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TRIPADVISOR - billie w - 26 Mar 2019 - - - Picturesque views and friendly staff! - - - I literally just landed back in London yesterday after staying here for 7 days, so i wanted to write a review whilst fresh in my mind! Zilwa hotel aims to give you the 'island' experience, and it certainly delivers on this aspect! The rooms and some of the beach huts and food trucks on site are veru rustic, private island for lunch bbqs with hammocks, and most of the water sports included in the all inclusive package stay. You are never bored!!! Weather was lovely most of the time but it is the tropics so we did have cloud. I did not have a problem with mosquitoes which was a huge bonus as i normally suffer quite badly from them! The reason i gave it 3 stars out of 5 is because too many little things let it down sadly. It was only small things that made me give it slightly less :) (https://tinyurl.com/y2kb97s4)
The staff are always chatty and lovely!! Shout out to Allen who was our tour guide on Friday and we cycled to Goodlands market and visited the temple in the morning which was lovely and would recommend! Also have a lovely little gym which i went to every morning around half 7 and you can always do what you want to do in there. Also a shout out to arnauld (i know i have the spelling wrong!!) He was always making us laugh! Overall it is a beautiful place with very friendly staff.
The aircon in the room was very noisy so we had to turn it off when we slept. The mini fridge was only stocked with two beers in terms of the alcohol, which my partner had but would have been nice to have more variety in there of an evening to sit on the balcony with together.
Favourite restaurant is the Indian, followed by the normal buffet actually as there is plenty of choice! Best lunch was the island bbq and the grilled tuna and pineapple salad was amazing!!! I am a massive foodie. The drinks overall were quite a big let down. Very basic and especially at the boat bar... all fizzy hot drinks are left out in the sun all day (why is this?) So if you have a vodka coke there is no fizz as the moment ice touches it then it melts and taste like water.... The main bar area was also very busy of an evening so often no where to sit. I feel there should me more space or chairs, so instead we would just go back to the room or the boat bar, but even the boat bar had only 8 or so chairs around it so it was quite fruatrating. Lovely little outdoor area near the food trucks at night with loads of benches but it was not utilised.. no music or cocktails and this i feel would make an excellent touch! I would have also liked to see more fish available. Only place at lunch i saw fresh grilled fish was at the bbq on the island or at buffet but nothing or variety in other restaurants apart from the local white fish. Would have loved more tuna or salmon even to be used as you are right by the sea!