“Not a good neighborhood” was his objection to our next choice. We then decide to be taken to his choice of accommodation: Florida Guesthouse. We settled on the taxi fare and knew we had to pay for his commission at the hotel. Indirectly, of course. It simply means that we can’t negotiate the price for the first night.

Stone Town is much smaller and less of a maze than my guidebook had made me believe. Yet the taxi fare was a good investment after a three-hour boat trip in a stuffy lounge.

Florida Guesthouse is off Vuga Road, not sign-posted and therefore difficult to find. We entered a very small reception area and were welcomed by the owner who descents from Omani Arabs. We inspected the rooms: downstairs they have a double bed and are fairly small. A steep narrow staircase leads up to a communal hall with a table and chairs for the guests to sit. Upstairs there are four spacious rooms, furnished in true Arab style: ornamental and clustered. I loved it!

Our room had a king-size double bed and a small-size single bed, a tiled floor, a paneless window with mosquito gauze to keep the bigger creepy crawlies out. The room is quite breezy and we didn’t use the fan. There are mosquito nets over the beds but the one for the king-size bed was too tight and didn’t reach to the floor. There were also holes, so we used our own.

A boiler provides hot water but must be switched on well in advance, a thing we discovered the following morning. There is also a fridge and a TV with a satellite receiver but one cable missing so no reception.

The best feature by far is the huge breakfast: quarter of a papaya, big slice of watermelon, boiled egg, pancake, meat patty, big hump of bread, fresh fruit juice and fruit salad and of course tea or coffee. We paid US$35 (which included the commission for the taxi driver).

After we had toured the island we came back and agreed on US$30. We came back for a third time when we had been to mainland Tanzania and haggled down to US$25, which was accepted reluctantly.