As I wrap up my 5-year trip through all 54 African countries, I’ve been treating myself to a few deluxe accommodations. I’ve stayed at:
- A luxurious tented camp in the Masai Mara
- Two of the best five-star hotels in Cairo
- An over-the-top luxury cruise on the Nile
I deserve it after having roughed it for most the last five years, where I’ve spent hundreds of nights without electricity or piped water while malaria-infested mosquitos lurk in the shadows.
Naturally, luxurious places are expensive. However, some offer tremendous value. For example, because Egypt’s pound is depressed, the whole country is on sale.
Another luxury value is the Boutique Hotel Matlai in Zanzibar.
Yes, it’s expensive but for what you get, it’s a great deal.
It’s trendy to call hotels “boutique hotels” but the Boutique Hotel Matlai truly lives up to its name. It has just six rooms divided into two buildings:
1. The four-room Asili House, which shares a common area and a pool with an original circular design.
2. The two-room Villa Kidosho, which shares an ample common area and a deep, large infinity pool.
Staying at the Villa Kidosho costs about 25% more than the Asili House but it’s worth premium because its rooms and common areas are supremely airy and spacious.
It’s especially worth upgrading to the villa during the low season because there’s a chance that you will get the entire villa and pool to yourself (which is what happened to me). You just need the other room in the villa to be empty for you to be the King and Queen of the palace, including the spacious common room, pool and grounds.
The villa rooms have a double sink, a double shower (including an innovative waterfall shower), a bathtub, a make-up table and a toilet in a private room within the bathroom.
They also give you access to a DVD player (with a wide selection of movies), beach bags, snorkeling gear and a mobile phone to call for service 24-hours a day.
The bar/restaurant is open to the public but mainly attracts the guests. It has a dartboard and foosball (a.k.a. table soccer) to pass the time.
A German mother and son team own and run the boutique hotel. They’ve meticulously trained their staff to focus on minute details. The perfect example of this obsessive attention to detail is every time a guest checks out of a room, an on-staff painter walks through it to repaint or touch up any imperfections!
The cuisine is hard to beat. The menu is varied and extensive. Moreover, you can eat anytime you want.
Soft drinks, water, and tea are all included for free. Only alcohol costs extra.
The Boutique Hotel Matlai is optimized for honeymooners. The grounds include a maze-like garden with plenty of places to dine, relax and celebrate.
The only thing I could find to complain about
I won’t be going to paradise but I bet it’s imperfect. Therefore, we should expect that even the Boutique Hotel Matlai is imperfect.
For example, some guests may dislike having to fill out a meal card for every meal they want to order. Breakfast is easy because you just check the boxes of what you want (which is similar to many hotels that offer room service).
However, for dinner, you have to write out what you want. Some may like this system because it guarantees that your order will go straight to the chef and nothing will be lost in translation. There’s that German precision that comes with specifying exactly what you want when you want it and where you want (because you can eat anywhere on the compound).
On the other hand, some may feel like you’re being your own waiter. Few 5-star restaurants make you fill out your own order. That’s something you may do when you order Subway fast food.
Of course, I’m sure that if you told the butler that you don’t want to write out your meal wishes and you just want to dictate them, he would be happy to comply. Nobody is forcing you to write out your dinner plans. I just found it an odd thing for a 5-star resort to do.
Currently, 96% of their 200+ Tripadvisor reviews give it five stars (3% give it 4 stars and 1% give it 3 stars).
Prices
Expect to pay anywhere from as low as $185/person/day for the Asili House in the low season to as high as $280/person/day during the high season for the Villa. There’s also a surcharge around the Christmas to New Year’s period. Prices include a generous breakfast. Dinner costs $15-40 per person depending on what you order and if you order alcohol. In short, if you’re a couple, you need to budget around $500 per day.
I never said the Boutique Hotel Matlai was cheap.
However, considering everything you get: the incredibly spacious rooms and common areas, the all-you-can-drink non-alcoholic beverages, the amazing views, the impeccable service, the extreme comforts, and the decadent luxury, it all adds up to an excellent value.
I’ve stayed at places that are two or three times more expensive and yet offer a similar experience.
By 2020, the Boutique Hotel Matlai plans to add another set of rooms as more people discover this hidden gem in Zanzibar.
