&Beyond Mnemba Island

Mnemba is where we finish when a journey needs to end slowly. It is a private atoll 4.5 km off the north-east coast of Zanzibar, with twelve open-air bandas along the beach and room for no more than 24 guests. The reef starts a few strokes from your banda.

Days here have very little structure. You dive or snorkel the reef in the morning, where more than 430 species of reef fish have been recorded, and spend the afternoon under the casuarina trees with a book. Young children play in the warm shallows while their parents snorkel further out. Grandparents sit in a foot of water and watch for turtles. One evening, on every journey we use it on, dinner is fresh seafood by candlelight on the sand.

We nearly always build in a day ashore first. On the way to the island your guide takes you on a private walking tour of Stone Town, through the Arab Fort, the carved doors and the lanes of the old quarter, with lunch on the Emerson Spice rooftop above the harbour. On The Indian Ocean Arc you also walk Jozani Forest to see the Kirk's red colobus, found only on Zanzibar.

Your aircraft lands at Zanzibar: a Pilatus PC-12 from Lake Manyara, or an Embraer Phenom 300 from Vilanculos or Nairobi. A short transfer and a boat crossing bring you to the island, and the same in reverse takes you back to your Phenom 300 for the flight home.

Good to know

• Diving and snorkelling on the reef are included on every journey that stays here.
• Zanzibar is a malaria area; take advice on prophylaxis.
• The long rains usually fall from about March to May. Our journeys here run from June to October.

Country: Tanzania