- Tier
- Luxury
- Style
- Beach lodge
- Size
- 12 chalets
- Region
- Zanzibar
- Nearest airstrip
- Zanzibar
- Drive from strip
- approx 1 hr
Twelve chalets on the north-eastern shore looking straight across at Mnemba — about half an hour by boat to the atoll's reef, which is why divers and snorkellers choose this stretch of coast.
Asilia's Matemwe Lodge sits above the sand on Zanzibar's north-east coast, an hour or so out of Stone Town and roughly thirty minutes by boat from the Mnemba reef. Each of the twelve chalets has a veranda with somewhere to lie and somewhere to sit; six take a third bed and a couple have a plunge pool. Matemwe village is next door and the reef offshore is among the better-preserved on the island, which sets the tone — snorkelling, diving and slow days rather than resort programming.
Flying in
The nearest airstrip is Zanzibar, about approx 1 hr by road from the lodge. See the real fly-in routes and how the rest of the region connects on the Getting Around map.
Open the fly-in mapEach Wildtouch safari is quoted individually — rates depend on your dates, the camps you choose and how it all links together. Wildtouch prices the whole journey, not a per-night sticker.
Safaris that visit Zanzibar
Matemwe Lodge sits in Zanzibar. These are the routes we run through it — each one rebuilt around you, with your choice of camp.
Other places to stay nearby
andBeyond Mnemba Island
A sand island of about a kilometre and a half off Zanzibar's north-eastern tip with nobody on it but guests and the team looking after them — twelve palm-thatched bandas just above the tideline, and reef a few strokes out.
Ultimate luxuryElewana Kilindi Zanzibar
Fifteen white domed pavilions scattered through a large garden above the Kendwa sand on the north-west coast, each with plunge pools of its own and no neighbour in sight.
Ultimate luxuryThe Residence Zanzibar
Sixty-six villas, every one with a pool of its own, spread across a thirty-two-hectare estate on the quiet south-western coast — with the Kizimkazi dolphin boats about twenty minutes down the road.
LuxuryZuri Zanzibar
A design-led garden resort on the Kendwa sand where the sea does not retreat at low tide — fifty-five separate bungalows, suites and villas threaded through planted spice gardens.
LuxuryBaraza Resort & Spa
Thirty villas on the Bwejuu sand, worked in a Swahili idiom of carved plaster, arched openings and antique brass, run all-inclusive — the most ornamental of the east-coast resorts.
LuxuryChumbe Island Coral Park
Seven off-grid bandas on a small island west of Unguja, inside a coral sanctuary privately managed since 1994 — fourteen guests at a time, and the reef is the entire point.
ClassicEmerson Spice
Eleven rooms in a restored nineteenth-century merchant's house in the middle of Stone Town, with a rooftop tea house that has become one of the better tables on the island.