Kilimanjaro Lodge

The manager was nice, but we cancelled our three-night stay and found a much better option instead. The lodge was dirty and looked like a construction site, and the rooms smelled bad, as if smoking indoors was allowed. It’s a three-minute walk to the beach through Nungwi’s dirty streets, and the crowded beachfront looked nothing like the postcards. The Booking photos were far from reality, and the location shown on both Booking.com and Google Maps was wrong, which is why I’m adding the real one. I strongly don’t recommend it.

There was construction going on in the main yard. The location is misleading too: it’s inland, 150 m from the beach, and Google Maps puts it in the wrong place.

This was a perfect base for two nights at the start of our Zanzibar trip. The food was delicious, especially the amazing catch of the day, sea bream, though breakfast was very basic, nothing special, and portions were too small for us. The staff were friendly and helpful, and the room, while simply furnished, was quite clean. We received a warm welcome with juice and, because we arrived early, could check in at noon instead of 2 pm. The beach and village are both a 10-minute walk away. The beach is beautiful, and the locals are very friendly. The nicer beach on the other side, behind the village, takes 30 minutes to reach. Be aware the nearest ATM is a 40-minute walk.

We did enjoy Zanzibar itself, with its nature, local character and excursions, and the ocean was beautiful once we reached the proper beach, about a 20-minute walk away. It had turquoise water, white sand and brought us plenty of positive feelings. But we left the guesthouse early and cut our stay short. We had booked for February 4 to 13, 2021, under a contract describing the accommodation as three-star. This was a guesthouse, not a hotel, and there was no reception. A young man named Abdullah showed us to a squalid shack that seemed more like a hut or a home for people in need than a three-star room. There was a nearby small building with six rooms, the one shown in the advertising photos. I asked to see one, but was told they were all occupied and had no air conditioning, despite the contract. Then asking “how much is it?” fixed the issue in seconds. Turkey charges $20 for this, but Abdullah at this place charged us $50. Later, other tourists told me there really were two-star rooms available for a fraction of the price. Breakfast was especially bad. The kitchen was completely unsanitary, with dirty plates and utensils scattered on the floor and sticky shelves that never seemed to be cleaned. We got three slices of bread, an egg, rancid butter in a small packet shared by everyone at the hotel, a few pieces of pineapple, watermelon and mango, and a small banana. Someone had written that this was filling, maybe for anorexics. The hotel guide, Victoria, an Anex Tour operator, also seemed not to know what her job involved. Her inaction and incompetence nearly made us miss flight check-in.