We stayed at Sultan Palace from 3 March to 10 March 2007 to get a needed break from long European working hours.
The resort has
1) beautiful location and scenery;
2) relatively few lodges which we think is nice;
3) friendly and warm staff always providing good service (who never even remotely tried pick up my wife – ref. the review on too eager staff members):
4) good food which never gave us even a hint of stomach upset even though we ate their thin slices of raw fish and salad bar);
5) and finally just an excellent ambience.

We stayed at one of the Imperial suites, which we paid some just USD 320 per night for - which we actually thought was excellent value.
The drinks are averagely priced at USD 4 for 0,5 litre Kilimanjaro beer bottle, USD 3 for a glass of fresh mango juice and USD 10 for a cocktail.

This resort has no pool, however there are large sunshades made of straw right directly on the beach (none of the other resorts seems to have this for some reason) so there is really no need for any pool in our opinion. At low water is slightly challenging to get a good swim going, but with a 100 meter walking effort and beach shoes there is really no problem.

Anything negative? Well, it is actually difficultly to find anything significantly negative to say about Sultan Palace – but here they are:
1) they do not have sparkling water,
2) not super comfortable beds and
3) the lodges are not “polished” (for lack of better word).

Summary: Very nice and relaxing resort with a nice ambience, excellent staff and food, good value for money.

we had a very relaxing time at the Sultan Palace over New Year's 2002/2003. What my boyfriend at the time complained about seemed charming to me: there were no tv's or cd players in the rooms. there is also no swimming pool and i read in more recent reviews that the hotel promised a pool "next year" and that's just what they did four years ago... at the time, the sultan palace was still listed in the relais chateux guide but has since disappeared from the book.

What i loved the most:
i loved the georgeous wide beach, white powder sand, for a couple of miles that you will walk in almost complete solitude. the nature, the smells and vistas are magnificent!! this place is so much more beautiful than stone town. the water is the bluest i have ever seen and thanks to a reef a few hundred yards off the beach, the water is calm and shallow and the snorkling is absolutely wonderful. the corals here are intact and colorful and you will swim through schools of fish in all colors and shapes. behind the reef, i heard there are strong currents, but barracuda and other deepsea fish will be found by experienced divers.
the food was very nice and the staff was so warm, kind and friendly. staffmembers casually mixed with the guests to celebrate the new year around a magnificent bondfire on the beach. some of the staff were pleasantly protective of me, providing me with much advice e.g. on how to negotiate on the markets in stone town (1 hr drive away) and just generally looking out for me.

what i liked the least:
things may have changed since i was at this hotel. but it may be difficult to get professionally trained staff to this isolated location fulltime. while i was given a massage one day, the girl who massaged me questioned me regarding my marital status. i was on this vacation with my boyfriend. as it turned out, she was trying to mediate between me and one of the staff members who wanted to marry me and he made that very clear during the following days. i politely rejected but insisted not to tell the management because i didn't want the boy fired. it seemed like such a brave, heartfelt thing to do and he seemed to never be anything but blissful.
it then took a bit of a traumatising, less innocent turn when the owner of the hotel invited me for a diving trip, which i enthusiasticly said yes to until he said i would look great naked under water (he was an underwater amateur photographer). i came up with an excuse and was left alone for the rest of the week (well - let's say i pretty much avoided going to the restaurant or bar without my boyfriend from then on).
last but not least, the drive from the airport to the hotel is absolutely dreadful. especially the last mile or two to the hotel that we inched forward, carefully zigzagging through between potholes three times the size of our car. get the hotel to pick you up and drop you off at the airport. the "taxis" available at the airport are mostly dangerously post-inspection.

all in all, i still consider the location to be one of the most beautiful i've ever been to. it's dreamlike with it's sounds, sights and smells - surreal! on the eastern flank of zanzibar, the sultan palace is unbeatably the most beautiful hotel. again, maybe things have changed, but if you are a white girl, maybe blonde and tall as well, be more reserved than what you would usually call reserved. the fact that i was obviously not alone and on a couple getaway didn't matter much here. to put things even more into perspective, my mother had passed away two months before our vacation and i was not exactly at my most outgoing and wasn't mixing with the folks at the bar. the fact that i felt vulnerable may have heightened my discomfort. hopefully your experience will be nothing short of beautiful!! i wish it for you! it's such a great place.

We went to the Sultan Palace for 4 days at the end of our honeymoon (after 4 days at the Bluebay which were average).
We were immediately upgraded to an imperial suite (with direct beach access) because there was availability. Since it was early afternoon and we hadn't had lunch, they offered to bring lunch to our room and we ate octopus on the room's balcony. Room was absolultely amazing with a private garden, very quiet (no tv).
The seafront is very nice (similar to Bluebay) and very quiet. Also the hotel has a private boat that can take you snorkling to amazing reefs (that snorkling was better than the diving we did off the coast of mnemba island!!)
Pretty much everything is free of charge (boat, internet, meals) except for wine and drinks at the bar (great cocktails)
Very quiet hotel (no tv, not a lot of activites, no alternative restaurants in short walking distance), maybe a little too quiet if you stay too long but absolutely perfect to conclude a honeymoon
One of the greatest hotel I've been in my life.
Don't quite know the price (I didn't book directly) but I think it's the same as Bluebay (but uncomparably better)

1. Great location.

2. Beautifully appointed and decorated in an Arabic style. The suite we stayed in was massive and very comfortable.

3. Excellent food and drink. The cocktails are superb. Although we went all inclusive drinks were extra but reasonably priced.

4. A very personal atmosphere and service. Staff are helpful, genuine and easy to communicate with. They bent over backwards to make us feel welcome and to meet our every request.

5. Having stayed in a suite at Breezes for a week beforehand we very much preferred the Sultan Palace on almost every level - even though it does not have a swimming pool (which we understand will be remedied within the next year or so).