HI, i need some help with deciding on where to stay in zanzibar. our first choice, Matemwe beach village is booked. Our priorities (in order): 1) close to good diving (mnemba), 2) great beach, 3) comfortable place to relax. don't need 4 seasons, but would like a place with fully working bathrooms, comfortable beds, decent food and overall in good shape (not run down). we've come across Mnarani Cottages. their rates are good ($118 per room for 3). has anyone stayed there? there doesn't seem to be many posts. Any other good ideas? Ras Nungwi and Matemwe Bungalows are too expensive

Check out the Baharini Matemwe Village. It's relatively new.. and we bargained the manager (Salim) fown to $50 for a bungalow. It's really good value.

Hello Lerasp,

I just came from Mnarani except I stayed in their honeymoon stuite. It fits all your requirements except I'm not sure about the great beach. Many places around Nungwi had a lot of seaweed washing up, we didn't have that problem, but once you walked a short distance out the sand patchy with rocky/corally areas. We would walk out to a sandy part and swim there but its not ideal. The only place we saw that had a better beach in the Nungwi area was Baobab, I don't know anything else other than the beach looked very sandy, no seeweed, and quite deep - its on the non-tidal side of the island (Does seeweed issues change with season & tide? I dunno). The difference in time to Mnemba vs. Mnarani can't be that big. Note we didn't walk past baobab but I think we saw most places.

On Matemwe there is also Matemwe Bungalows which has a good rep but I have no personal information:
http://www.africatravelresource.com/...ZMBH/ZMBHa.htm

Please ask any questions specifically about Mnarani if you have any.

Forgot one thing. The main reason we chose Mnarani was it had a great value honeymoon suite and it turned out to be great that way.

Baobab is near the "main strip" in Nungwi. We only walked there in the day but it seemed really quiet so I don't see it being an issue but just letting you know.

Sorry - on re-reading your post I realized you said it was no go with both Matemwe places, my mistake.

lerasp,
Have you considered Pongwe Beach Hotel?

http://www.pongwe.com

Haven't stayed there, but it was in our top 5 choices when we were going to Zanzibar. Unfortunately, they were fully booked.

I would second Leely's suggestion about Pongwe Beach--it was a close contender for us (w/Matemwe Beach Village) before we started "popping" the budget and ended up booking at Matemwe Bungalows.

Alwaysafrica stayed there--here is the link to what she wrote.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34681455

It is further south on the eastern coast from Matemwe so you might want to check into how much longer you would be traveling on a dive boat to get to Mnemba.

thanks for all suggestions. I did look at Pongwe and I like it, but it seems to be too far to dive mnemba atoll each day.
Sunny_days, did you see the family cottages? How did they seems? We will be 3 and it looks like it would be a good fit. how was the food? And how far were other options (i believe nungwi is not far). is it realistic to walk there for dinner/drink or do you need transportation?

jenjake,
thanks for Baharini idea! it looks interesting. i emailed them for availability/quote.

Obviously sunny_days can give you first hand info--but did you see ATR's web description of Mnarani [I know that its site is sometimes out of date] but they make them sound very nice and good value--the family apartments sound particularly nice and perfect for you.

http://www.africatravelresource.com/...ZMNA/ZMNAa.htm

Hey jenjake:
I got curious and checked out the Baharini Matemwe website. It looks like a nice addition to the choices at Matemwe. Thanks for telling people about it.

lerasp:

While you are waiting to hear from Baharini, you might also check out Nyota bungalows in Matemwe.

http://www.zanzibaroneocean.com/accomm/Nyota/Nyota.htm

This is from the website of OneOcean--the Padi dive shop at Matemwe which presumably you will be using [and which has a connection to Matemwe Beach Village (husband/wife managers, I think)]. This website used to show only Matemwe Beach Village; now it has added Nyota.

what would i do without this forum? i thought i had one ocean covered - i've looked at their website a few weeks ago and remember they lodging they had. i didn't even think to check it again. thanks! i emailed them too. we'll see what they come back with.

lerasp:
Hopefully one of these two new places will work out for you. You leave in November, yes? Not so many days to go. I will be living vicariously through you in November--waiting for your report.

>>>Sunny_days, did you see the family cottages? How did they seems? We will be 3 and it looks like it would be a good fit. how was the food? And how far were other options (i believe nungwi is not far). is it realistic to walk there for dinner/drink or do you need transportation?

Sure I saw the cottages - from the outside I think they are newish so I would expect them to be good but I have no idea really. They are two story I beleive? I could be wrong though. I can say that other people not just us were happy with the accomodation. I know two couples that were somewhere else and moved to Mnarani

Food: we often walked for lunch and although its hot it definitely doable. We went to Aman, Ras Nungwi and another one near Aman. At night thought it gets dark early. Supposedly you can get rides back from Aman but we never had the courage to go out at night. So that leaves food at Mnarani. It was fine but nothing special. Each night was buffet with BBQ every second night. There was lots of chicken and seafood.

Lawrence

Sorry to insert my own question but I will be in Zanzibar in early December. I am a female (mid-30s) traveling on my own. Is there anyone who has been there who can suggest a place? I am thinking Nungwi. I don't want five star but not a dump either. I have gotten a quote from Smile Beach Hotel for around $60 and it looks fine but was wondering if maybe I can find a decent place for less. Thank you in advance for your help!

thanks for everyone's replies. i think we will go with Mnarani and will report back when we return. we are leaving November 18th! it's coming up!

lerasp,
I wanted to ask how your stay at Mnarani cottages was? We too wanted to stay at Matemwe Beach, but ATR has told us they cannot book us given that we are not spending their $500 minimum. Since they are the sole agent that books matemwe, we have had to look at other places. I would love to hear your thoughts on the Mnarani. We are planning to book a standard room and want to know about the beach, service, safety etc. Many thanks.

we really enjoyed our stay at Mnarani Cottages! check out the website www.lighthousezanzibar.com. the pictures on it are pretty realistic. the best thing about it is it's very laid back, pleasant, and great for relaxing.i would recommend to stay in family cottage over basic rooms. the difference was not big in price (maybe $10 or so?), but it's a huge difference in quality. the cottage was a two-story "house" you got all to yourself. downstairs was a full kitchen and living area plus a single bed.the ceiling was loft (full 2-story heights), adn on 2nd floor as a messanine was an area with king bed. there was a big balcony off teh ezzanine as well as a porch area on the ground floor. the accomodations are not luxury, but comfortable. the best part was lots of space and you step out and are within 15 ft from water! the food was good - not fancy, but for dinner ther was always fresh fish as well as something else (chicken, etc. but we always got fish). i think dinner was no more than $10 each with beer. breakfast included. the owner is a friendly local guy who had dinner with his friends one night (they were western expats/diplomats/etc) and we joined it too. drinks were on the house..the bar is one of the best on the island for it's proximity to water - part of the deck is actually built on stilts and hangs over the water. as you may know, east coast of zanzibar has huge tides. at full tide, the water is fully up to the seawall. there are stairs leading into water and swimming is easy. water is nice - no seaweed. when the tide is low, you have to walk really far!
if you are divers, we used Ras Nungwi for diving. great facilities and easy 15 min walk. we walked 1st time, and after that they would pick up/drop off. also, nice place to hang out if you want bigger crowd, pool, more "western". didn't eat there. overall, Mnarani is great for quiet beach relaxation. not great if you want to party. it's very pretty and quiet. not 5* luxury, but it was perfect for our after-safari rest and diving. one word of caution - if you can, plan to pay with cash. the exchange rate they use for credit card is extortionate (as was our experience in stone town as well, so i think it's zanzibar in general). but it wasn't very much money and we paid with cash. the staff are well-meaning but could use more training. don't expect anything very quickly - but once again, we didn't really care. they have great hammocks and swings on top of seawall - we had one directly in front of our door. and they come around and will bring you drinks there. the fresh coconut was the best! i think it cost $1. we also looked at MBungalows, but couldn't justify the cost after their upgrade to "suites".
safety - after dark, there was constantly at least one guard patrolling the line of cottages up and down. we felt safe (they also have a gate that leads into the property - don't know if they lock it at night. i assume they do). also, some of the staff live on-site. at least the manager (we had to wake her up our last morning to settle as we were leaving early). had good transfers with them from airport (ontimely pickup, goood va) and then back to stonetown(where we stayed in Dhow Palace - fantastic!). let me know if you have any other questions.

Many thanks lerasp,
We are confirming our booking tommorow.