Baraza Resort & Spa

Rooms

The resort has 30 beautifully furnished villas, all extremely spacious and stylish with luxury interiors, beautiful fabrics and hand carved furniture in the traditional style of the island. Outside there are spacious and shady terraces, sun loungers and private plunge pools.

All of the villas are air conditioned and have a bedroom, living room, walk-in dressing room, TV, CD player, minibar and en suite bathroom with freestanding bath.

Location

Baraza lies on the southeast coast of the island of Zanzibar, along the award-winning Bwejuu Beach.

This is one of the best beaches on the island — with 240 meters of fine, white sand it really is your quintessential tropical paradise beach. The beach shelves gently into the sea and there is a coral reef offshore that runs the length of the east coast of Zanzibar.

With the tides pushing out so far on Zanzibar the resort offers reef walks at low tide where you can wander out and see what creatures have been trapped in the rock pools; swimming and other water activities are only possible at high tide. Baraza shares the beach with a number of other resorts but it doesn't feel busy and there is plenty of space for everyone to find a quiet spot.

The resort is located about ten minutes from Bwejuu Village and Baraza has a strong involvement in the village itself so you will most likely receive a very warm welcome from any villagers that you come across.

Food and drink

There are three different dining spots at the resort, open at different times of the day, giving a variety of different locations and styles.

The Livingstone Terrace is an open air restaurant serving breakfast and dinner is also served here on some nights.

Lunch is served at Sebule, set a little closer to the beach. Fresh buffet lunches offer a selection of dishes as well as a daily menu featuring the chef’s specials, pizza or pasta of the day and fresh salads. Afternoon tea is also served here each day from 4pm to 5.30pm and the bar and lounge is open from 10am to 6pm.

Dhahabu Bar & Lounge is open in the evenings for cocktails with a wonderfully extravagant Arabic and Swahili setting.

Finally the Sultans Dining Room offers a beautiful setting for evening meals which are either a set menu or buffet. Menus are inspired by Arabic, Indian, Persian, Asian and Swahili flavors using the local spices for which the island is famous, or more familiar Western dishes.

Gentlemen are required to wear long trousers at dinner.

Families

Baraza has a children's area with lots of toys, games and activities to keep them entertained and plenty of comfy loungers, couches and bean bags to relax and play on. For the older children and young teenagers there is a Wii, a ping pong table, table football and a children’s pool table. There is also an extensive library of children's movies.

Most of the year this children's area is unsupervised and children would need to be accompanied by their parents, however in July and August and over Christmas there are supervised activities (children younger than four still need to be accompanied by a parent or a guardian).

Facilities and activities

Facilities at Baraza are extensive and include a swimming pool, spa, tennis court, fitness center, water sports center, PADI dive center and boutique. Snorkeling excursions, trips to spice farms and more can all be arranged. Alternatively, you might want to sit back with a good book on your Swahili daybed outside your villa and relax. Baraza itself also offers an extensive program of classes and experiences to teach guests about the local culture. Enjoy a Swahili lesson and learn to weave palms or how to play Bao, a traditional African game.

Environmental and social responsibility

The hotel has a charity Breezes for Bwejuu (linked with sister hotels Breezes, The Palms and Zawadi) which has been responsible for a huge improvement in the quality of life of the local village.

Since its inception, this charity has built a mosque, repainted the Bwejuu health clinic and supplied them with fresh water and medicines as well as building a maternity clinic and donating beds and mattresses, clothes, school supplies, and books. If you are keen to visit the local village, this can be easily arranged. And if you wish to donate supplies for the clinic or school, please ask your Audley specialist to find out what they are currently in short supply of.

Local excursions

Snorkeling excursions, dolphin watching tours, trips to spice farms and more can all be arranged.

Diving

Diving can be arranged from Baraza using the Rising Sun Dive Centre which is fully PADI certified. Rising Sun are the only PADI 5-Star Gold Palm and National Geographic Dive Centre in East Africa and have been operating off the east coast for 18 years.

Diving is available for complete beginners to more experienced divers and all dives are operated in groups of no more than six people.

Spa Facilities

The beautiful Frangipani spa at Baraza is the perfect place to escape and enjoy a day of pampering. With a lap pool with underwater music, indoor and outdoor relaxation rooms you can expect to leave feeling thoroughly rejuvenated and relaxed. 

The decor of the spa mixes Swahili influences with the spices of the island and the overall impression is decadent and luxurious. There is a whole host of treatments provided by professional therapists from Thailand, Bali and India all using high quality natural products that make use of the local spices available. The Sultan's Bath is their signature treatment for couples.