Chole Mjini Lodge

a seriously cool place for outdoorsy people

Chole Mjini Lodge is located in the Mafia Island area of the Tanzania Coast.

This place is the life project of the lovely Jean and Anne De Villiers, great friends of ours, who have devoted decades towards this philanthropic project. The lodge was conceived, hand built and is personally managed and often hosted by them.

Like a fictional pirate’s lair, Chole Mjini Lodge is tucked away on a small island, set amongst a plaza of ancient Swahili ruins, hidden amongst a magical grove of baobab trees and shrouded behind a mangrove foreshore.

This is an extraordinary hand-built lodge, and is clearly the result of a great passion project.

Having entered the lodge through a mysterious doorway in the ruins, we explore our way through the baobabs to a comfortable main building, sat in a small clearing above a small jetty containing comfortable lounge and dining areas, with a small bar upstairs.

There is also the Red Herring Bar over at the main island jetty, which is also owned by the lodge and is a lovely location for sundowners.

Rooms

Guest accommodation at Chole Mjini is in seven rooms, with six superb treehouses and one expansive ground room. 

Each room is very different from the next, they have all been designed to fit both their location and the particular flight of fantasy that was passing through the minds of the builders on the day they went up.

Each room has a private outdoor bathroom at ground level.

Activities

Chole Mjini Lodge provides access to the following activities, not all of which are necessarily included in the usual room rate …

– Swimming
– Snorkelling
– Diving
– Sailing
– Swimming with whale sharks
– Walking
– Sandbank picnics

Mafia Island tends to feature relatively rarely in trips, since the allure of Zanzibar is too great for most first time visitors to resist. That is what keeps the place so blissfully quiet.

The usual stay duration is 4-6 nights.

Seasonality

The climate on Mafia Island is tropical, with predominantly hot, humid and sunny conditions.

There is rain on most days of the year, usually taking the form of light showers. During the Nov-Dec and Mar-May rainy seasons these can turn into heavy and persistent downpours.

There can also be very strong winds during the May-Jun early dry season period.

The best times down on the coast are therefore considered to be Jul-Oct and Jan-Mar, when there is usually slightly less rain and wind.

Unfortunately, these best periods happen to coincide with the two peak seasons for visitor traffic, although that is far less of an issue here than on Zanzibar Island.

Getting there

The vast majority of visitors to Mafia Island arrive via the international airport at Dar es Salaam, from where there are regular scheduled light aircraft services into the main airstrip at Kilindoni.

Once on the island it is usual to travel around by guided overland transfers.

We always include all connecting transport in your trip unless you specifically ask us not to.

a blissfully authentic backwater