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Vanilla House is a small 4 room house of a local nature situated on the shores of the Indian Ocean ! Vanilla House has been built by Dorota Katende, an African Safari & Zanzibar Island guide and author of two books: "Dom na Zanzibarze" ("The House on Zanzibar") and "Kobiety na Zanzibarze" ("Woman on Zanzibar"). The house is decorated in Swahili style with elements woven from the palm leaves (makuti) with typical Zanzibar furniture such as carved large sultan's beds or chairs made from cow skin by local people. Apart from rooms all other places are to be shared with all guests. There should not be more than 8 guests in the house. To fully enjoy your stay here you should be tolerant, willing to understand different culture and cooperative in the organization of time and order. On the terrace above the house in the makuti shade you can admire the breathtaking ocean view. There are 4 rooms, 2 bathrooms and a kitchen where the cook bustles about. Everything is very simple, but sufficient enough to rest from the civilization. In the Vanilla House you can, if you want or even sometimes by chance, become a witness or even a creator of a history - the content of third Dorota's Katende book!
This is a great place with full service with food, drink, entertainment and wonderful sea views! The owner makes the difference and adds her good vibes to everything :) food is great too :) I am looking for Masai dance class now
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Date of stay: October 2019Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
found this magic small hotel by accident. what a blessing. good hospitality. location, freshest cuisine. made friends for life at this little resort. quiet and away from the maddening crowd. a stairway to your own beach. the only place i will stay when i return. great room. view and bathroom.
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Date of stay: September 2018Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I actually was staying at another place (next door) but because I was not happy with this accomodation, I cancelled my second night and stayed at the Vanilla house. I was very happy with my spacious room and nice bathroom and terrace (and this for half the price of what Villa Mina was charging!). Great breakfast included as well, and being a solo traveller, it was nice to have breakfast together with the owner and to have a nice chat. I would recommend this place if you like a nice and relaxing stay in beautiful Jambiani.
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Date of stay: January 2018
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Trip type: Travelled solo
Room Tip:The room upstairs had a lovely shared terrace with beautifull views towards the ocean.
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Great contact with nature with Vanilla House. Me and my wife had 4 different locations on the island, but that one was definitely the best one. Time that we spent there was full of local food, great views straight from the tarrace and friendly people around. I would love to be back there!
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Date of stay: September 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Response from dorota30, Właściciel at Vanilla House
Responded Nov 2, 2017
Dziekujemy za wspolnie spedzony czas. Nasz dom jest własnie dla takich gosci, ktorzy cieszą się naturą i kontaktem z lokalnymi mieszkancami i kultura. Zapraszamy ponownie.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
This hotel is run by polish lady, author of popular books in Poland, so there are a lot of (during our stay only) polish tourists. For me this is definitely NO. Its was to clean either (fridg with stinky food) No Wi-Fi, no pool, and very basic rooms (hot) with terribly uncomfortable beds and very hot in the night (no wind from the sea). For plus great views and Jambiani is great definitely worth visit
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Date of stay: December 2016
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Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:Polish place
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We stayed in Vanilla House for a 3 nights in December 2016. We absolutely loved it! We had the room upstairs with balcony - so when you open your door in the morning, what you experience is just breathtaking! Also as the house is located literally at the beach, you can see when the ocean goes away and comes back 2 a day! Unbelievable! So as it comes back in the very early morning you can hear waves hitting the base of the house and the waves are splashing like 2m high! We were just standing at our balcony and watching it! Loved every second!!!! Mind that this is not a hotel, this is house.
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Date of stay: December 2016
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:take the room on the top floor!
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Response from dorota30, Właściciel at Vanilla House
Responded May 18, 2017
Dziękujemy bardzo za Wasze towarzystwo i oczywiście pozytywne rekomendacje. Staramy się ciągle uatrakcyjniać pobyt naszych gości na Zanzibarze i w Vanilla house. Obecnie dom przechodzi częściowy remont , mamy już nowe piękne schody na taras oraz zadaszony taras na dole gdzie wygodnie w cieniu może jeśc posiłek nawet 14 osób. Zapraszamy ponownie, dla stałych klientów zawsze mamy coś nowego. Pozdrawiam Dorota Katende
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Totally unclean room, we found garbage from the previous people which stayed there, sand everywhere including the bed. The windows had insect nets but they were left open, as a result the room was full of insects. Luckily we had 2 little lizzards which were feeding with the insects. We paid 55$ for all these, there were no towels included and the bathroom was shared. The breakfast was served at a fixed time 9 a.m with no possible adjustement. The breakfast was very poor including 3 small slices of fruit, some egg and 2 slices of bread. Terrible!
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Date of stay: February 2017Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The hotel is execellent. They have an amaizing rooms in front of the beach and prepare a very good typical zanzibar food. They help you in every think like a friends, it's important when you travel alone.
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Date of stay: August 2016Trip type: Travelled solo
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Response from dorota30, Owner at Vanilla House
Responded Aug 26, 2016
Hi Joseph, thank you so much. We are very happy that you like Vanilla house and staff who are ectually my family. We will do our best to make more interesting activity from and around our house. Welcome again. We will host you life part of the family. Greetings Dorota Katende
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
We stayed on the ground floor and had both the rooms there and shared a bathroom. The rooms were lovely and spacious and clean. The bathroom left a little to be desired but as there was no hot water and you couldn't get more than a trickle out of the taps in the sink. However, this is Africa and the bathroom situation was just fine for us, we are not fussy! Every morning we were presented with a fantasticly huge breakfast with fresh local fruits and bread, eggs, tea, coffee and fresh fruit juice if we requested it. Duwa and Kassim were fantastic hosts and we went on a few tours with Duwa. Both spoke very good english and were very informative about the island and it's history. Any questions we asked, they had the answer! After spending some time in Kenya we were a bit shaken up after being robbed etc and Duwa made us feel very safe, being 3 women to me that sort or service is priceless. I also have to say that at one point we overpaid for one of our excursions with Duwa and he was so surprising honest that he gave us half of the money back. We were all very touched by this as we were aware how much that money meant to a local in Zanzibar. Jambiani was beautiful and there were some lovely local restaurants around (Stone culture). I think Vanilla house was in a perfect location and was unbelievable value for money. I would definitely go back.…
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Date of stay: June 2013
Value
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Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Response from dorota30, Owner at Vanilla House
Responded Jul 26, 2013
Thank you very much for your opinion. It pleases us when we hear that our guests had a fantastic time with us. We are really sorry for your unpleasant situation in Kenya, hopefully it didn’t intervene your overall feelings toward this journey. We are also happy that our staff occurred to be so helpful. You are warmly invited to visit Vanilla House again.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
We have just left Vanilla House, where we stayed 1 night in the 1st floor room, in the terrace. We have few comments. Jambiani is amazing, the view from the terrace of Vanilla is wonderful. However, we were not satisfied at all about the room and, above all, the toilet! We know that we are in Africa, but we walked trough the village and we could see with our eyes that local people use fountains and so on. How is it possible that no water was available for us? Neither the WC, nor the shower, nor the lavabo. We read the the owner always says that Vanilla is a real Zanzibar experience, so we shouldn't complain about the fact that the shower was a dirty tube close to the WC, with a dirty floor etc. We answer that, if the standard offered is so low, then why paying almost 50USD? It doesn't need that much improvement. Just a decent toilet, and maybe the glass at the room windows. And also, please fix the steps of the stairs, because it was dangerous. We can't say anything about the room at the ground floor. Maybe they seemed better. Finally, few suggestions. Put signs on the road!! It took 30mins to us to find it! Second, no one of the staff is checking the identity of the guests. Next time, I can go without booking, tell to the staff that I booked and spend a free night there. Besides that, again, Jambiani is really worth the trip!…
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Date of stay: July 2013
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Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Response from dorota30, Owner at Vanilla House
Responded Jul 24, 2013
I personally also love this place. Jambiani with its beaches is but a paradise. We do our best to provide a nice atmosphere also in Vanilla House itself. Most of our guests are very pleased when staying with us. We are very thankful for your remarks. Our guests' opinion is always valuable for us. Unfortunately, the very day of your arriving to Vanilla House we had some breakdown upstairs, and this was the reason of water problems. But our guests can use the whole house, also the bathroom and toilet downstairs, as well as the kitchen there. We are sorry for this inconvenience. And the stairs are already repaired :) We understand that it may be a little difficult to find our house just from the road, but we assure you that we had put the sign on the road but it was damaged, so we ordered a new one. But all people there know exactly where is Vanilla House, so you can always ask someone. Our neighbours are so kind that they would for sure help you to find us. We pass all needed information to Vanilla House manager, along with list of ordered services, that's why there is no need to check the bookings of our guests. We are always ready for their arrivals and welcome them very warmly.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
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