Pongwe Beach Hotel

Just 23 rooms and suites, a coconut grove and the sea in front: that’s the Pongwe Beach Hotel on Zanzibar’s east coast. The beach rooms open directly onto white sand, the infinity pool sits by the sea, and everything is built from natural materials in the style of the Swahili coast. The hotel is locally owned and relies on solar power, coral protection and the goal of doing without plastic. At Gabriel’s Kitchen you eat what the island provides: on Tuesdays a barbecue with the morning’s catch, on Fridays the Swahili buffet with coconut curries, spiced rice and sambusa (filled pastries). At the Komba Bar they mix cocktails with local spices and seasonal fruit. Happy hour here is called Floating Cocktails: you order your first drink, and for an hour every refill finds its own way to you, wherever on the grounds you happen to be.