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Anyone with experience of Zanzibar hotels?


sailco
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We're planning a beach break in Zanzibar and would like some help in choosing mid range hotels on the coast and in Stone Town. Tripadvisor and other sources have us really confused so I thought I'd ask here. After all, CC members are very well travelled people.

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CC members are well cruised people, but if you want details of hotels and land holidays you should be posting on the Trip Advisor forums and looking at reviews of hotels on that site.

 

CC is the sister company of TA that concerns cruise holidays. Zanzibar is a very rarely called at cruise port, though we did visit from a ship in November. We had drinks in both the Trembo Hotel and the Serena Hotel which were good places to call at for a drink, but I would have no idea at all what staying there would be like as it would be a totally different experience.

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Thanks for taking the time to reply. We're doing a pre cruise safari and adding a couple of says in Zanzibar.

Both those hotels are on my short list as being in the safer areas of Stone Town. Did you wander around on your own.

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Thanks for taking the time to reply. We're doing a pre cruise safari and adding a couple of says in Zanzibar.

 

Both those hotels are on my short list as being in the safer areas of Stone Town. Did you wander around on your own.

 

 

 

We have stayed in Stone Town and wandered all over on our own and felt fine. We stayed at Emersons which is in the winding streets of Stone Town, but I hesitate to recommend it as it was a long time ago, so I don’t know what it’s like now.

 

 

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We have stayed in Stone Town and wandered all over on our own and felt fine. We stayed at Emersons which is in the winding streets of Stone Town, but I hesitate to recommend it as it was a long time ago, so I don’t know what it’s like now.

 

 

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Thank you! Both Emerson Spice and Emerson on Hurumzi look fabulous but I was reluctant to be away from the main drag so to speak. Do you remember which one you stayed at?

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We were docked there for an afternoon and part of the next day in November just gone. Stonetown is actually quite touristy and no problem whatsoever just wandering around and we returned to the port after dark on the first day as we had a drink in the Serena at sunset (excellent experience and really peaceful). Fred offered a trip to the Africa House Hotel for sunset, so those people (and some others we spoke to afterwards) had been with crowds of cruise passengers for sunset! Street lighting not that good as you return to the port though and the pavements are not good, so you may decide to keep to the tourist area by the hotels at night and it is the area I would stay - I would not want a low standard of hotel there. We had read Zanzibar is muslim and very conservative, so we did have shoulders and knees covered. We did in fact see a lot of sparsely clad young women tourists in the town, but I am glad we dressed as we did - I feel it shows respect.

 

There looks like a lot can be done in Zanzibar and would be interested in spending some time there on a hol with split centre (town and beach). We were originally supposed to be docked for most of two days, so had a trip to the monkey forest/village meal etc booked with Amozanzibar tours who had been recommended to us, but cancelled with less time available. No charge when cancelled and Amo were really great to make plans with. Their website has a very good brochure on line, which shows day/half day trips as well as other trips, so worth checking out, though you need to email for prices. Fred Olsen got their advance cruise planning wrong and we are annoyed at missing the longer time in Stonetown.

 

You may want a guide for the first half a day in the town to do the basics - in the slave museum the guides were giving interesting talks to their customers - but we were there longer and read all the boards, which were in English.

 

I suggest you l;ook at the hotels and their immediate locations on Google Earth. Tembo is nice old style hotel, but nearer to the town and hotel buildings around the pool, Serena a little further away and is more open design with a wider sea front. From what we saw/experienced, we would be happy with either, but would look closely at reviews.

Edited by tring
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Thank you! Both Emerson Spice and Emerson on Hurumzi look fabulous but I was reluctant to be away from the main drag so to speak. Do you remember which one you stayed at?

 

 

 

When we were there there was only 1 Emerson’s which was called Emerson & Greens. Looking at their website I think it was Emerson’s on Hurumzi. It’s not far from anywhere in Stone Town.

 

 

 

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To give you some update info, just looked at location of Emerson’s on Hurumzi.on google Earth. If Google has the location correct (and it may not), it appears to be in an area of narrow back streets which we did roam around by day - got lost, but navigated our way back by the sun as you are never far from the coast in Stonetown. I can see the appeal.

 

 

Talking purely of location, I would not want to wander around those back streets after dark, but always possible to get a taxi of course - I assume the hotel/restaurant would be able to get one if there are none around. Going back to the port, was also through a very run down area, but it seemed more open as it was along the coast. The person who advised us re Amo tours stayed at the Tembo about 3 years ago and suggested we would be likely be best getting a taxi to the port from the hotel area, but we are well travelled and not easily daunted, unlike the vast majority of cruise passengers!.

 

 

If you look at Stonetown on Google Earth, the road that cuts the corner off and goes from near the Tembo to near the Africa House Hotel is a well trodden route at night by tourists and has a number of souvenir shops etc. along it. Hence I would be quite happy walking in that area at night, but again could get a taxi the short distance to there if you are in anyway uncertain. I do not recall seeing Emerson’s, so it may be nearer to the coast than I actually think it is, from what I have seen and may be corrected by host Grandma. I wrote this this as she said it was some years since she was there.

 

 

No matter which area you stay, I suspect you would want to go to the other location one night, as the waterfront is lovely at sunset with the Dhows sailing across the scene and Emerson’s looks like a really good restaurant to go for dinner one night.

 

We did like Stone Town a lot.

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You can’t get a taxi to take you to Emerson’s as the streets are not wide enough for cars. When we stayed there the taxi had to drop us and our luggage off at the edge of where the narrow streets start. We had to pull our luggage to the hotel ourselves, but it wasn’t far. The hotel is only just into the narrow streets and it’s a short walk from it to the waterfront area.

 

 

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If the hotel is that near the waterfront, I would not see a big problem as it is getting a bit nearer to the port that becomes a much more run down area. As I said we were not deterred from walking in the more local areas and we at no time felt in anyway unsafe. We are well travelled though and the less adventurous may not be so happy, but I would not expect 'the less adventurous' to include someone who was planning an independent holiday to Zanzibar.

 

A fair number of our cruise passengers walked into the town independently by day and we were not alone staying out after sunset. Quite a lot booked trips there though, but not surprising given limited time in port and the more advanced age of Fred's passengers.

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Many, many thanks Tring and Host Grandma. We're actually planning a couple of purely relaxing days on the northern beaches then returning to Stone Town for a night before we fly back to reality. Your discussion has been incredibly helpful especially that the day time is easy and safe in Stone Town. Good to know we'd be dragging our luggage over what I assume would be cobbles. The old town hotels also appear to have heaps of stairs which I think could be a problem for my husband and rule out Emersons.

 

JUst for interest I read that Mr Emerson and Mr Green had a falling out and that's why there are two separate holes now. Both really similar but the roof top restaurant at Emersons on Hurumzi is meant to be fabulous, for both location and food.

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