When I decided to visity Stone Town, I wanted to stay in a smaller boutique hotel that represented the culture and style of Zanzibar. The Al Johari exceeded my hopes and expectations in every way. There was ample space in my Jr. Suite room. There was also a decent amount of hand-crafted (yet highly functional) Zanzibari furniture, including a beautiful wooden bed. The room was both clean and comfortable. One of my favorite features of the Al Johari was the restaurant on the roof. The bartender must be a mind-reader, because every time he brought me a drink or suggested a meal, it was exactly what I wanted. The breakfasts were also quite good. The hotel's location is very convenient--just a few minutes walk to House of Wonders, Slave Market, ferry terminal, and Sultan's Palace. It takes less than a minute to get to shops and post office on Kenyatta, too. The Al Johari is the only property that I will consider when I return to Zanzibar next year!

The food is realy outstanding, the cook is perfect, excelent cousine. And by having no elevator you loose wait by eating good food.

To start with the positives: the location is pretty good, fairly easy to find when you know where it is (other places deeper into Stone Town can be a nightmare to find, even when you've been there several times!). It is nice and quiet, set away from any road noise. The staff were friendly and quite helpful and the place has some charm to it and a decent roof top bar (can't comment on the food though). The breakfast included in the room rate is adequate, although you may be tempted to head into town to get something a little more interesting.
The negatives: there was no hot water in the bathroom, for the wash basin or the shower. Not sure if this is normal or just bad luck. The bed was comfortable enough and looked moderately grand at first glance, ringed as it was with a curtained mosquito net. However, the net didn't really close properly (although didn't experience any issues with mozzies) and you had to fumble about in the dark after turning out the lights as no bedside light or light switch within the confines of the net.
The creaky staircase ascending to the roof perhaps added to the character but if the place were busier might be a nuisance noise.

We are more than happy about the restaurant service. The cook makes perfect food. The waiters and waitresses are polite. We don't usually give tips but in this restaurant we felt like it. The room was ok, the shower sewer didn't work properly. This was a minor problem though.

The biggest, and almost the only problem was that we are still missing 200 USD. We had some cash in our back bags (hidden among dirty clothes) and somebody took 200 USD (we didn't count the shillings...). After we noticed it, we told the general manager about it. He promised to pay the ammount back. No police, it's only bad publicity to them. We believed. Nothing has happened within last 5 months... Ok, it was our own fault? In his words it has happened before too (once). Avoid this hotel.

A couple from Finland