Nine rooms behind a carved teak door, three storeys of hand-mixed limewash, and a roof that faces the sunset over the Zanzibar channel. Breakfast up there is included.
Rooms & suite from $160
Every room has a ceiling fan, a rain shower, Egyptian-cotton sheets and a mosquito net worth sleeping under. Rates are per room per night, breakfast for two on the roof included.
No. 1Our quietest rooms open onto the inner courtyard. In the morning the coloured-glass fanlight throws red and blue across the bed; at night you hear nothing but the fan.
$160/ night$185 in July, August & festive weeks
Choose Chumvi
No. 2Tall shutters open onto a little iron balcony over the lane, level with the minaret next door. The call to prayer drifts in at dawn; most guests end up loving it.
$195/ night$225 in July, August & festive weeks
Choose Mnara
No. 3Second floor, west-facing. Fold back the louvred doors and the channel is there, with dhows crossing it. Quiet air-conditioning for the hot months, and the best sunsets below the roof.
$240/ night$275 in July, August & festive weeks
Choose Bahari
No. 4The whole top front of the house, behind the carved balcony you see from the lane. A Zanzibari four-poster, a sitting room with a daybed, and a private stair to the roof.
$340/ night$390 in July, August & festive weeks
Choose the suiteExtra guest $40 a night, breakfast included.Children of all ages welcome; under 4s free.Government levy charged at cost at check-out.
02 · The roof open to non-residents
Sunset in Stone Town today 18:14
Four storeys up, above the tin roofs and minarets, the kitchen cooks over charcoal and the tables face west. Breakfast is slow and long; dinner starts with the light changing over the channel.
Our cook, raised in Shangani, keeps the menu short and the fish caught that morning. No alcohol is served on the roof out of respect for the neighbours; fresh juices, spiced tea and a tamarind soda are.
Our story a modest one
The house was built in the 1890s for a family of clove traders: coral-rag walls half a metre thick, mangrove-pole ceilings, and a carved door facing the lane. By the 1980s it had become six flats and a tailor's workshop, and the plaster was falling off in sheets.
In 2021 our two families bought it and spent three years putting it back. Local masons slaked and aged the lime on site, the old way, and laid it on in five hand-trowelled coats. We kept the door, the teak beams and the coloured fanlights. We added plumbing, fans and a kitchen on the roof. Nine rooms opened in 2024.
“Lime breathes. On the hottest afternoon the walls are still cool to the hand.”Our head mason, on why we never used cement
The courtyard door, kept as we found it: teak planks, iron studs and a centre post carved like a chain.
A Stone Town family built its door first; it was the measure of the house behind it. Ours took a carpenter from Kiponda two months to mend, with no new wood showing.
Neighbourhood guide no car needed
Stone Town's lanes are too narrow for cars, which is the point. These are the walks we send guests on, timed at an unhurried pace from the front door.
The waterfront park. From sunset the night market lights up: Zanzibar pizza, octopus skewers, sugarcane juice pressed while you wait.
Ngome Kongwe, built by the Omanis around 1700. Craft stalls inside and an open-air amphitheatre that hosts music in the evenings.
A small square where the old men of Stone Town drink bitter coffee on the stone benches and argue about football. Sit; someone will pour you a cup.
An 1890s pharmacy on the harbour road, all carved green balconies and a courtyard that looks like a wedding cake. Now a cultural centre.
Spices, fruit and the fish hall, where the morning's tuna and kingfish come in. Go before ten, with small notes and an empty bag.
Built over the site of the last open slave market in East Africa. The exhibition beneath is hard and essential; allow an hour.
Where the boys play football and the dhows come in at dusk. The swimming is better on a trip out to the sandbank.
Chokaa House, Shangani · hover or tap a place to trace the walk
Out of the old town with people we trust
We use the same guides and boat crews every week and pay them properly. Prices are per person and include transfers from the house.
Taste cloves, cinnamon bark and fresh nutmeg off the tree on a family farm at Kizimbani, then lunch cooked in their kitchen.
A wooden dhow, a lateen sail and a crew who have sailed this channel all their lives. Fresh fruit and juice on board.
Twenty minutes by boat to Changuu and its giant tortoises, some over a hundred years old, then snorkelling off a sandbank.
Shop at Darajani with our cook, then make pilau, coconut fish curry and chapati up on the roof. You eat what you make at sunset.
06 · Arriving we'll meet you
Cars cannot fit down our lane, so the last 150 metres are on foot. Our porter carries the bags; you carry nothing but your hat.
Abeid Amani Karume International (ZNZ). Our driver waits at arrivals with your name on a card. $25 per car, up to three guests.
Several sailings a day to Malindi port. Our porter meets you at the gate; it is a 10-minute walk, or 5 minutes by car for $10.
Short hops from Dar es Salaam, and around an hour from Arusha after safari. We can book them for you.
Booking enquiry answered within a day
Tell us your dates and which room you like. We reply with availability and a final price, and hold the room for two days while you decide.