Sultry Nights in Zanzibar

I can tell you with absolute certainty that some of the most romantic meals in the world can be had in Zanzibar. When you land on the pot-holed runway doubts about the romance of the island might start to creep in – but the drive to Stone Town past some exquisite examples of decayed charm will restore your faith.

Make your way to the enchanting 236 Hurumzi, formerly know as Emerson and Green (even hotels have failed relationships) in the heart of Stone Town. You can pick any room in this glorious hotel. They are all so romantic you will never want to leave. Gigantic mosquito netted beds, ceiling fans, shuttered windows with views across the roof tops to the warm Indian Ocean, exotic antique Zanzibari furnishings and spicy scented island soaps. 

Book to have dinner at the Tower Top open-air restaurant. After climbing endless steep stairs you will find yourself high up overlooking the whole of Stone Town, 360 degrees of minarets, Hindu temples and roof-top verandahs. While you sip an exotic cocktail and watch the sun set over the endless rusty rooftops, you will hear the cry of the muezzin reach out eerily across the city. Below you, Arab dhows slip into the harbour, and as darkness falls and you are being served an endless array of delicious foods you will think life couldn’t be more perfect.  But it can be when you are in Zanzibar.

You will be pleased to know that supper in the Tower Top restaurant is not the last meal you will eat up there. Breakfasts are also served and are, of course, nicely exotic, exactly what you will feel like after a night in your splendid romantic bedroom suite.

You can spend the day strolling around Stone Town, zig-zagging through the apparently medieval, car-less streets and passageways. Be sure to stop at The Palace Museum, once the official residence of the Sultan of Zanzibar for a glimpse of life in a bygone era. You will at some point realise with a start that life at 236 Hurumzi is not very different from the life the sultan must have lived a century ago. Surprisingly there are many internet cafes dotted around Stone Town, so make the most of them before you abandon civilisation for island life in a day or so.

Pay tribute to Freddie Mercury –born in Stone Town on 5 September 1946 – at Mercury’s on the beachfront where you might stop off for lunch or a drink and sit gazing out at the endless comings and goings in the harbour.

If you tire of the hot sun and find yourself back at 236 Hurumzi there is no need to clamber back up to the Tower Top Restaurant, charming as it is, but slip through the heavily carved doors into the cool, dark and moody Kidude restaurant. Here you can eat, drink and laze around playing scrabble for a couple of hours.

On your second night in Stone Town you should eat at the night time food market at Forodhani gardens overlooking the waterfront. This is romance with an edge. You might feel that you are more in crime novel territory than in romantic fiction. But don’t let that put you off, many crime novels have a strong romantic thread running through them. Lined up along the sea front are endless stalls selling skewers of freshly caught fish grilled there right in front of you. Calamari, barracuda, octopus, tuna and variety of shellfish.  Also on offer are fresh fruit juices and Zanzibari ‘pizza’.

The next day leave Stone Town for Chumbe Island Coral Park. Chumbe is a small island west of Stone Town, uninhabited except for the eco-lodge. The trip out will almost but not quite prepare you for what has to be one of the most romantic places on earth. Not of course in the schmaltzy way that a resort in Mauritius is romantic, but in a more shipwrecked, rustic kind of way. No phones, email, television, electricity or running water to spoil your stay. Only joking about the water. There is, however, no ground water on the island and the toilets use composting technology. The jewelled feature of the island is the mile-long coral reef that runs down its western flank. You will spend a couple of hours each day in aquatic paradise snorkeling down this most stunning of natural wonders.

The island has only seven state-of-the-art eco bungalows. Apart from the lighthouse and the ruins of a mosque, the only other building on the island is a massive visitor centre containing the open air dining area. Upstairs overlooking the turquoise sea you’ll find a gigantic rustic swing in which to lie and read your book.  Every meal here is perfect – breakfast , lunch and supper - a fabulous mix of Zanzibari, Arab, Indian and African flavours, served buffet style by the charming chefs.  Even the coffee is perfectly flavoured with cardamom and the tea is the best lemon grass variety you will ever have. 

If you cannot spend the rest of you life on Chumbe Island try for at least five days here. Anything less and you will feel short changed.