THANDA ISLAND: A $10,000-A-NIGHT INDIAN OCEAN PARADISE IN TANZANIA

Opening in April 2016, Thanda Island is so remote and so well-assembled that it’s practically its own vacation nation. It is, first, an Indian Ocean island off the coast of Tanzania, about a forty-minute helicopter flight southeast of Dar es Salaam. At low tide it measures about twenty acres of forest and beach, and further insulates its guests in a cocoon of privacy by being in an aquatic Tanzanian game reserve.

The Thanda Island company, whose principals are Swedish entrepreneur Dan Olofsson and managing director Pierre Delvaux, are known for having developed the award-winning Thanda Private Game Reserve in South Africa. The island is the matching super-luxe offshore retreat, bookable year-round at $10,000 per night, with a minimum stay of a week.

You get a lot of bang for those bucks. The villa, a gracious Cape Cod-meets-the-Indian-Ocean-plantation house, sleeps ten in five suites, plus children. A further eight can sleep in two traditional banda-style bungalows. And then there’s staff, which includes the chef, and the housekeeping staff, childkeeping staff, and a couple of associates to assist with boating, picnicking, jet skis, and excursions to other islands. Thanda Island works as a stationary megayacht, minus the difficulties of a yacht. The Olofsson family books into the retreat as well, which is arguably the absolute best hostelry recommendation one could hope for.

“It’s absolutely private,” explains Delvaux. “You have the exclusive use of the property. Until I saw it from a plane window and we began this process of developing it ten years back, the place was uninhabited. We have a long-term lease on the island, and one of the things that we were able to negotiate was that for a kilometer around, no other boats but yours are allowed in those waters. You see all these megayachst around, but unless it’s yours and you want to drive right up to the island, nobody’s allowed to do that. And if you want to dive, well, there’s nothing like the wildlife there, the whole place is surrounded by a reef. The sand is white,” Delvaux adds. “It squeaks when you walk on it.”

Forbes