Have you ever been to a hotel where you spend most of your time shushing you kids because you don’t want them bugging everyone else that’s there on vacation. It is the most annoying and embarrassing feeling. It is not relaxing at all and makes for a very high strung holiday. I totally understand why some hotels don’t allow children under the age of 12. Kids, in their purest form, are busy, rambunctious, and chaotic little people. They have volatile emotions and most of them have no volume control. Being the parent of two such little beings I know how it is; even on their “best behaviour” days they still require a few shushings.
   When we started hopping down the coast of Zanzibar, our first hotel was one that had us constantly reprimanding the girls. We have very good kids, and its not like they were acting extremely bad, its just this particular hotel left that feeling of stillness. We were the only ones there with young kids, and so we stuck out, other guests could hear us coming from across the property! It left me with this sinking feeling in my stomach and worrisome thoughts like “is Disney world the only place where our kids will ever blend in!?”
   We kept on going with our goal of showing our girls a new part of the world, experiencing all types of lodging. Along the way I have definitely come to appreciate hotels/lodges/villas that feel more “family friendly”. Places that have yards for our girls to run around in, or pools where the other guests don’t mind having kids splashing, or rooms big enough for the girls’ toy bag to explode, or beach access for us to let our wildlings run free.
   Our last stop combined all of the above ingredients and made it so that we never wanted to leave. Talk about being on vacation and not bothering anyone else, with our personal beach house we had an entire place to ourselves with no one around to bug! We could let the kids be kids, and the only people that they could possibly bother were Eben and I! And since we were having such an enjoyable time as well they couldn’t even get on our nerves. The backyard had a private plunge pool, we could see the ocean from our lounge area, the girls had more than enough space to run around, and they had their own sleeping area where they could play to their little hearts’ content. The Matemwe beach house felt more like a home. It felt like I home that I want, a beautiful, luxurious, ocean front spot.

 

 

 

   We didn’t even have to worry about bothering other guests at meal time. No one had to listen to Ellia whine when she felt like she got less food than Arias, because we did all of our eating “at home”, with a personal chef that came over to make every meal. Talk about being spoiled. Every day we got to look over and choose the possible meals for the following sit down. We got restaurant quality food without the hassle of going out. A beach house, a chef, and butler (and a fully stocked all-inclusive bar at the house!). Please let me live here! It is on the more “high end” for a vacation spot, but we see that as a bonus, because Asilia Africa combined high end with kid friendly at their Matemwe destination and we all left happy and refreshed.

 

 

 

 

   Now, I know not all hotels will be as perfect as this place was, but it was nice to see we can still travel the world with our girls without being forced into kid-centered vacation spots. I am sure we will do some sort of Disney something one day, and we will probably all LOVE it, but we’re glad that is not our only option.