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

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.

Gecko lies a bit isolated on the north west coast of Pemba. Super good diving and good instructors. The food was very good and fresh from sea. Good dive center. Nice spacious room - a bit rustique. Lots of Tobys (pufferfish) to see in the sea. We miss the cute cats. Western facing deck to watch the sun set.

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;-)

We had an amazing stay at this place. Very quiet, and a beautiful sea view. Mike did everything to make our stay (and honeymoon) unforgettable. The snorkel tour was also really nice and it is possible to rent bikes. I would definitely reccomend this place!

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!

I had a wonderful stay at Gecko Nature Lodge. A relaxed friendly vibe with the owner and fellow travellers alike. I signed up with Swahili divers for 4 dives including a refresher course with Mike. The dives were fantastic and the setting stunning. My only regret was not another day or 2 to relax in a hammock on the beach. The food in the restaurant was also top notch.