New underwater Resort on Pemba Island, Tanzania
The Manta Resort on Pemba Island, off Tanzania, opened a new Swedish-designed underwater bedroom this month. Elevated and crafted along an idyllic island beach, The Manta Resort offers privacy, romance, adventure, and water sports on East Africa’s finest island sanctuary. This property is managed by the Swedish company Resort360 AB.
A private floating island with your bedroom four meters below the surface. It is yours to enjoy while sunbathing and stargazing on the top deck, lounging and dining on the water deck and sleeping surrounded by a tropical marine environment.
Pemba Island has been separated from the mainland of Tanzania and Zanzibar for decades, leaving an untouched and pristine island of great beauty and fertility. The mosaic of forests, swamps, mangroves, hidden beaches and lagoons is scattered with the ruins of mosques and tombs mostly reclaimed by the forest – sites that date back to Arab domination when Pemba Island was seized by the Sultan of Muscat (Oman) in the 17th century. He loved the Spice Islands and established his court in Zanzibar and ruled Muscat from there.
Pemba is still the predominant global producer of cloves yielding around 70% of all the world’s cloves, but now plays its more traditional role of being an island paradise with small inter-island trade. Pemba Island also has a strong reputation as a ‘magic’ island, a centre for ju-ju traditions of medicine and wizardry. On an island with a population of 300,000 there are rarely more than a couple of dozen foreigners. Traveling in Pemba is discovering untouched territory.
