Kinasi Lodge

With its cuisine combining European and East Africa flavours, Kinasi Lodge is a good choice for food lovers. (There's also a Swahili night each week.) Lunches are served at the Pool Bar and Grill, and dinner in the dining room – the fish dishes are superb! Lounge beside the pool or head to the Egyptian-themed Isis Spa for a massage or a soak in the magnificent Pharaoh’s Bath for couples. This is tranquil, cheerful island life at its best.

Kinasi Lodge offers delightful accommodation in 14 cottages, decked out in a playfully eccentric island style with elements of coastal Tanzania, African, Indian and Arab cultures. Furnished with beautiful locally hand-crafted furniture, walk-in mosquito nets over king-sized beds, whirring fans and en-suite bathrooms with solar-heated water, the cottages beg you to unwind. Hear vibrations in the night air? It's the local bats emerging from the mangrove to find dinner.

The ocean lies at the heart of activities here. Go scuba diving with capable staff to train you and ensure your safety – that underwater Disneyland cannot be praised enough. Take a mind-enhancing swim with a giant whale shark, go deep-sea fishing, skim the surf on a kayak or windsurfer, hop aboard a boat to visit nearby Chole Island, head to a sandbank for an unusual picnic, or simply catch up on some holiday reading in a hammock.