planning a 9 day trip (not including air time)trip to africa in august - 3 nights in masai mara and then straight on to zanzibar for 5 nights. my primary questions concern lodging. we are considering the following:<BR><BR>masai mara:<BR>governors camp<BR>olanana<BR>kitchwa tembo (preference to date)<BR><BR>zanzibar:<BR>serena inn (stone town)<BR>breezes beach club<BR>blue bay beach resort<BR><BR>i would be grateful for any opinions you all have on the above places. surprisingly, i find a lot of recs for zanzibar in this forum but little info on lodgings.<BR>

check out the kichwa batteleur camp for ultimate lux. going to zanzibar later this fall myself and would be interested in color on the blue bay resort myself.

Have only stayed at Governor's. Loved it. Try for Little Governor's Camp. Its more fun, smaller, and situated on a great wetland filled with hippo and elephant all the time. Have a great trip.

We stayed at Olonana and absolutely loved it. The South African couple who managed it do everything to make your stay more enjoyable. There were activities which kept us busy. Especially memorable was the night safari.<BR><BR>Also, we stayed at Zanzibar Serena Inn, was very good, near the water.

We stayed at Olanana about a month after it opened and it was spectacular. The location--right along the Mara--was terrific as we could sit on our deck and watch the hippos play. The rooms are glorious--very large with wonderful beds and bathrooms. The main building has a very nice lounge and deck and the food was very good. The staff were very good and we throgoughly enjoyed our stay--my only criticsm was that we were in tent 12 which was the furthest from the main lodge and the trek up to the lodge at 5:00 am was a little rough at time...but well worth it! Olanana is a wonderful place and I highly recommend it. (Please note, however, that it is about 15 minutes from the gate to the Mara so you do a little extra driving--Kitchwa Tembo is right next door so you do not get any advantage staying there. We did not see Governor's Camp but did see Little Governor's which had a great location but Olonana appeared to be more luxorious. )

We had tent 5 which was just a minute away from the main building. At night we were escorted there by a resident Masai. It was a very large tent and across the river was a permanently stationed family of hippopotami who would snort periodically.