SafariRoamer
Emerson Spice is a restored 19th-century Zanzibari merchant's house made up of three adjoining heritage buildings around a central courtyard, at 1494 Tharia Street in Stone Town's Kiponda quarter. Each of the 11 rooms is individually furnished with antique Zanzibari and Swahili pieces, and the hotel is best known for its rooftop Tea House restaurant, which looks out over Stone Town's rooftops and the Indian Ocean at sunset.
What sets it apart
No two rooms are alike, and the rooftop Tea House restaurant is a genuine Stone Town dining destination in its own right, not just a hotel amenity.
Who it suits
Couples and independent travellers who want atmosphere and history over uniform hotel comfort.
The essentials
| Country | Tanzania |
| Where | Tharia Street, Kiponda quarter, Stone Town, Zanzibar |
| Property type | boutique hotel |
| Rooms | 11 rooms, each individually decorated and named (e.g. Kate, Semele, Mimi, Lamour Toujours) — per the hotel's own site. |
What it costs
The property's own promotional page quotes a "Sunset to Sunrise" package at $225 for two people (one period cited was April 2025) and $175 in shoulder season — a package rate, not a confirmed base nightly room rate, so we do not present it as one. Its separate rooftop tasting menu is priced at $40 per person.
About the photographs
The pictures on this page are stock photographs chosen to suggest the kind of setting this property is in. They are not photographs of this property, and we cannot verify exactly where any of them was taken — a stock library records the photographer, not the place. We use them rather than borrow the property's own marketing images, which would imply we had stayed there. For pictures of the actual rooms, see the property's own site.