JAFFERJI HOUSE AND SPA

JAFFERJI HOUSE AND SPA - FIRST FLOOR COURTYARD

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Jafferji House and Spa - Second Floor Balcony pictures

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The Hotel Collection - Some Facts

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As a professional photographer Javed Jafferji has had the opportunity to travel the world. With a passion for antiques, he has, over the past 25 years, collected an array of unique pieces. He is now excited to share his collection with you.

The numerous carpets are from Morocco, Pakistan and Afghanistan and all lighting in the hotel have been sourced from Morocco and India. The brass bathtub, taps, and sinks are all from Morocco, as is the fountain found in the central courtyard. African handicrafts have been sourced from West Africa and all Swahili inspirations and decorative touches are from the Swahili Coast (Zanzibar, Mombasa and Lamu). The necklaces you will see are from Oman and are similar to those worn by Princess Salme of Zanzibar. These necklaces are of special significance to the collection as they have been in the Jafferji family for the last century. Antique ceramic plates, dating back hundreds of years were brought on ships to Zanzibar from Portugal, Holland, China and Japan. These plates traditionally decorated Swahili homes and are an original feature of the property. All of the luscious fabrics decorating Jafferji House originate from India and Africa and the antique furniture you will find is from Zanzibar, West Africa, Lamu, Oman and some from India.

The construction and design of the house is no less thought out with a great an attention to detail. All the floor tiles in the property are from a collection which was found in Zanzibar. The material for the plasterwork on the walls of Jafferji House was imported from Morocco and is traditionally used in Hamamns, in North Africa, where it is preferred for its ability to keep rooms cool. The wooden balcony is original and made from teak imported from India, while the newer woodwork has been crafted by the skilled carpenters of Zanzibar. The arches are from mosques in Yemen and can also be seen in the mosques in Zanzibar. All of the wooden roof beams are original and made of either teak or traditional Zanzibari mangrove poles. The roof tiles of the house are Mangalore tiles, originally made in India and are the same choice of tile used when the house was first built. The main structure has been left intact, with only a few alterations having been made so that you can experience the grandeur enjoyed by former Sultans.

To complete the luxurious experience of Jafferji House, all suites are furnished with orthopaedic box spring mattresses, to ensure your comfort. All the room stationery is handmade from recycled paper and fabrics. The toiletries provided are completely organic and of the highest quality and the Window to Africa Rooftop Spa also uses the finest organic products, from 'Africology' and Zanzibar's natural environment.

All photographs on the walls have been taken by our director, professional photographer, Javed Jafferji. This house has been extensively photographed and has been involved in film shoots over the years and the finest images from Javed's collection are displayed throughout the hotel, except, of course, the historical pictures which are from Javed’s private collection. Aside form those images scattered throughout the hotel, you will find a number of permanent exhibition spaces on the property. In the business and internet room you can find displays of Javed's work on the Maasai, while the walls of the staircase are graced with his unique work done with the Hadzabe hunter-gatherers of the Lake Eyasi district of Tanzania.

Hall of fame gallery next to business center has pictures of royal family such as late Princess diana of UK and celebrities , which he shot in UK over 17 years ago……

In the Library area, the Journey through state house, javeds film which he shot and he directed and pictures of Zanzibar reconcilation and coverage of elections is displayed celebrating the new political eara of Zanzibar

Photographs are available for sale and signed copies are available. Many of the books he has published and photographed can be found in the library.

Window to Africa Rooftop

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This stunning rooftop spa has breathtaking 360 degree views of the Indian Ocean and Zanzibar's Stone Town, including the landmark House of wonders, built by the famous Sultan Barghash. Truly a window to Africa, it consists of a traditional Swahili tea house split over separate wooden decks. The upper deck is an open air lounge with a free standing colonial bathtub where you and your partner can enjoy a milk-bath or an array of massages by expert massage therapists, and on the lower deck there is a luxurious antique bed, with enough space for foot massages, manicures and pedicures for two.

Available for only two people at any one time for a massage, this exclusive rooftop spa is fully fledged with treatment ranging from massages, scrubs, wraps, manicures and pedicures. Window to Africa

Rooftop Spa uses 'Africology' and organic products only for its treatments. Our massages are done by our highly experienced therapists from Jafferji House’s sister company, Cinnamon Spa. Indulge yourself in a unique experience inspired by the Swahili beauty rituals thus fusing the past with the present so that you can relax and enjoy our treatments with our organic African products. From sea salt to seaweed, to the array of therapeutic spices found around the archipelago, the Window to Africa Rooftop Spa experience is distinctive.

Mistress of Spices Café

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This unique café/restaurant is an example of Arabic minimalistic design and serves a selection of salads, sandwiches, toasts, whole meal breads and fresh tropical fruit juices made with locally sourced organic seasonal fruits and a range of different desserts. Try our wonderful range of Swahili teas and coffees, such as spiced coffee, ginger tea, or cinnamon tea served according to Swahili habits. A selection of hot and cold Zanzibari and European dishes will be offered. In the evening we offer a separate dinner menu of a variety of healthy and interesting dishes. The café and restaurant is completely air-conditioned.

Breakfast is held in the café from 8am. Please note that alcohol is not served at the Mistress of Spices Café.

Adnan’s Suite

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Adnan Abbas is the nephew of the hotel owner, Javed Jafferji, who spent his early life in Karachi, Pakistan - Adnan's home. There, almost twenty years ago, he photographed the beauty of the country - the results of which adorn the walls of the suite. This bright and airy suite is completely inspired by Javed Jafferji's love for Pakistan and is decorated with delicate Pakistani lighting and more. The result completely captures the beauty of the Pakistani way of life, the wonderful country to which this suite is dedicated.

Stanley Suite

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Henry Morton Stanley was sent to Africa to find the supposedly lost Dr Livingstone and became immortalised upon their meeting with the quote, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume”. He travelled from Zanzibar all the way up to the mouth of the Nile. His experiences fill the many books and articles that made him a celebrity, and he is still considered by many as the greatest European explorer of the 19th century.

The headboard of the Stanley's Suite bed is a nod to British East Africa, which the work of Stanley greatly contributed to establishing, and an arched doorway leads you out onto the largest of Jafferji House's three breezy courtyards. Its furniture is Swahili in style, and is undoubtedly similar to that he would have found as he passed through Stone Town.

Zanzibar Kabisa Suite

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This cosy, open-plan suite, located off a wonderful courtyard filled with plants, photography and benches, Zanzibar Kabisa is completely Zanzibar. The thick walls made of the traditional coral rag stone, is filled with completely Swahili furniture, giving you an unadulterated taste of authentic Zanzibar of the past. Richly coloured washed walls melt beautifully into colourful Swahili tiles that complete the effect of the Suite. This is Zanzibar Kabisa - Completely Zanzibar!

The suite, as with Jafferji House's other suites, comes with a flat screen television, a full bathroom and more little luxuries to ensure that your stay is exactly what you envisioned.

The Spice House suite

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Entering The House of Spices Suite one is instantly hit by the beautiful scents of the spice trade from which these islands draw their name and wealth. Traders would travel by dhow as far as India to get their gold and spices to their destination. Difficulties such as storms, pirates and disease made their voyage an arduous undertaking. As a tribute to these traders who brought such wealth to this island, we have created a room filled with the treasures they brought with them upon their return, and there is not one spice growing on this island which cannot be found in this room.

This wonderful explosion of scent is just one of the incredible sensory treats to tantalise your mind and body in this, The House of Spices Suite. The rich, earthy hues of the walls and floors, and flowing lines of the furniture and drapery, combined with the luxurious Moroccan inspired bathroom, inspires the pampered visitor to The House of Spices Suite to savour each moment of life on the Spice Islands with all the sensory that the human body can enjoy.

The Out of Africa suite

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This large room, named after the famous film of the same name, is dedicated to the beauty and contrasts of Africa. Decorated almost purely in black and white, this suite stands out for its sheer originality. It is doubtful that you have ever seen a bed of the size found in The Out of Africa Suite, with its heavy, carved legs and headboard reflecting the traditional patterns and geometric designs used in various parts of the African continent. Beaded lampshades and antique African furniture bearing those same traditional patterns and designs complete the look of this room - a room like no other anywhere in the world.

Livingstone suite

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It was Dr Livingstone - pioneer, missionary and explorer, born in Scotland and who died "lost" in Zambia - who gave an inspirational speech at Cambridge in England which led ultimately to the end of the slave trade around the globe.

His legacy had a huge impact on the history of Zanzibar, and so this suite, painted in the rich ochre red of the African soil across which he travelled for over thirty years, is dedicated to him. In true Zanzibari style, the suite is decorated with a carved Swahili door and antique colonial period furniture. The large, exquisitely designed bathroom boasts gold-plated hand-made fittings from Morocco, while the large bed is handcrafted in the traditional Swahili four-poster design.

Mercury Suite

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One of the world's most flamboyant rock stars, Freddie Mercury was born just meters from Jafferji House. Born in a middle-class family of Persian descent, Freddie Mercury spent the first years of his life in Stone Town before being sent for schooling in Bombay.

The Mercury Suite is decorated in rich, sumptuous hues, luxurious antique furniture and large carved bed, to reflect the man himself. Located off one of Jafferji House's three courtyards, this suite opens it's windows to look down the very streets of Stone Town upon which the young Freddie Mercury used to play. The bathroom features a sculpted bath, shower, and double sinks. To satisfy the rock star, there is also a flat screen television and safe in the room.

Princess Salme's Suite

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Princess Salme was the daughter of the famous Sultan Said. After interfering in family matters between her brothers Barghash and Majid, she fell out of favour with the royal family. It is said that she sought comfort in the arms her neighbour, Heinrich Ruete, a German Christian merchant trader, to wash away her desperate loneliness. They fell in love, it is said, while talking from their windows across Stone Town's narrow streets. It is believed that she fled to Germany, pregnant with Heinrich's illegitimate child and fearing for her life. Sadly her husband, with whom she had two daughters and a son, died just a few years after arriving in Germany. Two brief returns in 1885 and 1888, both attempts to reconcile with her family were unsuccessful. She lived in exile in Syria until 1914 and died in Germany in 1924.

Decorated with the most grand and luxurious furniture of the time from the middle-east and Zanzibar, and adorned with custom fittings and a fully sculpted bathroom, this suite draws the guest in with its traditional design and earthy colours. It's beautiful and imaginative design and décor encourages a sense of the serene exoticism so sought after by the princess herself. This is a room truly deserving of a princess.

Jafferji’s Sultan Superior Suite

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The Sultans of Zanzibar travelled extensively around the world, finally declaring Zanzibar their home, and through the design of this ultra-luxurious suite we invite you to join them on their romantic journey home. Upon entering this suite you will immediately feel like you have started living the luxurious life of a Sultan.

As you step up the short staircase to enter Jafferji's Sultan Suite you could not fathom what lies beyond the carved wooden trelliswork that surrounds your suite and lines the interior areas of the hotel. Your own private parlour awaits you, filled with beautiful silver-plated antique Indian sofa's complimented by Zanzibari and Moroccan furniture, and an opulent Moroccan brass bathtub sits facing a flat-screen TV. From it's windows you look down over the ramparts of the Old Fort to the sea front with dhows sailing silently on the Indian Ocean's turquoise waters and you are pulled back into a past age somehow existing in a surreal present.

As you enter the large bedroom, you are met by a glorious carved bed. Walls in golden hues are offset by carved furniture with Moroccan lighting and coloured glass window panes adding to the rich Eastern feel. A wonderful selection of colonial-era plates, traded over the centuries by Dutch, Chinese and British merchants adorn the suite’s walls, as do some of Javed Jafferji’s best photographs and a second flat-screen TV. An extended balcony leads you to a second bathroom and open air shower overlooking the Old Fort. Dedicated to the owner himself, this suite offers the experience of a lifetime.

Jafferji House Fact file

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Jafferji House & Spa is located in the heart of Zanzibar’s historical Stone Town at 170 Gizenga Street. Built in 1912, it is now recognized as the most luxurious boutique hotel on the Island.

By throwing colonial style elegance, sophistication and charm, Jafferji House & Spa redefines the boutique hotel experience with its artfully crafted guestrooms offering the utmost in luxury and comfort in Zanzibar.

Upon arrival, the charm of the antique arrays overwhelms with soothing wood tones. Jafferji House & Spa is a stroll away from the House of Wonders, the Old Fort and the Beit-al-Ajaib and is conveniently located between the winding alleys of Zanzibar’s souvenir shops and restaurants. The proximity from Zanzibar’s International Airport is 7km and five minutes drive from the picturesque ferry port.

Jafferji House and Spa captures the history of the island that is enriched with furniture that has been personally selected and collected by the Hotel’s proprietor – Javed Jafferji, Zanzibar’s renowned photographer.

Javed has taken over three years to restore his family home to the highest standards of a true boutique hotel with a vision to capture any guest’s heart as they step in to this remarkable hotel. All the furniture is intricately carved and the splendor of the carved woodwork grabs any eye that walks into this prominent building. The collection around the entire hotel that is seen by our guests are genuine antiques collected from all over the world. Each suite conjures up feelings true to the true names, and the décor has been brought from Morocco, Afghanistan, India, Mozambique, Pakistan, Arabia and Zanzibar.

The décor in the suites and around the public areas are part of the splendored furniture pieces that were enjoyed by Sultans and Merchants from the old days of ruling in Zanzibar, evoking a blissful sense of life of those who ran the trading empire in Zanzibar and made Zanzibar’s historical town a world Heritage Site

This charming luxury boutique hotel is divided into 8 suites and two superior suites offering views of the town’s roofscapes and dramatic scenery of the winding alleys.

The owner and director, Javed Jafferji lives in Zanzibar with a passion for the Island’s conservation, naturally and historically, and has developed his ancestral home into this luxury hotel.

With his wife Kulsum Jafferji, take pride in welcoming you to the “ amazing set-up of our home, with its three traditionally structured courtyards, makes this a unique haven in the heart of the streets of stone town. Like an honored guest in our noble home, you’ll be enveloped in the warmth of heartfelt service, intrigued by delectable Asian, local and International cuisines, pampered in our spa, and surrounded by comfort.”

Jafferji House & Spa is an experience to be savored.

Javed Jafferji’s best photographs have been displayed throughout the hotels providing you with images captured of Zanzibar’s “then & now”