the place is always very quiet. However there are also activities organized by the resort such as snorkeling, kayaking and day trips.

Stayed here in August 2022. Top notch customer service from the hotel manager Mohamed and the whole team. Strongly recommend the beach bbq and snorkel trip. Chef Edmund prepared a really unforgettable beach bbq for us and everyone made us feel very welcome. Gorgeous plantings throughout the property and really can’t recommend this hotel enough in Zanzibar.

The location is like stolen from a vacation travel brochure. On the East Coast which gives tide impact is substantial. Good or bad is another question. The pool areas are quite amazing and spacious enough. This is a higher end place which gives that food and drink prices are ridiculous. With the experience of Asilias other sites (safari places) the staff need a bit more of the "Asilia mentally" coaching.

Outdated, rude manager & mold in rooms & AC. After 6 nights on safari at other Asilia resorts (best time of our life), we couldn’t wait to be on a beach to relax. Until we got to Matemwe. First, we paid an extra $2k to upgrade to the full package with a pool in our room, food and drinks included. The full bar was not included (as it was in other Asilia resorts). It was the lowest alcohol possible and they charged for higher quality. We never used the pool in our upgraded room because it was stagnant water that was never circulated. The room was way too hot to eat in (AC barely worked and was dripping mold) and if we wanted to order a drink, it took 15+ minutes for it to arrive. We get to the resort and get settled in. It was brutally hot so we ordered lunch (which was cold because the room was about a mile away from the kitchen) so we went right to the pool. The first night we noticed holes in the mosquito net and the AC barely worked. We dealt with it and decided to eat in the main area the next day. The second night, everything went downhill. My husband got bit all over so we had our butler and the manager (Marco) come to the room. They took pictures of the bits and sent them to the doctor. The pictures were blurry so I sent them from my phone. The manager, Marco, came back and said the doctor said it was from the safari we went on two day ago. Totally confused, I asked the doctor what type of bugs while on safari could have done this where it would have taken two days to show up and the doctor questioned what I was talking about and didn’t know I was on safari. Marco totally lied right to our faces. He seemed annoyed the whole time as if WE were the issue. We then showed them the holes in the net.. and then realized the AC had mold dripping out of it. Marco then sprayed bug spray ALL over the room. We walked back in to fumes that were barely safe to walk through. We asked how we are expected to sleep in that (it was 11pm at this point) he said it was fine. We looked at the bottle and it said it should not be sprayed in closed areas. Furious and scared since there was no one to help, they moved our rooms and we demanded to leave the next day. Our travel agent moved us to another hotel. We then heard from other travelers at that resort they had an even worse experience. The ONLY welcoming staff were our butler and the bartenders. As we were checking out the next day, we filled out the guest survey. Marco was hovering over us while we were filling it out which was very intimidating. It was absolutely a mess. I don’t know how Asilia allows their name to be on a resort like this. We wondered how there were so many 5 star reviews on here, we searched other review sites (and review sites hosted in countries outside of America- which was even worse) and everyone that had a horrible review said the same thing. Don’t let their response fool you. The quality of service and logging we experienced at Matemwe were inconsistent with the other Asilia owned properties we stayed at. Save your time and money and go to a different resort in Zanzibar.

Absolutely fantastic place Stunning dive able and snorkel able beaches and oceans. clean beaches, clean accommodation as well as amazing staff. Food at this lodge has to be among the best I've ever had.

This place is amazing. The staff is great, they cater to your every need and always are happy to do it. Do the snorkeling in the morning if you want to snorkel with Dolphins.