Nelly's Inn — Hotel in Dar es-Salaam

The Nelly's, or Little Nelly's is a quiet guesthouse about 20 km or 12 miles north of Dar es Salaam in the community of Mbezi Beach. Their slogan is quiet fun and they do live up to the quiet part. There are two main guest buildings, a small outdoor (but covered by a roof)restaurant, and an administrative office set around a leafy courtyard about 150 meters from the beach. ||We booked a double room for three nights with airport pick-up. Our pick up was waiting for us at the airport as promised and the room we had was an ample sized room with a fair sized double bed (for most it would be perfectly fine but my husband and I are both quite tall so we tend to hang off the end of anything that isn't giant sized), a mosquito net that fully covered the bed and had no holes, a TV with a few channels including the local sports network, and an attached bath. For 50 US a night including breakfast, fruit, hot drink, juice, eggs, sausage (actually a hot dog) white bread and jam or honey, it's not a bad deal. The staff were all quite friendly and helpful though the manager seemed to be under a lot of pressure by the owners to pump us to take the guesthouse's driver at 100 US a day, (he was a bit dismayed when we said "we'd find our own", but understood and didn't press further. ||Ali the chef even walked with us to the beach and was happy to walk around the area with us for as far as we wanted to go. This is a good idea as the beach at Mbezi has some issues with thieves and also it can be difficult to find your way back to the hotel without help. Bukari the manager of the restaurant was eager to cook us a meal. We appreciated the effort but sadly the tuna was overcooked and dry. Though the introduction to some of the local favorites such as white cornmeal pollenta was very nice. ||||The only real negatives are that it is a ways out of town and if you need to get into Dar on a regular basis this can be problematic especially during rush hour which starts at 4 and goes on past 7 in the evening. And they need to do a bit of maintenance work to their bathrooms, the water pressure was non-exhistant, the hot water didn't work (not that we really needed it) and the toilet had no seat. Finally there was no real space outside to chill out. The grounds while being lovely and green didn't really have any where to sit unless you wanted to sit under a marque tent on plastic lawn chairs or at the restaurant, who's chairs are not the most comfortable. ||||Tanzania isn't cheep so if you want an affordable place to stay near Dar and don't mind being out of town then Nelly's is a decent and...

Very bad security; off-duty manager slow to respond to discovery of theft; later the owner could not be bothered to come and check out the situation or apologise to victims. On my first night, while eating in the hotel restaurant, an unknown thief entered my locked room and stole my laptop computer that I had locked in the wardrobe. He relocked everything on the way out. Another guest who was off the premises at the time had the exact same experience. The fact that a duplicate or master key was involved suggests the complicity of someone on the staff. Police reports were made, but neither stolen item has yet been recovered. The main problem is the locks on the room doors are the cheapest single-action locks available, with very easily duplicated keys. Unless and until the locks are upgraded on all the rooms, please avoid this place! Nothing much to recommend it anyway, rather claustrophobic compound and rooms, usual plumbing problems (no cistern cover or seat on toilet, basin waste pipe leaking etc). Can do very much better elsewhere for the same low price, and nearer to town also (e.g. Akana Lodge). Also the location map available online is incorrect. The hotel is several km further out of...

Nelly's Inn is situated in the middle of a quiet, wealthy area north of Dar es Salaam and is very reasonably priced. It consists of three houses in a beautiful leafy and flowered garden and so has a personal atmosphere. I found all the staff polite, efficient and helpful. The chef is really good too with a wide menu choice. Sitting on the veranda of the bar and restaurant feels like a tropical paradise. My room was clean, cool, and spacious with thick golden brocade curtains and African fabrics. The on-suite bathroom was adequate with a good water supply even when the rest of Dar was short of water. The location was convenient to use rickshaws from and meant that I could access all amenitie,s including perfect pizza and snorkleing trips, without having to hustle into the city centre. I will defintiely stay here every time...