Tanzania Zanzibar Island

Mnemba Island Lodge

Mnemba Island Lodge is a barefoot paradise on a private island off the north tip of Zanzibar. This is your place to get away from it all with just ten simple but luxurious bandas hidden in a tropical beach forest fringed by bright white sand. Midway between the bandas and the Indian Ocean are shaded traditional Zanzibari ‘beach’ beds, perfect for reading, sleeping, gazing at dhows or doing nothing at all. Romantic candlelit dinners are served on the beach with the waves gently lapping a few yards away.

Sea breezes waft through high palm-frond roofs and large windows in your beachside banda. Overhead fans in the spacious bedroom cool down the warm tropical nights. Traditional Zanzibari loungers in your private beach sala invite you to spend time in the sun. A shady corridor of woven palm leaves leads to a large shuttered bathroom where a massive stone shower awaits behind a glass beaded curtain. All the understated elegance of the surroundings blends with local nature and culture seamlessly and comfortably.

The island is a nesting ground for the threatened green turtle which the resort protects and monitors from egg-laying to hatching. The tiny suni antelope roams the forest in the centre of the island, sometimes visiting you at sundown at your banda, and the recently introduced and highly endangered Ader’s duiker may also be spotted. Divers around Mnemba may encounter the world’s largest fish, the gentle whale shark. Pods of dolphin are found in the warm tropical waters near Mnemba, and snorkelers and divers here often encounter these charismatic denizens of the deep at close range. The coral reefs surrounding the island are home to a vast variety of reef fish, and diverse pelagic fish and marine mammals thrive in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Humpback whales, many species of dolphins, sharks and rays as well as barracuda, mackerel, kingfish, sailfish and marlin inhabit these waters.

Your stay here includes two dives per day (for all PADI certified divers), guided snorkeling – although snorkeling from the beach is also wonderful – kayaking, surfing, fly-fishing, sundowner dhow cruise, and all local brand drinks and laundry. Mnemba’s dive shop offers full certification and specialty dive courses.