wowpop
February 23, 2025
We have just returned from a 10 day stay at Bluebay and in all honesty we were left a little disappointed, especially after having read some of the glowing reviews on here. The grounds are very nice and the surrounding beach is obviously beautiful (although be aware the tide comes in very far and it is impossible to walk on the beach once it’s in). Food is varied and decent, we particularly enjoyed the Swahili/Zanzibarian nights. The Trattoria one evening was also one of the nicest meals we had. There are plenty of local cafes and restaurants about 15 minutes walk down the main road, including mini marts and a money exchange, and lots of restaurants down the beach. We did use the spa for a treat and had a very lovely experience. All the staff are very friendly and a “jambo” is appreciated by all - It was sad to see other guests not even bothering to greet the staff at all. A special thank you to waiter Saidi, chefs Oscar and Gredy, and the ladies at the spa, who really made us feel welcome. However if you want an authentic and relaxing experience (as we did) then this hotel isn’t for you. We had to wait 2 hours sat in reception for our rooms to be ready, even though the hotel knew in advance what time we’d be arriving, and the timeframe for the wait was not clearly communicated - reception just kept saying it would be ready “shortly”. We were desperate to freshen up after a long flight before having lunch, but if they had been clear about how long the wait was going to be, then we would have just gone and eaten anyway. No one even bothered to point us in the direction of the restaurant or bar, or show us where any facilities were while we waited. When we did finally get to our rooms we’d been given a lesser room type (Superior) than what we’d paid for (Deluxe). The management then tried to tell us that the superior rooms we’d been given were now classed as deluxe… we had to show them the photos on their own website to disprove this. They agreed finally to move us the following day to the room we expected but it left us feeling like we were being unreasonable even though we just wanted what we paid for. All the back and forth completely wasted most of our first two days. It’s nice to read that other people have had such a great experience with the management and “Mr Dass”. Apart from Ahlem (apologies for spelling), none of them ever approached us to see how our stay was going, say hello, or check in with us, even though evidently they knew that we’d had issues at the start of the stay. One of our group did approach one manager at breakfast one day to ask why the fruit wasn’t sweet (something you would expect as the bare minimum in East Africa - we are East African so we are knowledgeable about local fruit and the seasons here!). The manager told us that we should either come in December (apparently the only month when fruit is in season) or that we should go to Thailand instead. Absolute nonsense. Clearly they only want to cater to European tas