Thirteen bungalows.
One villa. One garden.
Built slowly, on the longest beach in Zanzibar, opposite the Mnemba Atoll.
A house, grown
into a hotel.
Fourteen rooms set among frangipani and coconut palms. Each one has a private plunge pool and an outdoor shower. The terraces look onto the garden, or straight out to the ocean, or both.
The bungalows have palm-thatched roofs and objects we've picked up from market days across the island — hand-carved Swahili doors, brass lamps, baskets woven by women up the coast. Nothing here arrived in a shipping container marked "decor."
Our restaurant stands on a small coral outcrop above the beach. The spa hides behind a coral stone wall in a garden of its own. The pool is the blue you mean when you say blue.
Every room with a private plunge pool.
We keep the house small on purpose.
Adults and teenagers. Family rates on request.
Opposite the Mnemba Atoll marine park.
Small house,
small footprint.
We work closely with the village of Kigomani. Solar energy keeps the lights on. Rainwater keeps the garden alive. The plastics we use, we keep removing.
Our tomatoes come from our own patch. Our fish comes in at dawn on the boats from the village. Our spice — cloves, cardamom, cinnamon — comes from the farms a short drive from the beach. Our toiletries are made by Inaya Zanzibar, an all-women cooperative. Our dhows and ngalawas are still built on our sand by the village's traditional boat-builders.
Our staff are mostly from Kigomani. Many have been with us for years, trained as waiters, chefs, receptionists, gardeners, housekeepers. They are family. We say that because it is true.
The full story