Xanadu is nine private villas on a stretch of white sand at Dongwe, on the east coast of Zanzibar near the Michamvi peninsula. The villas carry Swahili names, Mawingu, Mawimbi, Nyota, Umande, Alfajiri, Kimwondo, Mbingu, Korongo and Mlima, and have one or two bedrooms, facing either the ocean or the garden. Every one has a private plunge pool and its own butler. Mbingu, the two-bedroom presidential villa, has a rooftop pool, and Nyota, the newest, a large private pool; Korongo and Kimwondo sit together for a party that needs three bedrooms. Meals are taken at Ganda, the restaurant and bar under a makuti roof around the main pool, where a kitchen of eight chefs cooks with homegrown, organic produce, or in the villa, on the beach or at a picnic on a sandbank. Food and selected drinks are included. The Kiota Spa is built on the beach, with thatched treatment rooms, a couples room and products mostly from Africology. Days can include sunset sailing on the Free Spirit, a helicopter flight, caves and a visit to the forest and its wildlife sanctuary. A private helicopter from Zanzibar Airport takes about 15 minutes, weather allowing. Xanadu holds One MICHELIN Key and is a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World.
- Rooms
- Nine villas, 13 bedrooms
Why I choose it A small group of private villas with butlers, which a family or a group of friends can take over entirely.