House of Spices and Hotel in Zanzibar

We stayed at House of Spices hotel in Zanzibar for 1 night and really enjoyed it.

The hotel is right in the middle of Stone Town and you can’t drive to the door because the streets are too narrow. The taxi driver helped carry the luggage.

We arrived from an early flight and had breakfast before our room was ready. The room was nice and clean.

The shower worked ok.

The décor was traditional which gave the room an authentic feel and we really liked this.

The breakfast was excellent with lovely fresh fruit and cakes.

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We had omelet’s as well.

Occasionally the electricity and water would not work for a short time, but this was not a problem and it often happens in Tanzania.

The hotel was good value for money and a good alternative too a bigger, standard hotel.

Over the course of our stay we ate two meals at other hotels - Emerson Spice and The Swahili House - both were a lot brighter and seemingly cleaner than the House of Spices, where our room was adequate.

The carved bed was really cool and the A/C worked (thankfully - it was ungodly hot in Stone Town - I was left wishing for a pool), but the bathroom was a little rough and the water in it not very reliable (which can be very inconvenient when you're lathered up and the water shuts off).

Our friends traveling with us had large roaches in their room, but I would imagine those are pretty prevalent in such an old and dilapidated place as Stone Town.

The owner was warm and the little shop in the entry had good prices on cutely-packaged spices, which make great souvenirs.