When first arriving here we were very warm welcomed by friendly staff. The rooms are spacious, there are two pools and the hotel is at the beach. The sea front is very shallow and one must take care not to step on sea urchins.
The staff makes the difference at this place, they are very helpful and taking care of all our requests, also requests out of the ordinary.
We liked the Bar-B-Q every evening with changing dishes.
Good stuff all!

First stay here was planned and after 3 nights and some air-conditioning problems ( fixed ), we can fly back home…. Plane was overvooked and we return back for one week more stay in Nest Style….
Second stay was unplanned, but the location and character of the resort is so nice, that we come back….
Everything was ok, staff very helpful and weather also perfect.
Sea on this location comes back to the beach every 6 hours, so you have much more time to explore all the lagoons and places - normal time underwater…. Super !

The Nest Style Beach Hotel offers a good value for travelers seeking an alternative to the constant tourist hustle of Stone Town.

Located on the extreme southeastern shore of the island, Nest Style is about a 90-minute car ride from the Zanzibar airport. Just take the route toward the village of Makunduchi and you will find Nest Style literally at the end of the road.

It was formerly known as La Madrugada Beach Hotel & Resort, as evidenced by the tiles at the bottom of the swimming pools that still spell out its past moniker. I never stayed there when it was the operated as the Magdrugada but, judging from the legacy reviews, the new management team for the Nest Style have made some marked improvements over the days of old.

The property features 37 rooms spread over five separate two-story buildings with white adobe walls and thatched roofs. My small family of three stayed in two rooms during our week there. A problem with the air conditioner in our first room necessitated a move to another room to allow a repair crew in to fix the issue. Both of the rooms were nicely appointed in a style that featured a combination of finished concrete and natural wood. If you are looking for gleaming marble surfaces and silk sheets, this is not the place for you. But. if you want the laid-back vibe of a tropical isle with a “casual chic” décor, the Nest Style perfectly fills the bill.

The centerpiece of the property is a rectangular garden that houses two swimming pools and a large two-story wooden structure with open sides that serves as the bar/restaurant/dining room. The lower portion features a bar that is reasonably stocked. They offer a variety of soft drinks, juices, a few local beers and a solid list of basic cocktails, including some “obligatory” tourist treats served in a hulled-out coconut. The upper floor is a dining room that offers nice breezes and a good view overlooking the pools and the beach beyond. It faces the east, so you get great views of the sunrise.

The beach is not conducive for bathers who want to take an immediate swim. During low tide, you need to hike about 200 meters in knee-deep water over a sparsely sanded rock-and-coral seabed to get to water deep enough for a dip. High tide is not much better, with the closest water getting up to about waist-level. Water shoes are pretty much a necessity. We found the pools to be the best option for swimming, with warm water that was meticulously clean but not overwrought with chemicals. And we did enjoy the beaches for walking, shell-gazing, and the usual ambience that comes with being near the shore.

Between the low fence marking the hotel boundary and the beach, the hotel maintains a wide strip of sand terraced up a few feet from the water’s edge that features some large lounging cabanas. They have pergola tops that allow you to seek sun or shade, as desired.

The food served at the Nest Style is good and plentiful. A breakfast buffet is served each morning in the second-floor dining room. It features a daily variety of hot dishes, such as potatoes, tomatoes and, curiously, spaghetti. Beef bacon and sausage, along with chicken sausage, are the usual meat offerings. (No pork. Most of Zanzibar’s citizens are Muslim). Eggs and crepes made to order. Fresh fruit and juices served to your specifications.

For lunch and dinner, the restaurant offers a full menu that ranges from pizza and burgers to steak and seafood. The chef offers dinner specials each night that usually include the choice between two starters, three entrees and at least two desserts.

We opted for the “half-board” package with the idea that we would eat dinner every night at the hotel and lunch while away on excursions. In reality, we ended up eating most lunches there, too. So next time we’ll likely go for the full-board option. It should be noted that drinks are not included in either of the food packages.

There is not much to see or do in the immediate vicinity of the hotel. Makunduchi is not a very big village. Besides a few walks on the beach, our lone outing on foot was a two-minute walk to the local “mini-mart” to get some mosquito repellent for the next leg of our African adventure.

The hotel staff at the reception desk are pretty helpful in arranging excursions. When we did feel like getting out, they booked us on a snorkeling tour that included transportation to and from the hotel. They also offer the full slate of other tours (Stone Town, spice tour, national park, etc.) that seem to be the same standard fare offered by all the tour hawkers. Arguably, you may be able to book excursions cheaper through some other vendor. We felt better booking with the hotel staff, figuring that if something went awry, they would be able to help us sort it out.

As for other activities, the hotel does have a small workout area that has basic equipment and a couple of a kayaks and paddle boards for rent. A venture into the nightlife can be arranged, according to a sign board posted one day by the pool that offered a free ride from the hotel to a happening at a social club up the road.

The hotel staff members are attentive and helpful. Everyone we encountered treated us as if we were the only guests on the property.

Over the course of the week, I noticed a variety of clientele at the Nest Style: There were a few families, like ours; some couples, both young and older; at least two small groups (4-5) of young ladies; and two small groups (2-3) of young men. All seemed to be having a good time pursuing a variety of holiday agendas, judging from the chatter in the breakfast room.

There were a few quirks during our stay, beyond the aforementioned air conditioner hiccup. Electricity for the complex is provided by a generator that at times did not seem to have enough juice to power all of the lights in the room and sporadically shut down completely. When that happened, the power came back on within a minute. There were also a couple of times during the day when the water in the rooms did not flow. But, like the power, it usually came back into service after a few minutes. To us, none of these incidents were a “deal breaker” for our stay at the Nest Style. We chalked it up the reality of life on an African island.

One financial note: Be aware that if you pay any charges at the hotel with a credit card, they add a 3.5 % fee to cover their costs for the transaction.

Overall, our stay at the Nest Style lived up to our expectations. We needed a quiet, no fuss place to destress from work/school and European winter weather before heading off for more strenuous African adventures. This place provided just what we needed and more.