Name: St Monica's Lodge
Address: Former Slave Market Site PO Box 5 Stone Town Zanzibar, Zanzibar, Zanzibar, Zanzibar, not available, Tanzania
Rating: 6.4

Location

Zanzibar International Airport

St Monica's Lodge

I had a wonderful week at St. Monica's Lodge/Hostel. Everyone there is friendly and helpful. I felt very much at home the whole time. Breakfast is included in the rates. The hostel is in a building where the nuns resided. The rooms are well ventilated with ceiling fans and balconies. There's a common balcony for the guests to socialize. Street food is readily available outside the premises.

I stayed in this lodge a few years ago and really enjoyed the experience. the room was fantastic with a mosquito net fully covering the bed and with working air conditioning. the staff were lovely and friendly. we had a great stay and will definitely go back! 
p.s we went before February 2015 but that is the earliest sate available!

The rooms of St Monica are okay and good value for the inexpensive price. What really stood out was the insightful tour to the adjacent slave market with lot of background info about the slave trade history of Zanzibar. Highly recommended!

Zanzibar

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harbour-view

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6 bedrooms

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wi-fi

park access

A Jewel in the heart of Stone Town, Zanzibar

wonderful

Good low ley accomodation, great info tour about the slave market

St Monica had been recommended to us by friends who had stayed their years ago.
We were thoroughly disappointed.  $50 a night was outrageously expensive for what you get - a dingy, paint peeling, under-lit room, with heavily dusty floors, walls, balcony, table, and chairs.  The breakfast area was the same.  Breakfast consisted of two slices of bread, simple omelette, tea, and a tiny slice of watermelon in an equally dusty breakfast balcony.
The shower head let through no water, so I removed it to shower.  The drain is at the far end of the bathroom, behind the toilet, with the low spot in the middle of the room, in front of the sink.
The bed slats had collapsed, but could just barely be set back so the bed was usable.
There was no effective lock on the door or window to the shared balcony.
The only positives were:
1. Clean sheets
2. Working A/C
3. Free entry to the slave museum (which has excellently informative history boards, but not a single object of any kind - so absolutely nothing you couldn’t read in a book)
Root and branch change of management needed desperately.  So much could be done to improve the place with better care, and only a little investment.
Worst hostel I’ve ever been in.
Moved to the Spice Palace a five minute walk away for remaining nights - absolutely luxurious for only slightly more.

Don’t Stay

I emailed a number of times and got short answers a couple of times.
It was a total shock to arrive to a very down at heal place.  The women at so called reception was lying on a bench watch tv and she agreed to show us rooms but was not aware that we had booked.  The first room was still in the state when the person left it - unmade bed, second room on first glance looked sort of ok, the third room, she called a staff room was v. average but on second look you could not open windows, the air conditioning that is there does not work and everything smells damp and pillows smell dirty.  we had to stay one night but left at 7.30am next morning.  The bathrooms are v. sad, with lavatory seat broken, shower not working etc etc.  Could not wait to leave and expensive at 40 dollars - never again.

St Monica's Lodge

Location

Available rooms

Location

Description of the hotel

Conditions of accommodation

Conditions of accommodation

Payment

Payment

For corporate clients