Chole Mjini

Coastal, Beach & Island Getaways

Sustainability Initiatives

Out of this World

Locations & Landmarks

Julius Nyerere International Airport
Ras Mkumbi Lighthouse

Snorkel, SCUBA Gear & Stand Up Paddle Boards (SUPs) for Hire

Africa, Tanzania, Chole Island
Chole Island, Tanzania

How They Dazzle Us

This amazingly isolated Landing has so many things that blow you away, but topping the list is the opportunity to swim with whale sharks. The coast off Chole Mjini is one of the places where these massive animals proliferate and the opportunity to swim alongside them and experience their size and serenity is incredible. Regarded by many as the best and most primal wildlife encounter available on earth, being in the presence of these plankton-eating sharks that weigh upwards of 15 tons and which can live to be well over 100 years old is both dazzling and humbling at the same time.

Why We Love Them

A trip to Chole Mjini is like exiting the modern world and travelling in time to a period of peace and simplicity. There are no roads and cars. There is no electricity. The accommodation is in treehouses that have been beautifully crafted and built into the boughs of stately baobabs. It is an amazing Landing and it has focussed on creating a unique experience - and it has succeeded in triumphant fashion.

Their Sustainable Superpower

This amazing Landing acknowledges that its primary reason for existence has nothing to do with tourism - rather that is a means to an end. Operated by the Chole Mjini Conservation and Development Company who some twenty years ago were offered land by the leaders of the Mafia District Council on which to build a hotel. At this juncture they consulted with the Chole village elders and then with a broad cross-section of the entire population in order to establish their priorities for development and to discuss the impact of our proposed hotel and other interventions. In short, the motivation in building the lodge was to find out if they could use a profit-making tourism business as a mechanism to provide recurrent funding to help self-run village development projects meet their long-term goals. The vision was to help two generations of Chole children through formal education - and that vision is still the dream that powers all things at Chole Mjini.