Name: Makaira Lodge
Address: Praia Campanha Santo Antonio, Principe Island, Principe Island, Principe Island, 0, Sao Tome and Principe
Rating: 9

Smoke-free property

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Principe Island Airport

Makaira Lodge

Principe Island

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This is our sixth visit to Príncipe but our first to Makaira Lodge. We wish we had stayed here sooner! Marie and Fred serve up the best food in Príncipe without any doubt! The tents are very romantic and right on the beach. The atmosphere here is pure Príncipe. The view is breathtaking every day and we could have stayed here forever, really! The staff always have a nice smile and I wish I was still there right now! Thank you to everyone there!

Pure paradise

Makaira Lodge is a great place to stay, or visit. lovely staff, great snorkeling at a beautiful beach.
owners extremely kind and friendly.
Food and drinks at reasonable prices.
for me, best place in Principe island.

paradise

It was for me quite an amount of money to gather in order to stay in this place during 3 nights. But I can tell you, that it was a lot more worth the money that any other place I have been in São Tomé & Principe, and not once I regretted. The new managers Marie & Fred are there since Oct. 1st. 
As there are only 5 tents, they make every guest feel unique. The food is taking the best of 2 worlds: fresh organic local products, combined with the French delicate and generous cuisine.
The place has a laidback atmosphere. You are free to come & go (lifts and travels to town or the airport are for free; kayaks are available; there’s so much to see around on foot), you don’t feel like in some sort of resort full of tourists.
Fred is dedicated to renovate and improve the lodge, he & Marie welcome feedbacks and are super professional. 
From what I have seen around, this is by far my favorite place in Príncipe!

AM-A-ZING

Very nice place that can seem a little expensive at first, but transfer from and to the airport and a 3 course dinner is included in the price, as well as breakfast. 
The dinners were prepared from fresh catched fish/seafood and very tasty indeed. Activities were offered but needed to be ordered a day in advance. However if you want to be more spontaneous talk to Pedro and he can arrange something with the locals. The only minus is that they seldom respond to questions asked by e-mail. Overall this place is highly recommendable!

Great place!

The rooms are luxury safari tents with comfortable beds and good if slightly small showers.
The location is amazing is unbelievable. A stretch of white sand fringed with palm trees and no one on it. Exactly what everyone’s idea of a desert island beach should be. So far so good.....
The staff are pretty pleasant but other than the managers don’t really speak English. As I don’t speak Portuguese I’m not in a position to complain about this but it can lead to problems.
We were in half board so I can’t comment about other reviewers comments about the price. The food itself was fine but nothing special.
The wine though was a massive let down. The prices were about double those on Bom Bom which was irritating in itself. Then most of the wines weren’t available. When we finally found a wine that was available, it was undrinkable. It was a vinho verde which, as the name suggests, needs to be drunk young. This was from 2011 and was flat and oxidised. The next night we had a red cE30 which appeared to have been boiled.
Whilst the beach was amazing, the staff didn’t come up with any ideas for any excursions. Fortunately, we were exhausted from climbing Parrot Mountain so didn’t mind not doing anything but others could get bored.
It would be really easy to make this a wonderful lodge but as it is at the moment, it isn’t. 

Great location but they need to pull their socks uo

This resort currently consists of a handful of tents directly on the beach. Do not think of igloo tents but of very spacious ones with private bathroom. In terms of comfort they have more than enough. Single occupation including breakfast and dinner costed 170euro/night. It might seem high but for Principe where most commodities come from Lisbon via Sao Tome this is a rather good price.
There are also lunch, snacks and drinks available at very reasonable prices. Breakfast was good but not abundant and dinner was three course mostly well-cooked French cuisine. There was almost no choice but this is inevitable for such a small resort.
The main shortcoming is the that the beach of Makaira lodge is at the mouth of a small river and consequently the water is not very transparent and the sand a bit muddy. It’s OK to spend a day but not more. It certainly does not worth the effort to come to Principe and only see this beach. Banana, Macaca and Boi are the three most beautiful beaches and are all east of Macaira, one after the other (with Boi the most remote and most beautiful). Access to these beaches from Macaira requires quite some effort and perseverance. The managers (a French couple previously working in a resort in Gabon) arrived at Principe with their small yacht a couple of months ago and didn’t have the time to thoroughly explore it. They try to help finding the means to access the beaches but there is no standard process in place. Strangely, their small yacht is not used to get the resort guests to the beautiful beaches.
Additionally, the bill included also a funny surprise 15 euro surcharge for the Xmas dinner (which was the less good of all dinners I had in Macaira) as well as 3 euros for the nice juice I was offered when I arrived (which I thought it was a welcome drink). Considering that the accommodation bill was 850 euros these additional and unforeseen charges show lack of professional hospitality. I was already skeptical concerning access to the nice beaches and this was the tipping point that made me consider that Makaira is not a particularly good accommodation option.

A HONEST REVIEW: Very comfortable tents directly on a rather average beach – Lukewarm hospitality

Stopped off for lunch as walking along the north of island- 2 Toasted cheese sandwiches and three drinks +Euros 30!

Incidentally - none of your reviewers have commented on the little village at the West end of the beach where the lodge is - this is Principe reality - the local population live in huts, with the family pigs running around in the rubbish piled up at the edge of the village that joins the beach.

Makaira Lodge

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