Matemwe Bungalows

Excellent but pricey.

Difficult to fault this place. Bungalows are excellent but vary in design we stayed in two (another story) and were very pleased with No 12 but found No 2 to be even better. Pool areas are good and no problem finding beds in the sun or the shade according to your preference.
Good atmosphere at the open air bar for ‘happy hour’ drinks at very fair prices and live music once a week.
Food quality and restaurant service are both excellent. The restaurant itself is perfectly located for breakfast and lunch with wonderful views of passing dhows, locals collecting seaweed in the lagoon and out on the reef, and views down the beach towards Matemwe village.
At dinner, however, after darkness has fallen, the restaurant is rather gloomy and lacks atmosphere. This was about the only negative opinion we had of Matemwe Bungalows and was certainly outweighed by all the many positive features of the place.

Matemwe

Beautiful views of Indian Ocean. Great staff---attentive and friendly. Food was excellent and fresh---oh so fresh--to eat fish 3 hours after it was caught was amazing!!

The sandbank tour was the best----to snorkle in the aquarium was like an ocean safari. best snorkeling we have ever had----better than Tahiti,Hawaii , Fiji or the Seychelles!

Village tour was super as was visiting the fish auction. Stonetown and spice tour also an eye opener!

Bungalows need to be updated and we were disappointed that the beach was not up to expectations---full of seaweed and could not swim due to sea urchins and the coral!! This should be told in advance as tours to sandbank are expensive and cannot do everyday!

The massages were wonderful!

Matemwe is to be complimented on their work in the village--building a school and now a clinic!! Kudos!

We spent 5 days in Matamwe and were very happy. The staff is extremely good and attentive. The food is excellent. The bangalows are superb.

We arrived at Matemwe after eight days on safari, wanting some r and r, which this location certainly provided.

The 'bungalows' have a rustic, bare foot feel - don't come here if you want 5 star, air conditioned, could-be-anywhere-hotel. They are extremely comfortable with superb views over the Indian Ocean. We spent each morning on the verandah of our bungalow watching the sun come up and the village women collecting sea weed and the fishermen setting out.

The gardens are beautiful and the beach superb - the sand is like talcum powder. Both beach and hotel quiet and uncrowded.

The staff could not have been more friendly and accommodating. The waiters knew our name by the second day and nothing was too much trouble. On the day of our departure, we were talking about our long lay over in Dar Es Salaam before our flight home to Ingo, the manger, and he rang a taxi driver he knew in Dar to meet us off the domestic flight and give us a tour of the city before taking us to catch our flight. What really impressed was that Matemwe phoned to check we had been picked up and that all was well. Customer care indeed!

We were also impressed by the relationship Ingo and the staff are cultivating with the (very poor) nearby village and the education and health projects they are supporting.

Our Wedding at Matemwe!

We had a wonderful stay at Matemwe Bungalows. Nothing was too much trouble and all the staff were so friendly. We had our wedding there, and although we were a bit nervous before we got there regarding how it would work out, it couldn't have been better. There was zero stress - my now husband was lying on the couch on our balcony 15 mins before the wedding, and it was organised brilliantly. The photographer was superb, so we have lots of fabulous photographs for a formal album.

We had dinner on the beach where we had been married, with hundreds of candles in the coral. Lunch was also a private affair, and we were allowed to choose whatever food we wanted. We even had a cake, and the staff had put up lovely arches of banana leaves with flowers. The villagers walked me to the beach to meet my husband to be, with lots of singing and dancing and throwing petals.

All the food was lovely, as were the rooms. We really recommend the village tour and also the spice tour which was very informative.

Mateme Bungalows honeymoon

On our third week, we were in Sansibar. Both places we stayed in, Pongwe Beach and Matemwe Bungalows, were heaven on earth! And the diving day on the Mnemba atoll was awesome."