My boyfriend and I stayed in Amani last summer and had a wonderful time. The hotel has a very intimate and homely feel, with lovely rooms and a pretty restaurant in the garden surrounded by trees and complete with pet rabbits and puppies. What impressed us most was the efforts made by the owners Simon and Kristen to ensure we were well looked after and enjoying our stay - friendliest staff you could wish for. Plus lovely beach with beautiful sunsets! Great food, best cocktails on Zanzibar and the weekly BBQ with African drumming and spectacular dance performance was the highlight of our stay.

Very fond memories, hope to go back one day!

We arrived in Zanzibar after traveling through Tanzania for 2.5 weeks. We had stayed at multiple high-end hotels (costing sometimes up to 5x as much) and never received this level of personalized service.

1)Throughout our stay, Simon arranged transfer services for us @ local rates. This really helped when it came to dealing with the hassles of the ferry terminal.

2)Simon arranged a spice tour with Babu, and it was *the best*! Babu is a chef who grew up on the government spice plantation, and we got personalized service for the same rates as the big tours. And the lunch he created for us, using the spices and vegetables from the plantation, was the best we had in Zanzibar. I'd highly recommend Babu even if you don't stay at Imani.

3)Free wifi! Unheard of anywhere else we stayed in Africa.

4)All of the arrangements were charged to our room bill, so a single, easy payment saved us from constant bartering.

The hostel is located outside of Stone Town, so be prepared to take a taxi (10K TSH) to/from town, but it is also located on the first swimmable beach north of Stone Town. The beach is beautiful, and at high tide the water comes right up to the property, but at low tide it is about 100 yards out across some amazing tidepools. Also, there is a nightclub next door, which goes into the wee hours of the morning, but fortunately only on certain nights (Tue, Thurs, Sun?). You can certainly join the festivities if you're interested in a truly authentic local scene, otherwise the air conditioner (a must year-round) blocked out the sound.

Bububu is a great local village, right next to the police station, so we got to experience the local flavor without ever feeling unsafe.

I stayed at Imani for as much as 2 weeks after having booked only a couple of days and was then due to check-in into another place on the east coast. However, after one night at Imani I totally fell in love with the place:

It has a very-laid back and relaxing atmosphere, beautiful surrounding area and very attentive service (I especially liked the fact that they serve breakfast virtually all day). Approx. 10 kms north of stone town it is the ideal place for day visits into town but is also ideally situated to either hire a car and explore the island yourself or to do some of the organized tours (e.g., a spice tour, which I highly recommend). To get to town one either uses a cab or, as we always did, hops on one of dalah-dalahs to have a real african experience.

The rooms are taken well care of, clean and tastefully decorated. The service is very friendly -- I even got a hug from one of the waiters when I left. The food is excellent and, as I was told, they only cook according to local traditions. I'd recommend to try the cocktails: the manager, Simon, will make them for you personally -- and he knows what he's doing having managed a cocktail bar in London for several years.

It is the best place to relax and enjoy the day reading on the beach or to simply watch the local fishermen go about their daily routine. We did a island tour once, where one of them takes you out to the various islands and sand banks off stone town. It was truly one of the best days I had there.

Local surroundings are perfect, you really have the feeling to be actually part of Bububu and not in a secluded resort like the ones on the east coast. Eg, I simply loved the way the locals accepted us running around the neighbourhood taking pictures and chit-chatting with the little kids. Everytime we left with the car the little kids would wave us good-bye in the street and shout "See you later!". We also engaged in a little soccer tournament with some of them .... and lost not so graciously.

The best thing about this place, however, are the people and the atmosphere. During the entirety of our stay we met many guests with who we immediately became friends with. The owners have somehow managed to give this place a very open-minded, friendly and welcoming atmosphere, so that everybody immediately feels at home and at ease. We regularly went on day trips together with other guests and had a great time.

In conclusion, this is simply the place to be if you are looking for a nice, cozy and friendly "home-base" from where you discover the island. Every time I returned from one of our day trips I was happy to be there, just to lay in the lounge, have a cocktail and enjoy being away from cold Europe. Imani is the perfect place to relax and to be part of life in Zanzibar at the same time.

Whilst I agree with much of the sentiment already expressed relating to the villa accommodation itself and in praise of the host, Simon, and the staff, there are a couple of things I'd like to add:

1) The villa is actually next door to the nightclub/disco which starts outdoors but then goes indoors in the early hours. So if you're a light sleeper you'll be hearing a thumping 120 bpm until 3am or so - and apparently (I decided to cancel my stay at the villa and found another hotel after a sleepless first night) the venue is open 4 or 5 nights per week.

2) Having come to the Stone Town area after a week in Matemwe the villa's small beach area (with a few sandflies) could be considered as being ok, but nothing special.

3) In contrast to (but in no way restricted to) Imani's website descriptions there is a far from glamorous reality of the visible, abject poverty in Zanzibar in some of the villa's surroundings.