Zanzibar - Spice and Paradise - IgoUgo Zanzibar Journal

Zanzibar - Spice and Paradise

Best Of IgoUgo

Overview

Quote:

After a week on safari, some relaxation time is a must. Like many others we chose to head to Zanzibar, possibly THE most exotic sounding place in the world.A day in Stone Town, the ancient part of the capital is highly recommended, an almost cliched step back in time to the era when traders from around the globe made Zanzibar famous as the 'Spice Island'. If you are heading for some relaxation on the beach, this will be one last hit of hustle and bustle in proper African style.So the beach where, if you are lucky (and almost everyone is) you will find paradise. We chose to eschew the international resorts that cater for the seasoned traveller, there are still jewels to be discovere...Read More

Cheer!
Flag

Emerson & Green

Best Of IgoUgo

Hotel | "Emerson and Green"

Bathing Outdoors Photo - Emerson & Green, Zanzibar, Tanzania

Quote:

This award-winning hotel is totally affordable, but you feel like you are in the lap of African luxury from the moment you walk into the shady reception area. It lacks true mod-cons such as elevators but is all the more authentic colonial Africa for all that.This is no identikit international hotel. It is a beautiful and sympathetically converted old trading house. Its history dates back to the end of the slave trade and was the place where local owners came to collect the government payoffs for giving up their entitlement to own their slaves.Each room is determinedly individual, when we arrived we were given the choice of all the available rooms and we had a good look around them ...Read More

This award-winning hotel is totally affordable, but you feel like you are in the lap of African luxury from the moment you walk into the shady reception area. It lacks true mod-cons such as elevators but is all the more authentic colonial Africa for all that.

This is no identikit international hotel. It is a beautiful and sympathetically converted old trading house. Its history dates back to the end of the slave trade and was the place where local owners came to collect the government payoffs for giving up their entitlement to own their slaves.

Each room is determinedly individual, when we arrived we were given the choice of all the available rooms and we had a good look around them all.

Each room seemed to have a beautiful stone bath, and the choice of air conditioning (of sorts) or being open to the elements.

We chose the West Room on the Third Floor, up a vertiginous staircase climb (no elevators remember - though porters will take your bags). The room is all open to the air with the exception of the bed area itself. We enjoyed a 'bath a deux' under the stars in the cool of the Zanzibari evening.

There is a Tower Top restaurant at the very top of the hotel which has a very good reputation, unfortunately, such is its limited capacity and popularity, we were unable to secure a booking for the night we were there. We contented ourselves with Sundowners looking out across the harbour as the sun sank inexorably into the Indian Ocean beyond.

We ate at the attached and insanely cheap Kidude Cafe Restaurant, where we paid something like $7- $10 per head for a good meal with beers and wine.

The hotel cost itself was around $150 for the night, pricey in African terms perhaps but well worth the expense in terms of a unique and beautiful experience.

Waking early in the morning in the warm open air in an authentically appointed four poster bed by the voices of several muezzin issuing the call to prayer from the minarets of the numerous surrounding mosques is a wonderful way to be roused. In a trip of many memories that will stay with me for a lifetime, this is one of the very best. Read Less

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on August 28, 2006

Emerson & Green
236 Hurumzi St.
Zanzibar, Tanzania
255-(77) 7423266

Cheer!
Flag

Pongwe Beach Hotel

Best Of IgoUgo

Hotel

Quote:

OK. So you want paradise? Does this fit the bill?White sandy beaches? CheckCrystal clear blue green ocean? CheckTeeming coral reefs? CheckExemplary service? CheckExquisite food? CheckBlistering heat, yet dappled shade? CheckIf this isn't your idea of paradise, then whatever yours is, it'll probably suit you just as well.Pongwe is not cheap. It cost us $70 per day per person at the end of the rainy season. However for this (and we got no rain to speak of by the way) you really do get the top rank of luxurious relaxation. When you arrive you are greeted at the gates by a Masai, one of the security staff. The gated system makes some feel un...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on August 28, 2006

Pongwe Beach Hotel
Unguja
Zanzibar, Tanzania
+255 (784) 336 181

Cheer!
Flag

Shopping in Stone Town

Best Of IgoUgo

Attraction

Quote:

OK - top tip time.You want to go shopping in the streets of Stone Town? Of course you do. But do this; get a guide. If you're in a hotel, they'll be able to recommend one for for you.Don't think that a guide book will do, it's not that sort of guide. Stone Town is fairly logical to find your way around - even though the maze of streets can resemble a souk - but having an official, government licensed guide will stop you from being approached by any number of unofficial guides on the street.These guys are VERY persistent, but not unpleasant, at least to me, but then I am a 6ft plus male.Anyway, that bit clear the shopping itself is a treat - all sorts of tourist ...Read More

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on August 28, 2006

Shopping in Stone Town
Zanzibar
Zanzibar, Tanzania

Cheer!
Flag

IgoUgo

Zanzibar Journals

Upload Photos

Write a Review

Create a Trip Plan

Make a Journal

Zanzibar - Spice and Paradise