One of the most romantic hotels in Africa, 236 Hurumzi offers an immersion into the heady exoticism traditionally associated with Zanzibar. There's no pool, and the rooms lack modern conveniences like phones; instead, your unit is filled with original Zanzibar antiques, and you sleep in a regal bed draped with mosquito nets, piled with richly embroidered pillows, and scattered with jasmine flowers. Each of the 16 rooms is unique: The gigantic Ballroom has a wood-carved balcony running its length; the Keep Suite has its own tea house in a turret on the roof. Breakfast, included in the price, is served buffet-style in the rooftop restaurant, accompanied by stunning views of the Indian Ocean. A six-room annex at 240 Hurumzi, added in 2008, offers the same opulent sultan's style but with shared kitchen facilities—perfect for anyone looking to try their hand at grilling up a fresh catch from the market.

Closed in May.

Escape from traffic, phones, TV, and e-mail on idyllic Chumbe Island. Guests retreat from civilization in palm-thatched bungalows right by the ocean, though this isn't exactly roughing it: Bathrooms have hot and cold water, and the rooms are decorated with African fabrics, traditional art, and hand-carved furniture. The eco-friendly accommodations use solar power, organic soap, and filtered rainwater. At night, dine under a palm-thatched roof, next door to the small mosque built for the lighthouse keepers nearly 100 years ago. The price includes boat transfers to the island from the beach of the Mbweni Ruins Hotel, as well as full board, plus guided nature walks and snorkeling excursions on the Reef Sanctuary.

A renovated 180-room hotel across the street from the Indian Ocean, the Kili, as locals call it, is a modernist beauty that dates to the mid-sixties, when the newly independent country was full of optimism. Socialist economic fumbling followed, and the property eventually shut down for a decade. Happily, Kempinski has given the Kili a strong sense of place, with a stone facade, rooms that use the same bright colors you'll find in the local markets, and amenities including satellite TV and a big pool. The first-rate Asian restaurant instantly became the hottest table in town, and whether you need tickets on a flight to Zanzibar or want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the concierge is fast and reliable.

The annual wildebeest migration streams past this camp. Raised tents named for local animals utilize natural stone, thatch, and muted savanna colors and overlook acacia groves, hills, and plains. "The only thing tentish about them is that the top and sides are canvas": Inside are four-poster beds, mahogany-paneled bathrooms, and marble hand basins. "One evening, a jennet cat came into ours." The restaurant offers hot English breakfasts and dinners with roasts, homemade sorbets, and local cheese boards, all served by "gracious and efficient staff."

(25 tents)

A favorite haunt of stars and supermodels, this private island is astronomically expensive—and one of the most romantic places on earth. The resort offers just ten secluded beachside bandas, or cottages, roofed with hand-woven palm matting. Each features a spacious veranda, a huge bed with intricate Zanzibar-style carved wood, and a covered walkway leading to a separate bathroom. Guests feast on fresh fruit, fish, and lobsters. By day, they can laze on the beach, get a massage, or explore the reef around the island, which teems with 600 species of fish, ghost crabs, and green turtles. The price includes all meals, drinks, scuba diving, snorkeling, and kayaking.

Set on the eastern edge of the Serengeti, this "unique lodge" affords "spectacular views" of the Big Five and wildebeests moving along the Ngorongoro Crater floor below. It's divided into three camps of suites that are luxury versions of mud-and-thatch huts, complete with chandeliers, silk curtains, and floor-to-ceiling windows. Pan-African meals in the domed dining room are "first-class and very intimate."

(30 suites)

This 19th-century Zanzibar country house was once the residence of Princess Salome, the offspring of a sultan and a concubine, and is now leased to the House of Wonders travel company by the royal family of Al Buseid. Exotically furnished with local antiques, colonial furniture, Persian carpets, and Arab tiles, the manor is surrounded by 18 acres of walled private orchards and verdant tropical gardens overflowing with bougainvillea. The four enormous bedrooms have four-poster beds with mosquito nets. Ask for the lovely Princess Salome room, which has nine double windows overlooking the ocean. Breakfast is included; lunch and dinner are available by request.

This camp in rocky outcrops by the Grumeti River is "a peerless fusion of adventure and luxury that melds into the surroundings," and one where elephants and hippos are just yards away. "Out-of-this-world service" includes guards who walk you to and from your tent after dark. Tents have African batik fabrics, overstuffed leather chairs, and "a very inviting wraparound veranda" with wooden chairs. The menu at the restaurant mixes international cuisine and African specialty dishes; "the soups are fabulous."

(20 rooms)

American billionaire Paul Tudor Jones II has established three splendid lodgings—Sasakwa, Sabora, and Faru Faru—within his 340,000-acre tract adjoining Serengeti National Park. Sasakwa Lodge, the most sumptuous, comprises seven suites styled as colonial manor houses, with fireplaces, claw-foot tubs, a wraparound veranda, a plunge pool, and Wi-Fi. Between game drives, guests can smoke complimentary Cuban cigars at the main lodge's bar, take tea in the garden sunroom, shoot billiards on a nineteenth-century table, and make free satellite phone calls; other diversions include an archery range and a stable of horses for gallops alongside the herds. On an open plain, Sabora has six tents furnished with antiques from an English lord's East African campaign and two 1930s Chevy touring cars. Faru Faru's six tents sit in wooded country by the Grumeti River.

The Serena, Stone Town's most luxurious hotel, is right on the waterfront. The cool white rooms have traditionally carved furniture, with louvered doors that open onto wrought-iron balconies. Such details as carved staircases, lavishly embroidered rugs, and heavy brass-studded doors make the Serena resemble a sultan's palace—but one with modern conveniences (rooms have satellite TV, phone, and Internet access). Relax in the Persian bath-style pool, get a massage in your room, or have the attentive staff arrange a sightseeing tour for you. The hotel's excellent seafood restaurant serves guests on an open-air terrace; downstairs, the equally romantic Baharia restaurant is constructed so that waves lap within inches of the windows. As you eat, you'll see lateen-sailed dhows drift lazily by.