Viva Tanzania | Villa | Volunteering | Tours | Wellness — Hotel in Arusha

I’ve been here 2 weeks out of 4, and I’ve had an overall good experience here.

My experience volunteering thru Viva has been LIFE-CHANGING, and I hope to return to Selian Lutheran Hospital again. The Villa is huge, well taken care of, and decorated beautifully; with a great rooftop lounge, seating, and bar. There are built-in community experiences that Tizia (the manager), and the other staff work hard to arrange and encourage. Volunteers and guests are constantly going on adventures, hikes and safaris together. The dorm rooms are lovely, sizable, and have strong mosquito nets. At least one dorm has wooden beds, which are creaky and move a lot when climbing onto the top bunk. The metal beds are completely silent and solid.

Magga, the chef, is a phenomenal cook, friendly, and keeps the food warm on the line for hours as we float in for meals. Breakfast and dinner are included for volunteers. He’ll make a great lunch for you if planned ahead.

My few issues so far are the lack of WiFi on my end of the hostel, intermittent electricity issues, and not an easy warm shower. I’m on the 2nd floor, and I’m glad I have unlimited data because I don’t get any WiFi in my room. Once you get the shower situation figured out you can get hot water (turn hot water on a little, chase with cold water, then turn water off every 30 sec to keep it warm). You’ll get a hot shower, it’s just a dance.

It’s a bit of a hike (45 min walk or 1-2 dala dala connections) to the shopping areas of Arusha.

I love the community environment here, it’s wonderful what they’ve created. I get the sense that the owner is very loyal to her staff and employs as many as possible so they can take care of their families. Amidst the challenges, I would def recommend for guests...

So first of all, we were supposed to stay at Nyumbani hostel with my husband during 2 weeks through our volunteer program.

The hostel is situated in Mianzini, one of the crowdest and complicated in term of access in Arusha. To reach there, it is complicated and very narrow streets. When we arrived, our room was not ready and still dirty from the last person staying in there. They just quickly removed her stuff and put new sheets without even cleaning the room. If you want to share your mini- bathroom with 8 people, go for it - the cleaning is an option also there. There are dogs EVERYWHERE, they take literally the whole space in the house, sitting on the couches, not very hygienic neither. And also impossible to sleep as the dogs were barking the whole night. 5I know it’s a hostel and we have already been to hostel in other countries of the world but this one is really poor - no maintenance, no cleaning....

So after this poor experience on the first day, we decided to move to another place with my husband and did not complete the 2 weeks. It is a shame to see that the manager, that is managing from Germany (not even based in Tanzania) is not aware or ready to listen to what is really happening on site. You understand that everything is about business (hostel, safari company, volunteering), people comes after money ! So good luck to keep on having a sustainable business in Tanzania !

So sorry but this hostel will never deserve 5 stars,...

The place is beautiful for its price, the lower staff are genuine and nice, the upper staff seem to be nice to you because they have to, but I always felt like I was inconveniencing them. I had just finished hiking Kilimanjaro so had paid to have some clothes washed, not only did they leave my clothes in the wash overnight, having them smell like sweaty feet, but it gets laid out to dry in the common area, and I had some clothes lost/stolen. My other friend travelling with me also had some clothes misplaced, which was found to be put in someone else’s clothes who had left already. All of the staff had opened the rooms and was going through peoples belongings trying to find the clothes, without people there to consent. They also do not accept Credit card and are unmarked from the street - making it hard to find and tuktuk drivers have issues getting there. The wifi is usable but gets especially bad with lots of people staying there. Blackouts happen frequently at the hostel but I’m pretty sure that’s just the location in Arusha.

To sum it up, amazing price, amazing place, you just gotta deal with the little things, a lot of...