Gecko Nature Lodge Home of Swahili Divers the Best Dive Center and Famous Gecko Restaurant

Owner was selling the place so a run down went for diving but no fish locals eaten them ALL or sold at market this is true soon no fish to see or eat. But beautiful surrounding no beach just rocks and seaweed farm in sea when tide out. Can count on one hand how many people visited only 1 to 2 nights. The food was good beer and water expensive water was not free the diving was also expensive.We had to ask for the internet to be put on so we could transfer 1 weeks of our bill. The swimming pool had its pipes in and not all that clean the surrounding are was not cared for but the view of the sea was beautiful so paying for the view quitness and i mean no noise at all just waves and bush baby on tin roof on a night. Our room we paid extra for hot water and aircon not available in other rooms.But again rundown but it is an island in the middle of no where I do think it needs upgrading everywhere

I came to Pemba to see the coral. It was beautiful, in good condition and full of fishes and nudibranchs. The diving staff of Swahili divers are all excellent. Equipment was all included and was spot-on. My partner completed her Open Water certification in a few days and we were both totally satisfied. We had a spacious room which was perfectly adequate for our needs. The kitchen provides delicious seafood every day and plenty of cold beer available. It earns the name "Nature Lodge" because night and day you are surrounded by exotic butterflies, birds, lizards, crabs and don't forget the bush babies. Almost as much life on land as there is on the reef. The pool was the ideal relief from the heat and there are loads of neat places to chill out. There is a timeless authentic rural African Islander feel to the place. We hired bicycles to visit the forest and visited Makangale to join the English class after a chance encounter with a local man, on our days off from diving. I'll never forget it. Special thanks goes to Eddie our taxi driver - Our Luggage was lost in Istanbul during transit, but he made a bunch of phonecalls for us and behold the bag made it to the Lodge 2 mornings later! All the staff were great and they made huge efforts to look after us. Finally, many thanks to Mike for the welcome and your patience/trust with Me as I struggled to make my final payment. (It was my phone coverage that was the issue) We feel this place was excellent value for money and would recommend to anyone.

This is a nice, slightly run-down lodge with an excellent family owned vibe, and a great diving center. The owner is making improvements, so soon there will be more AC rooms. Our room was huge and had a good AC and piping hot shower, my only recommendation is that the breakfast could be improved, but for the price, this is by far the best deal around. I recommend you go diving or take a course and get certified with these guys. The reefs are wonderful, and Great Wall diving for advanced level divers too. The forest is nearby and you can rent a mountain bike to explore the local area. It is very pretty and natural, and the menu for lunch and dinner was good too.

We enjoyed some wonderful dives with Swahili Divers during our holidays in Pemba this July/August. Mike and the team are very professional, always ready to support and finding solutions for every wish. The dive sites are very divers and can be used for junior open water divers up to very experienced ones. That means shallow water to super nice wall dives. Thanks for the wonderful time with you!! Regards, Nicole & Patrick and the 3 kids;-)

A friendly and welcoming base to explore the wild and rustic island of Pemba. Set on the sea (in amongst local seaweed farming activity), the dive boat floating just off the bay - it's about a 15 minute motor down to some fantastic dive sites. There are sea arches packed full of iridescent fish and groupers lurking in deep sea crevices - it was adventurous diving. Currents were low when we were there, but can pick up. Mike who runs Swahili divers & Gecko Lodge is extremely experienced and a safe pair of hands with all the right kit! Mike is a very generous and helpful host, who helped us get hold of the doctor, motorbikes, taxis, etc. Ask for Eddie who works as a taxi driver, but is an incredible fountain of knowledge on birdwatching, nature, customs, island economics, and more - he really brought the place alive for me (sadly in our taxi home!) Gecko Lodge is located just on the edge of the Ngezi forest (last refuge of the Pemba Flying Fox) and has a wide ranging menu, friendly staff and spacious rooms. The coldest beer in Zanzibar! Also a stock of delicious red wine brought in from South Africa. Overall a magic place of remote mystery, coconut crabs wander the paths at night with bush babies in the trees above.

After experiencing the friendly hospitality of mainland accomodations, this camp was a startling real let down and I wouldn't call it a lodge in the sense of what I've experienced elsewhere. The lodgings were a lot more run down and shabby than the online photos indicated, the bathrooms were grimy, the pool was empty and my friend's cabin distinctly smelled of sewage! After expressing that we were rather disappointed by the state of the accomodations, the owner became quite unfriendly and inhospitable. In this place you have to pay extra for the airco, the internet is down all the time and tranfers and tours are more expensive and unreliable booked here than somewhere else. And, after doing the math, it turned out this place costs almost the same as the very clean and gorgeous place 5 km down the road! So, although we knew our bookings were unrefundable (and this was absolutely set in stone), still we did something we've never done before: we decided to take the loss and stay someplace place else. And they still tried to shaft us on the bill! So I'd give this a definite pass!