Places to See and Stay: Beach House - Lamu Archipelago

Beach House is extremely luxurious, beautiful, totally relaxing and very exotic. You feel special and pampered from the moment you arrive by dhow from the airport and are greeted by the welcoming house staff. They carry your bags and lead you straight up from the beach to the house. An old Zanzibari door leads you into the house. Inside, you find a place of thick walls, beautiful Swahili furniture, flowering creepers and shady courtyards. There are cool areas for sitting and reading, bookshelves overflowing with books, cd players with cds, and at the top of the house, a cool terrace under thatch. With a fridge full of ice-cold drinks, lots of comfortable canvas chairs and a Zanzibari bed underneath an acacia tree this is the place for the heat of the day, evening sun-downers and enjoying the stars.

There are 4 bedrooms at Beach House (the house sleeps 12 as some rooms have extra beds), all of which are exquisite. There are cool smooth stone floors, Lamu four-poster beds, antique furniture and en-suite bathrooms with shower and wc. All the rooms have lattice windows and spectacular views of the sea and Manda Island opposite. Perhaps one of the highlights of the house is the spectacular horizon pool. Surrounded by a wide shady veranda and with views straight over the sea this is the place to relax in the heat of the day. The house has small gardens on both side of the house. One garden has a large patio which is perfect for entertaining should you desire.

The house has several house-staff and a simply superb chef (the kitchen and dining room are on the ground floor) You can choose with him each day what you'd like to eat and he will buy it from the local fisherman and markets, keeping a tab of what he buys. You can have lobster one day, ginger crab curry the next, prawns whenever you want and Swahili food if you like - the list is endless and the chef will cook whatever you desire. The warm and welcoming house staff will keep the house spotless, do laundry and help you arrange trips to snorkel, sail, explore Lamu Town and so on.

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