Sunshine Marine Lodge

Secluded getaway for relaxation & water sports. Delicious menu options and complementary breakfast. Comfortable rooms with outdoor spaces. The staff are accommodating, friendly, and accessible. They made my birthday very special.

Absolutely loved my experience here. Check out my video to see just how amazing the rooms with an ocean view are. I booked snorkeling trips through the hotel, and also swam out into the ocean on my own for two afternoons. The coral around this hotel is amazing and I saw turtles and dolphins. If you do go out on your own, be wary of the tide going down as there are spikey sea urchins. The pool at the hotel is very nice too, as is the restaurant. Highly recommended!

Nice lodge to relax and go diving or snorkeling. Very friendly staff and great rooms with AC.
It is 1,5 hour one way drive from the airport and Zanzibar city and not much to do close to the lodge.

Very friendly staff, beautiful location. We only stayed for one day and no night, so I can't review the rooms, but the pool location was great. Cocktails were delicious, and I enjoyed the lunch.

Great place to stay to relax - great rooms, staff were all excellent, food was good and diving was incredible. No beach was a blessing in my opinion keeps the place private and you have the option to get a lift to the beach if you like. Pools were very refreshing and clean! Dive Point staff were excellent and very helpful and did their best to take us to a variety of sites and ensured divers grouped by experience etc. The drivers organised for the transfers were very good as was the tour of Stone Town organised via the hotel. I am sure I will be returning!

It does not get much better than this. Our stay was absolutely wonderful. The food is amazing, we tried every day something new and delicious, the chefs are top of the notch. Babybushes at dinner time were really cute. The entire staff were really kind, paying attention to every detail, polite, always smiling and even when we had an issue, they resolved it in no time. The lodge is fantastic, really big rooms with an African style, very clean, surrounded by lush gardens and a view of Mnemba Island. Having Divepoint right there is a plus. They even take you to a nearby beach for free, you can snorkel around the area with high tide but be aware of some sea urchins. We have stayed in other places in Zanzibar with a similar price tag and this is by far the best, thank you!

Beautiful slice of paradise. Ocean views, lovely friendly staff, good food and total tranquillity. If you are looking for a total chill out day or so then you will get it here. If you are after lively then go somewhere else. I came for the former and loved it.

I recommend this Hotel to everyone who wants to enjoy a quiet and beautiful place with direct access to a diving Center.

Sunshine Marine Lodge has a nice 'eco' feel to it. Spacious and lush gardens it feels like an oasis.

LOCATION:
Set overlooking the ocean and right opposite Mnemba island it has a great outlook.

Although no beach access you can snorkel at high tide and its pool area is lovely to spend the day around.
It's sister hotel' 'Sunshine bay' has a beach and the free shuttle takes you there and back (15 minutes)

Most hotels unless staying near Nungwi don't have too much around it. You definitely need a taxi to get anywhere. We took a trip to Nungwi one night to watch the sunset and for dinner. Recommend Baraka seafood restaurant set out on the sand 40,000 (18usd) for a seafood platter.

FOOD:
The staff are lovely and the food is great. We opted for breakfast only as we didn't feel the need to put extra for HB/FB to include starters or deserts really.
The food is good but quite pricey. Lunch and dinner options averaging around $14-$16 for a main , coffee $3 and a beer $6
Breakfast included was good and you could order from a menu alongside a little buffet.

THE ROOMS:
The rooms are spacious and interestingly designed, not your typical hotel room.
We were on the top floor with a view across the ocean.
The sides aren't filled in with glass (only netting) so at times it didn't feel very private.

DIVING:
Their onsite dive shop 'dive point' was a popular choice and with good reason due to its location across from the atoll.

The guys here are super nice, informative and work hard setting up your kit etc.

Some fun easy diving: Octopus, seahorse, scorpion fish, lionfish, frogfish, parrotfish, snapper, tuna etc.. etc..

EXTRAS:
Free yoga on certain days is a great addition that we loved too.

The massages were great and no need for a soundtrack as you can hear the waves and birds singing, very relaxing!

TAXIS:
Taxis are expensive and it's a good idea to shop around. Generally the price is negotiable. We managed $25usd to the airport and $35 return to Nungwi... Booking through hotels it much more expensive.

If diving and ideal length of stay is around 5-6 nights, without diving maybe 3 nights and move to see another area.

We booked for our honeymoon and we were stunned by the beautiful island and most amazing hotel, people there are all really friendly, all super helpful, we enjoyed our stay so much at Sunshine marine lodge, rooms were amazing, view was fantastic and the Chef's food was 10 out of 10.... hotel is situated high north, but its quite, beautiful and so relaxing. Hotel has free snorkeling gear and coral booties don't forget to ask. Thanks to everyone at the hotel for making our stay as awesome as it was.

The picked us up from the airport . It’s worth the taxi ride out of Stone Town to find this amazing hotel.

We picked it because of the PADI course offered at the hotel. They were professional, friendly and so good with our kids. Jory was an excellent teacher and we all enjoyed the scuba learning.

The hotel has amazing landscaping, friendly staff and many options of food at every meal.
They always were friendly and the room was kept meticulous and mosquito nettings were ready every night.

The only thing I would tell other travellers is there is no beach at this hotel but they provide a free hourly ride to their sister hotel10 min away. This hotel has pools , views and quite but no swimming in the ocean here.

This is one of those hotels where if you don't enjoy your stay, there's genuinely something wrong with you as a human. It's THAT good. We booked for 3 nights, and ended up staying 5. One couple we met have been coming here for years and another couple moved on to another part of Zanzibar, only to come back again the same day after 3+ hours in a taxi because there's no place like it. So It's definitely a special place
And why? The location is incredible, there's nothing around the resort but beautiful sea. The staff are amazing, AMAZING. The rooms are excellent. The gardens are stunning, the main swimming pool is stunning and their private beach is stunning, it's all stunning! The food is pretty fab too.
Add to all this, the dive centre which is based by the top pool not only does dive trips, but an incredible snorkelling trip which is an absolute must. We were enveloped by a pod of dolphins on ours, and that made it worth every penny.
Come and stay here - you will love every chilled out second of it.

+ Beautiful location
+ Friendly staff
+ Delicious food
+ Endangered bush baby's are treated with respect and can be seen on the territory
+ Nice rooms

Only thing to consider when booking a stay there is to if possible take a rental car so you have the freedom to explore near by villages and restaurants not that the food they offer isn’t good but if you stay for over a week its nice to try out the different local restaurants and sightseeing comes much cheaper than arranging a taxi every time

Outstanding customer service is seen in the attention to details and in the flexibility shown towards the guests, and the lodge staff constantly demonstrated the two. It is mostly catered more towards an adult crowd looking for peace and quiet. Great food and beautiful location. Thank you for a wonderful stay!

Fantastic place! Very cool rooms. You could not ask for a better place to learn to scuba dive. Hamisi was a great teacher and we had such a good experience. Great atmosphere and lots of places to hang out around the hotel. Very good food and free bike rentals

Excellent place to stay! I really enjoyed my stay over there. The room was spacious and confortable with cool balcony and local soap.
The views are incredible, food was very tasty and the staff was hyper nice and welcoming.
Pools are very nice and the dive center and all dive masters were so nice and very professional.
The beach is a pure paradise!
Overall, perfect place for a getaway that will make you feel wonderful!

I just returned from an absolutely amazing time at Sunshine Marine Lodge. Everything about my experience was wonderful from the assistance provided via excellent communication leading up to my trip, to the great care that was provided throughout my time on both properties and at the Dive Center. I thoroughly enjoyed the relaxing nature of the lodge as well as the beach access I had at Sunshine Bay and walking down to the beach/launch area during low tide. My PADI course completion and fun dive trips were fabulous thanks to the fantastic professionals at the Dive Center. I was even able to have a sensational snorkeling adventure a short walking distance from the beach at Sunshine Bay. I couldn't believe all of the beautiful coral and sea life that lay just below the water line at low tide.
I can't even begin to talk about the good because it was all so delicious. I was able to eat at both properties, and enjoyed all of my meals! The staff in both restaurants were very attentive and professional. The cleaning staff were also excellent, and took great care of the room and my needs throughout my stay.
This was a trip that I will always treasure, and thankfully have LOTS of pictures that will allow me to remember it fondly.
Asante sana for everything!!

10/10 recommend! Amazing location and staff, felt very welcome during my entire stay!

One of the most beautiful and perfect places I have been in my whole life, under every single and possible aspect. (Also, the best gift I could give myself after running away from the filth of Western tourists invading Nungwi beach with their sleazy and disrespectful (for locals) travel patterns).
The location is magnificent and calm. The resort is environmentally conscious, from the building materials, till the soap you have in the shower and the food served in the restaurant. The integration of the overall structure with the surrounding vegetation/fauna has a low impact on the environment. The rooms - more than simply a "room" - are fabulous, clean and fresh. The overall service is outstanding: the reception, the housekeeping, the restaurant and the dive centre's staff is simply amazing, sweet and kind. the restaurant offers always a vegetarian option and they are delicious and beautiful! I was waiting like a kid every evening to discover which fantastic dish would have arrived on my table.
I took my AOP license at the in-house dive shop and I loved the dives and the people. The Mnemba atoll, with its fascinating dive spots, is basically in front of the resort and very fast to reach.
I travel intensively both for work and leisure, and I usually do not go back to the same place; but I dream to go back to Sunshine Marine Lodge one day! Recommended 200%

Beautiful resort. Fantastic staff. Beautiful spacious rooms. We were blown away by this place. Food was good, although not served hot at times. Pools were overlooking the ocean with a dive shop right onsite. Last stretch of road into the lodge is very rough. Only minor negative was the beach was not right at resort. Requires a ride in the shuttle back on the rough road, about 10 mins. Bikes are available but it is more than a casual cycle from the resort to the beach. 20-30 minute ride Id guess. Boat is available sometimes which is a much nicer trip. Beach once you get there is beautiful. We enjoyed sitting by the pool overlooking the ocean. You can also use the jetty to swim right at resort during high tide.