Reviews of Mchanga Beach Lodge
(90%) From 35 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Mchanga Beach Lodge review
Fabulous, friendly and unobtrusive service, making us feel totally spoiled. Location superb, and we loved the sandy paths and floor in the restaurant and bar. Pool was wonderful and cleaned out daily.
Coconut juice was great (the speciality of the place). Food was delictaely spiced and local.
More mosquitoes than elsewhere, but nothing dangerous in that.
Arranged spice tour without problems.
Mchanga Beach Lodge review
Our stay at Mchanga Beach Lodge was trully relaxing and peacefull. Although the NE part of Zanzibar is relatively crowded and touristic, the owners/management of the Mchanga Beach Lodge appear to have selected an ideal spot to build their lodge. It is trully peacefull and the lodge's layout ensures that you feel as if you are in a very private and cut-off location.
There are not many activities to do at the lodge and the immediately surrounding area - other than relax - but the management will help with arranging day trips and other activities.
The staff is excellent, discreet, yet very friendly and heart-warming people. They are genuinely lovely people, and it appears that the lodge's management have taken great care in selecting them.
The services of the One Ocean Dive Center used by the Mchange Beach Lodge were excellent and left us greatly satisfied (in contrast to the services provided by the same organization at Kizimkazi).
During our stay at Mchange Beach Lodge, the lodge's management also suggested a particular company to take us on a day-trip to the NE part of Zanzibar, which included a series of village visits, Aquarium visit, and lunch. Although the quality of this day-trip tour was not poor, we felt that it was greatly overpriced for what was actually delivered. Perhaps it is worth for the Mchanga Beach Lodge management to consider other touring companies to collaborate with.
Overall, our stay at Mchange Beach Lodge was greatly enjoyable. During our stay the greatest attribute of the lodge was its frienly staff and the sense of privacy you get at an otherwise busy are of the island. The view of the Indian ocean is also exquisite.
A very reaxing stay at Mchanga Beach lodge
A very relaxing place to stay. The hosts Thomas and Gloria were excellent - nothing was too much trouble and they made us feel very welcome. Overall the staff were very friendly and the service very attentive. Also, as 2 single females travelling together, we felt very safe.
The lodge is in an extremely quiet location which suited us but it might not suit everyone. We loved the fact that there was no TV!!
Overall the food was very good.
The one small negative was the seaweed in the sea - apparently it's seasonal.
Would I recomend it? Definitely!!
Excellent +
Gloria and Thomas very helpful. Staff really nice.
Read more about the whole beach holidy
Simple, pleasant and secluded relaxation
Mchanga beach lodge is a very quiet place, on a very quiet beach. It's an excellent place to unwind for a few days, but depending on your personality you may get itchy feet after this, as there really isn't much to do. The rooms are clean and well maintained, although at night some kind of insect can be heard crunching through the wood above you, which kept me a awake a bit. This, however, does enable you to hear the haunting cackle of the bush babies outside. There are two downsides I would mention:
1. The service. This is best described as erratic, varying between friendly and outgoing to sullen and resentful. Also, what you actually get varies hugely; the breakfast dish "muffins with butter and jam" varied between three muffins with butter and jam to a single muffin with nothing else. Similarly bottled water wasn't reliably replaced in our room.
2. There is something just a bit slap-dash about the place. This is fine, and quite probably intended, but I just had the feeling that the whole place could do with a bit of straightening out.
Overall very much as we had expected and a lovely place to go.
Mchanga Beach Lodge review
This is a wonderful lodge. We had a very relaxing and restful 5 days. The rooms are lovely with huge comfortable beds and nicely finished with local furnishings. The food was consistently of a high standard throughout our stay with a different menu every evening and a wide selection at lunch and breakfast, all of which was made freshly to order.
The owners and staff are very friendly and helpful and go out of their way to make sure you are enjoying your stay. As they only accommodate around 16 people at one time, the service is very personal.
The lodge is on a slightly isolated part of the coast on a beautiful stretch of beach. It is perfect if you are looking to unwind and relax however if you want lots of activities on your doorstep this probably isn't the place for you (although there are plenty of days trips available that can be easily arranged).
Overall we would highly recommend Mchanga Beach Lodge and would love to go back one day.
Mchanga Beach Lodge review
The Lodge was very quite and peaceful, the food was excellent, the one problem we did have which wasnt to do with the lodge was when we went for a walk along the beach we got really pestered by a group of kids to a point where they are jumping up at my wife and kicking her.
Overall though this was a really wonderful place to stay. We did go on a snorkeling trip (organised through the lodge) (some of the trips are expensive and it worth organising trips via fishermans tours before you go these are significantly cheaper than those offered at the lodge) which was really good fun and would recomend going if you get a chance
Mchanga Beach Lodge review
Great location and lodge to get away from it all. We had a very relaxing 5 days after our safari.
Thomas & Gloria looked after us very well and made sure we had everything we needed.
Relax on a perfect beach at Mchanga
The lodge is on a perfect beach, with no other people. The bungalows are simple but stylish with attention to little details (such as a beach basket with towels; mosquito nets on the beds, large walk in shower). The setting of the lodge is lovely, especially at sunrise. The pool is good size and very clean.
Gloria and Thomas check everyday how their guests are doing and they spoil you if you can. We had the luck to be the only guests for a couple of nights so we got a special dinner on the beach with candlelight, really romantic!
Staff members are really efficient, friendly and they do everything they can to spoil you - starting with a cup of tea when they see you are awake. The quality and variety of the food was great.
Gloria and Thomas can organize trips around the island for you, we went to Jozani forest and it was really good.
In summary this is a perfect place if you want to relax and be spoiled!
Thanks a lot, we really enjoyed our stay!!
Some "food for thoughts" ...if allowed. Please do not take this is a complaint, but a mere idea. Since the lodge is in a small fishing village and the contrast between the local people and the tourists is quite striking, it would be nice to give something back. For example set up a way of helping the local school, maybe asking guests to bring something if they wish. Or anything else along these lines. Forgive my candid opinion if this is very difficult to organize.
Expert Africa comments
Comments like this which give us, and our colleagues in Africa, 'Food for thought' are always allowed and indeed warmly welcomed – so our thanks to these travellers for making this one!
When passed to Gloria and Thomas at Mchanga, they were delighted with this traveller’s positive feedback and hastened to add that they will give the suggestion of giving something back some serious thought. They promise to let us know what they come up with… and we hope that the comment will prove to be a catalyst.
Mchanga Beach Lodge review
The food was of the highest standard, with lots of local culinary influences, nutritious and healthy and plentiful. The early morning tea and home-made biscuits, waiting when I woke up, and the afternoon coffee and cake, were lovely touches. One of the highlights of the trip was the cooking at Mchamba, especially dinner, and Gloria and Thomas should make this more of a selling point.
Everyone I met in Zanzibar was friendly and the staff at Mchamba were especially so, particularly Master, who spotted me in the market in Stone Town, a week after I had left Mchanga, and came up for a chat with his girlfriend.
[Ed: In a review for his next hotel (Breezes) this traveller commented further:
"Incidentally, Mchanga charged US$5 for 20 minutes' internet use, which also seems unnecessary. Noone goes to Zanzibar to spend time on the internet but there is need to check-in for flights or deal with the occasional email and, providing internet usage is minimal, there really should be no charge."]
We have always believed that acting responsibly is the only way to approach tourism and we're one of
the few companies to hold AITO's original coveted 5-star status for responsible tourism. It's a lead
that others are now following.
