Hi there,

I have almost finalized my Tanzania safari trip ..just have a few details to be ironed out. So decided to turn to you guys for some expert advice!

We plan to spend 5 days(4 nites) in Zanzibar. We will be spending three nites at Pongwe Beach Resort and wanted to spend one nite in Stone Town.

Any advice on good hotels (don't mind splurging a bit) in Stone town would be great!

Also, has anyone stayed at Pongwe before?

Thanks!

Solitaire

Zanzibar Serena Inn is very good, with an excellent view. Prime rooms worth the extra money.

Emerson and Green is fun and quirky. All the rooms are different and sometimes their reservations are a pain (othertimes admittedly the emails bounce back and forth like a conversation)

Richard

Solitaire,

We wanted to stay at E & G when we were in Zanzibar; like you, we had done some light camping and basic lodges for safari and hoped to splurge in Stone Town. E & G was booked and we weren't interested in the Serena so we ended up at the Tembo Hotel. Not fabulous by any means and a bit funky, but interesting in its own way and well-located.

A good second or third choice should you run into booking problems as we did.

Here's a website with photos of E & G:

http://www.zanzibar.org/emegre/mainframe.htm

Here's the Tembo website:

http://www.tembohotel.com/

Good luck.

If you select E&G, note that most rooms are air conditioned. The few on the upper level are not and though the breeze blows thru these, it may not be comfortable for sleeping with only ceiling fans. Check the E&G site, select a room that you think you'd like and request it (have a 2nd choice, just in case). Most all rooms only have a double, king or queen size bed; believe only 1-room has two (double-size) beds.

solitaire, I just returned from Stonetown the other day. I stayed at E&G one night, in the upstairs West Room and LOVED it. Granted, there is no a/c, just the lattice "windows" letting in the fresh air and it was hot as can be, but I didn't mind. It's a fabulous hotel in a great location.

The Tembo Hotel/House (can't remember which it's called) looked fabulous. Smack dab in the center of town, right on the water, a pool... I imagine that is also a nice place to stay.

Some of the folks we traveled with stayed at the Dhow Palace which is a step down from E&G, with furniture a bit older, but still nice, not too far from the center of town, and it also has a pool.

We stayed at E&G and enjoyed it enormously.

When we were there over 5 years ago there were widespread riots following an election and they were trying to discourage tourists from going to Zanzibar. We made the reservation for E&G the night before and took the ferry, the only other guests seemed to be photo journalists there to document the disturbances!

However, I can say that the upper rooms...we were in East or West were perfectly cool for me and we were there when it was fairly hot, in Novemeber. You can have some noise in these rooms from the dancing and live music in the small but memorable roof top restaurant.

Enjoy!

Thanks guys! I checked out their website and loved the North room. I hope it's available for the night we want!