For a long time we’ve had the dream to live in a warm climate and a white sandy beach and do something different. With two babies and a high demanding construction business running in the Netherlands, it seemed impossible to do. Nonetheless we took out the world map and started dreaming.

 

After some deliberations on potential locations we chose Tanzania for our next destination to travel to in 2016. Our journey started in Zanzibar to relax and slow down a bit. After a week we travelled to the mainland Tanzania to visit available plots along the east coast. After some weeks driving around, we turned to each other saying; “It’s beautiful here, but I want to go back to Zanzibar”. We both felt the same and so we left our rental car, booked a small boat, and returned to Zanzibar, a perfect combination between African roots and western comforts.

In 2018, we travelled to Zanzibar once more to find a piece of land to realise our dreams on, and found it! We were lucky to get this beautiful beachfront plot in Bwejuu. We stayed in Zanzibar for 3 months in order to start our company and get all the paperwork as ready as we could. After going back to the Netherlands we worked hard on arranging everything for our big move to Zanzibar.

 

By the time we arrived in Zanzibar to start our project in 2019 our kids were 2 and 4 years old.

Optimistically we started our 2 year building project. In these 2 years we integrated as much as we could, made good friends, our kids settled in school and we made this island our new home. In October 2021 we proudly opened our little piece of paradise “Kijani Beach Villas”.

Experiencing many highs and lows and with endless support of our loved ones, we ended up with a beautiful place that reflects our vision, our wishes and our souls.

It is and will be an ongoing project, never done completely. We are working hard to become as ‘green’ as we can; to be more and more conscious about our waste and our place in the ecosystem. We are currently working on installing 96 solar panels so we are less reliant on the main grid. The next project will be installing a water filter system that allows us to convert salt water into sweet water, relieving the pressure on the island's resources even more.

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We are aware that we are not there yet, nor will we ever be perfect (if that even exists!).

Our dream to build something on Zanzibar was born out of our need for more balance in life: balance between what is and what we want, between what we need and what others (nature) needs.

 

Want to know more about us or our story? Do not hesitate to ask us!

We are so happy that you are here!