Getting around · Mafia Island
Ultimate luxuryPole Pole Bungalows
Beach bungalows · 12 bungalows and suites · Mafia Island, Tanzania
- Tier
- Ultimate luxury
- Style
- Beach bungalows
- Size
- 12 bungalows and suites
- Region
- Mafia Island
- Nearest airstrip
- Mafia Island
A small, owner-run hillside lodge above Chole Bay inside the Mafia Island Marine Park, as well known for its kitchen as its setting — laid-back rather than polished, and deliberately so.
Pole Pole sits among coconut palms on the slope above Chole Bay at Utende, within the marine park. Twelve units run from bungalows for two through family bungalows to seafront suites with private pools, all open-sided and simply finished. The name means 'slowly' in Swahili and the lodge takes it seriously: the appeal is unhurried days, good food and the reef a short boat ride out, not resort facilities.
Flying in
The nearest airstrip is Mafia Island. 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 in Tanzania
We don't run a set route through Mafia Island yet. These are our Tanzania safaris today, and Pole Pole Bungalows can be built into a private itinerary on request.
6-Day Serengeti & Great Migration Luxury Safari
A six-day luxury Tanzania fly-in safari through the Serengeti National Park — the Great Wildebeest Migration, Mara River crossings, Big Five game drives and world-class luxury tented camps deep in the wilderness.
View this safari →7 days7-Day Luxury Serengeti & Ngorongoro Crater Safari
A seven-day luxury Tanzania fly-in safari from the Great Migration plains of the Serengeti to the Big Five caldera of the Ngorongoro Crater, with a coffee-plantation horseback tour and an ethical wildlife encounter on the slopes of Kilimanjaro.
View this safari →11 days11-Day Ultimate Tanzania & Zanzibar Fly-In Safari
An eleven-day flagship Tanzania fly-in safari and Zanzibar beach retreat — the Great Migration and Big Five from the Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti, followed by five nights of barefoot luxury on private andBeyond Mnemba Island.
View this safari →Other places to stay nearby
Kinasi Lodge
A hillside lodge of fifteen handcrafted rooms looking down over Chole Bay, with a PADI water-sports centre with room for thirty snorkellers and twenty divers at a time.
LuxuryChole Mjini
Treehouses built around baobabs on tiny Chole Island, run without electricity and lit by lantern — a genuinely unusual stay whose income funds village education and conservation projects next door.
ClassicRas Mbisi Lodge
Nine locally built bandas on an eight-kilometre stretch of west-coast beach, with a rooftop bar facing the sunset — the quiet side of the island, away from Chole Bay.
ClassicButiama Beach
A relaxed beach lodge a walk along the sand from Kilindoni on the west coast, close to the airstrip and to the water the whale sharks pass through between roughly October and March.
ClassicEco Shamba Kilole Lodge
Six bungalows on a low escarpment over Kilole Bay, set in a thirteen-acre botanical garden, run as a genuine eco-lodge by long-resident owners with solar water heating and food grown or sourced locally.
ComfortBasecamp Mafia Island
The largest and most straightforward option on Chole Bay, right on the beach inside the marine park, with a PADI five-star dive centre running shore and boat dives from the doorstep.