Stories from the island

Many guests wonder the same thing before booking Chole Mjini: Will I be comfortable? Will it feel too wild? Will I miss the familiar? Is it truly luxury and is it worth it? Chole Mjini offers a different kind of comfort. Our open-air treehouses are designed to work with the ocean breeze, not against it. You’ll have electricity, ensuite bathrooms, attentive hospitality, and privacy, but also space, silence, and immersion in nature....

Picture the quintessential, fairytale honeymoon with you and your sweetheart skipping into the sunset and taking rose petal baths… Chole Mjini is not that. Sure you’ll be staying in a romantic treehouse, in a forest, on a tropical island with only a handful of other people around… but there will be no rose petals… or baths. Au contraire. This place is not for everyone… but it is for the truly wild at...

"Many people visit Mafia purely for its diving, which is considered by some to be the best anywhere in East Africa. It’s easy to dive two sites outside the bay on a single outing and the hour-long trip out and back again can also be great for sunbathing, sailing and dolphin-spotting," writes Jean de Villiers.

The warm, clear, tropical waters surrounding Mafia Island on the coast of Tanzania offer both new and master divers a memorable scuba diving experience. In fact, rumour has it that the best diving in Africa is found in the Mafia Island Marine Park. Some divers even claim it is better than diving the Great Barrier Reef! Still, when choosing a diving destination, many divers are unaware of this and instead flock in...

A lovely blog written by Bethan that encapsulates everything you can expect on an island retreat at Chole Mjini Treehouse Lodge. Also included are the reflections of some of the students who joined Bethan on this yoga retreat!

Dhow: A two-masted Arab sailing vessel. This simple boat is what drew Anne and Jean de Villiers to Chole Island, and once they laid their eyes on this remote and unspoilt place, they instantly fell in love with what they saw.