Kisiwa House

Kisiwa House is one of Stone Town's older buildings, a tall coral-stone house raised in 1840 by an influential Omani merchant and restored as a boutique hotel in 2009. Behind a carved Zanzibari door, a cool ground-floor courtyard filled with plants and low sofas serves as the lounge, and a wooden staircase climbs through the house to 11 rooms and suites. Rooms keep the original high ceilings with dark mangrove beams, pair canopied four-poster beds with Persian rugs and antique furniture, and add modern comforts such as air conditioning, flat-screen TVs and bathrooms with spa baths. Categories run from Burdani Deluxe Rooms to Malkia Junior Suites and Sulaima Senior Suites. On the roof, the Darini restaurant and bar looks across the rusted tin roofs of the old town to the harbour and passing dhows, a fine spot for breakfast or a sunset drink after a day in the markets and alleys just outside.