Emerson Spice

In 1928 Siti binti Saad, the taarab singer, took a dhow from Zanzibar to Bombay to record, and the voyage is painted on the wall of the room named after her. She shares the house on Tharia Street with Verdi's Violetta and Dorothy Lamour, among others. Emerson Skeens, an American opera lover, bought three crumbling buildings in 2006, joined them into one hotel and named all twelve rooms after women. The oldest wing, with its high timbered ceilings and arched walls, was built for Mohammed bin Ahmed el Alawi, the last Swahili ruler of Zanzibar; from 1873 Tharia Topan, a spice trader who advised the Sultan, added the carved latticed balconies. The walls are washed a chalky blue, and stained glass fans out over the tall windows. Turandot is the one to ask for. It is a small room that makes up for it outside, with a veranda as large again, a bath, a swing and Stone Town below.

Recommended for anyone who would rather wake in the old town than on a beach, and for families whose children can manage stairs: there is no lift, and Aida, a duplex, climbs a spiral staircase to a loft of two single beds. Stone Town is done on foot from here: the House of Wonders and the Sultan's Palace are three minutes away, the seafront eight, and only the giant tortoises of Changuu Island need a boat. Dinner is one sitting a night on the roof, at the Tea House: cocktails from six, eight courses at seven, and the rooftops and minarets around it. On Wednesday and Friday nights the Secret Garden, down in the courtyard, has live taarab, the music Siti binti Saad once had to sail to Bombay to get on record.