Kinasi Lodge; Luxury Beach Lodge in Mafia Island, Tanzania

$320 per person per night, full board

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Kinasi Lodge

This is a small and elegant choice for a luxurious stay on Mafia Island. The high standards of accommodation and service are reliably consistent at Kinasi, as it has been owner built and managed for many years, which validates the cost as being good value.

Kinasi Lodge – The Facts

Kinasi - The Detail

Consisting of fourteen palm-thatched bungalows, Kinasi Lodge is set around a voluptuously hilly, palm filled garden, and each has hammocks slung in the shade of their own private veranda.

Guests enjoy views over the Chole pass and Chole Island from each, and are lulled to sleep by the soft sounds of the whispering palms. Great attention to detail has been paid to all areas of the lodge, with an eye for comfort and artisan style throughout. The open-sided sitting room around the bar is comfortable and well furnished, complete with cushions, magazines and a reference library for all local interest.

The swimming pool has been designed to include a poolside barbecue and bar, and surrounded with flower beds. The main impetus of a stay at Kinasi is generally based around making the most of their fleet of various boats, which include a number of traditional lateen sailing dhows, two small dive boats and a vast 85 horsepower game fishing and diving boat. The closest beach is not the best, but guests then tend to spend their days out exploring the pristine waters, islands and sandbanks that surround Mafia Island, and return to the lodge each night for devastatingly delicious cocktails and supper.

Kinasi prides itself on its cooking, and prepares lavishly extravagant picnics and meals, with especially excellent seafood and home made breads, yoghurts and sauces and a penchant for an endless variety of soups. It is a poor place to diet.

Kinasi Lodge – Our View

Because of the swimming pool, we believe this to be the best place on Mafia. The reasoning is simple; when it gets to 35 degrees, the tides out and you cant swim that pool is a god sent (no other lodge has a pool on the island. That is not taking anything away from the lodge however as it is a charming small place with great staff, great food etc etc. Diving however is the key here as with all of Mafia, if you do not dive or like sailing then Mafia is not for you.