Anyone been to Zanzibar?

Hoping to spend a week in Zanzibar after we finish a safari in Kenya and Tanzania this April...I know its rainy season, didn't know that when we booked it!

Has anyone been to Zanzibar and have any recommendations? We are three sisters on a budget, want to stay away from the tacky tourist resorts or honeymooners. Would like a chilled out area with beach huts and laid back atmosphere for a week...any advice?

Anything else we must see or do?

We'll also have a few days in Dar Es Salaam and Naoribi at the end of the trip. Hoping to fit in a chairty project visit but after that, have no plans!

have been to zanzibar. We found a place called the Pongwe beach hotel during our research and it was also recommended by one or two agents. It gets great reviews on tripadvisor and is quite reasonable. However it was booked out the week we were there so didn't actually stay there!

We stayed in a place called Echo Beach which was fine but I wouldn't really recommend it.

For a bit of variety, I'd recommend a night or two in Stonestown also.

It's a good number of years since I've been there but i really loved it ... a few days in Stone town and then any number of chilled out places on the North or East coast (there's not that many big resorts... so they're not that hard to avoid)

Hope the electricity is working again before you get there! -

Dar Es Salaam is a bit of a hole - wouldn't recommend spending any time there if possible - maximise your time on Zanzibar and there's very frequent flights/ferries over and back so shouldn't be any need to overnight in Dar unless you're arriving in very late / departing very early.

Cool, thanks a million! Will check those places out.

Heard about the lack of electricity alright. Hoping it will be back, although might to the desert island experience if it's not! Think the key would be to get a room right beside the beach for the breeze.

Pongwe beach hotel mentioned above is excellent.
Mixed groups so although there will be honeymooners there it's not all that stay there.

Check out Chumbe Island too - best snorkelling I've ever done - better than Great Barrier Reef of anywhere in Asia that I've been.

Pongwe Beach isreat, we stayed there 2 years ago, I was actually looking at my photos tonight and would love to go back there, lovely huts on the beach