I stayed at the House of Spices in Zanzibar and I loved it. It was an extremely good choice! The location is perfect, in the middle of Stone Town and close to the local food market. You can experience the labyrinth of small streets and sounds, smells, and colors of daily life in Zanzibar, when you leave the House of Spices. Nevertheless, when you are inside the B&B, it is peaceful and you can enjoy the beautiful bar on the terrace and amazing fusion food at the restaurant on another terrace. If you like pizza, there is even an oven where they bake real Italian pizza... the best in Zanzibar.

The rooms are very elegant and furnished with taste ... African and Moroccan style with lively colors. They have all the comforts, even beautiful silk sleepers and nightgowns for all the guests. Everything is very clean and it shows a strong attention to detail.

On the first floor there is a picturesque and beautiful spice shop and a tea room where you can taste different kinds of tea and delicious pastries on a sunny afternoon.

The owners, Anna and Cesare, are extremely nice and welcoming! They make you feel at home and can help you even organize tours of the city and fieldtrips everywhere around Zanzibar, starting from the interesting "Spice Tour".

The House of Spices and the people that work there are an important element to enjoy ZanzIbar to the fullest and create in you the wish to stay in Zanzibar longer than expected.

Great place! It has a romantic feel, a lovely authentic decoration, and is situed in a good location. Staff is not always available when you need it, but always very friendly. Food also good (there is a roof top restaurant), and the accommodation are reasonably priced.

We stayed in this hotel 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. 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.