andBeyond Mnemba Island Lodge, Zanzibar

No doors, no keys and no worries? Yes, it’s true. andBeyond Mnemba Island Lodge is the quintessential private island paradise and a barefoot one too.

After wading ashore from our speedboat, staff in camel shorts welcomed us, taking our sandals, and we never needed them again. For tiny Mnemba Island – three miles off the northern coast of andBeyond Zanzibar, Tanzania – is ringed with blinding white sand as soft and fine as flour. Paths between the buildings at this intimate eco-chic resort are all sand, you dine with your toes in the sand, and everyone goes barefoot, including the staff. And no need to worry about snakes or straying critters nibbling on tender toes – the island has none.

There are only ten bandas (cottages) for 20 guests. The walls and floors in all are made of woven grass mats and soaring roofs are thatched. An open air “wall” in the living room is decorated with a sole hanging picture frame (the view of the mangrove trees is the artwork) and a covered walkway off the bedroom leads to a cool open air bath (again, no wall) with round coral-lined shower and mirrors hanging from the ceiling. The experience is the closest thing we’ve come to actually living outside complete with a foot bath at entry for rinsing off sand.

No surprise that there’s no air conditioning here but you’ll be quite comfortable bedding down in the natural environment that invites curious tiny geckos and crawling crabs to your shower floor. Ocean breezes complemented by whirring fans keep the space cool at night and swathes of mosquito netting draped over a divine king size bed are solid protection at night from flying friends (on that note, there are hardly any in the cooler dry season between June and October).

Mostly everything is included in the rates – from laundry to private sundowner cruises in a traditional wooden dhow, even two scuba dives a day. By the way, if you’re thinking of learning to dive, andBeyond Mnemba Island has its own PADI dive school on site (supplemental). Have you ever enjoyed a private dive with your own guide? It’s quite a luxury.  Just a ten minute Zodiac ride from the island is a colorful reef garden where we saw clouds of silvery yellow-tailed snapper and plenty of feathery lionfish, trumpet fish, moray eels and an enormous, well camouflaged scorpion fish. Suffice it to say the water temperature is too warm for sharks (not necessarily a bad thing). And on the way back we passed a pod of bottlenose dolphins.

Dining is completely bespoke – breakfast any time after 7 a.m., lunch whenever you like in the afternoon and dinner from 8:00 p.m. And with only a handful of guests, Mnemba’s chef can customize meals to suit everyone’s tastes. Your butler (yes, you have a barefoot butler, too) discusses the day’s menu with you at breakfast. If you’d prefer fresh grilled lobster to, say, cool beetroot and orange gazpacho followed by cumin spiked fish, just say so.

andBeyond Zanzibari fishermen deliver fresh fish every morning and one of Mnemba’s butlers, who operates an island co-op from his little village, brings in organic fresh fruits and veggies. At night, we dined by lantern light under a star strewn sky, but you can opt to have dinner in your banda or in the forest in the middle of the island (where you might glimpse a duiker – rare, tiny antelope that make their home here).

Behind the scenes, a crew of 60 (most of whom you’ll never see) toil to provide the ultimate privileged stay. Each time we returned to our banda, everything was spruced and tidied up again and fresh towels laid-out. We’re sure past guests Bill Gates, Tom Cruise and fashion model Naomi Campbell were also tickled with the whisper service.

*Mnemba is part of the andBeyond collection of leading African and Indian lodges, camps and safaris. Many guests add on a stay at andBeyond Mnemba Island Lodge after their African safari – a blissful finish to the “bush and beach” option.