The room was sprayed for insects every night and the bed made up. The bedding was clean, changed every other day. My husband and I stayed in one of the beach front huts in July for 14 days. The snorkeling and SCUBA is excellent too, but I would go on an organised trip to a lagoon, where the waters are deep around the reef and go at a time of day so that the tide doesn't create a strong current.ĭon't go to an up-market hotel, Twisted Palms is far, far better and you will feel more in touch with Zanzibar :-) Go to see the Colobus monkeys in the Jozani forest - they are fantastic. The Maasai usually end up playing football on the beach in the evening, in lieu of anything much better to do. The lodge is nominally guarded by some Maasai in traditional dress, but in reality there is little risk. The Zanzibarians are lovely people, very friendly, but poor in comparison to the lodgers, so tip! The restaurant serves simple but excellent and tasty food, usually fresh from the locals who fish directly off the beach. Very comfortable beds, furniture mostly made out of rough wood (this is the 'Twisted' Palms). Nothing in Africa is built to perfection, but that is the charm. The rooms are beautifully rustic and traditional, with mosquito nets (rooms were sprayed in the evening too). The rooms are right on the beach - we didn't need to wear shoes, except for leaving the lodge, all week. Their description is honest and accurate, so if you want a simple no-frills beach holiday right on a paradise beach, this is the perfect place. Laura and Renato have created a superb, back to basics beach lodge which also appeases my eco-tourism yearnings.
The only practical assistance being to allow me to pay for the taxi they had booked my by credit card. Once again I found the attitude of the owners to be disturbingly callous. In addition, between packing at my last hotel and leaving the Twisted Palms, almost certainly en route between the two, I had money stolen. It may tell you a little about their attitude that the only viable place was just beneath the till.
I would also mention the lighting both in the rooms and the restaurant, which was so poor it was almost impossible to read anywhere after dark. The hotel is also subject to regular power cuts, which effectively stop all water supplies, meaning that a bucket of water has to be kept in the bathroom in the event of an outage. I know the charm of the place is its simplicity, but I don’t think it is overly fussy or bourgeois to expect a hotel to provide a roof over one’s head. When I mentioned it to the owners they shrugged their shoulders and did not seem alarmed. There was a huge tropical downpour on the one night I was there and the roof of my hut leaked, dripping water directly through the mosquito net onto the pillows and bed. I would not recommend The Twisted Palms, despite it being on one of the world’s most perfect beaches.Īlmost all of the beach huts are actually up a steep hill the other side of a muddy road which are reached by a steep set of concrete steps, which are fairly lethal on the way down if they are wet.
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