Dive Review of Blue World Diving, Kinasi Lodge/Kinasi Lodge in
Africa/Mafia Island, Tanzania

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Blue World Diving, Kinasi Lodge/Kinasi Lodge: "Beautiful place, but diving not the focus....", Nov, 2019, by Todd Arrants, TN, US ( Reviewer 5 reports with 1 Helpful vote). Report 11345.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We added 4 nights onto the back end of a 10 day Safari in Tanzania and Mafia Island is where we went and stayed at the Kinasi Lodge. First let me say, we loved this lodge. We had been on a pretty rigid schedule on the safari and landing on the island was like a vacation from the vacation. The safari was typically at altitude (up to 8,000') and Mafia is of course at sea level, so the change was significant. The resort was beautiful and the people were fantastic. However, the resort has a little more to go to get to the level they could be. While they had internet, it was available (for a small fee) only at the small, stuffy office. Nothing in the room or in the large and breezy bar/lounge area. And while we all can say "turn it off", sometimes in order to take trips like this you have to check in on occasion. They also need a few more options for fans in the rooms. There is only one fan and that is over the bed and it is so small that it must be run at "lift off" speed to move the air. But the rooms were very nice, the views were spectacular. I've always told my wife if I take a trip this far, there had to be diving involved in some form or fashion. So this add on was that concession. And I'm afraid what we saw did disappoint. At this resort, diving is an activity, but not the reason for being there nor really much of a focus. We had hoped to do 3 days of two tank dives and one whale shark excursion. We did 3 dives (most only did two) and the whale shark trip. There were several positives. We dove inside the bay, called Chole Bay. It was fairly shallow and visibility was not good. But the reefs seemed very healthy and were in great shape. The coral was fantastic and had no bleaching to speak of. We saw several large Grouper, a ray, and my first Napoleon wrasse! Some morays (very large) and lots of tropicals. But with visibility running around 15 to 20 feet, you just couldn't see much and could lose your group very quickly. The second dive was similar. Great corals. One other diver and myself did one more afternoon dive outside the bay along a small wall. The vis was much better, but unfortunately, there wasn't much to see. I think the potential here is good and I believe could have been better with a better operator. Again, they were all very nice and wanted to please, but that didn't really translate into better dives. We did get the answer "you know typically the vis is about 30 meters here. Not sure why it was this low". Since it was a very small operation, I asked when that type of vis would occur and if we could schedule a trip at that time. You know when the tides (which were large) would match up to good diving. We were very flexible. They just sort of shrugged and said "we can't guarantee that". I totally understand, but if they typically get 30 meters, they should know the conditions that allow those types of conditions if they truly exist. But the biggest problem was the equipment. Due to weight restrictions on the safari and the small planes, we could bring no gear with us. That's a first for me. So we rented everything as this is a PADI 5 star facility. So I felt confident they would meet certain standards. I was wrong. First of all, they had no computers for any of us. The dive leader/instructor had the only computer. I insisted on a dive computer as part of the package and he said, "just dive my profile, and you'll be fine. Besides, it is metric and you probably can't read it." I told him I could multiply by 3 pretty well and read a pressure gauge in BAR as well. I also remember in training to never dive someone else's profile. I finally got a computer. We jumped in and of course it did't work. Not only that, none of our depth gauges worked. So we really did dive his profile. The second dive he gave me his Cressi computer, but no-one else had anything. Oddly enough, that was the last dive any of the rest of the group did. I did learn my lesson, always throw in a computer even if they have "all the gear". However, the whale shark expedition did not disappoint. This was the beginning of their migration through the islands and there were several boats out looking for them. After about an hour of cruising around, we found them and got to swim along with them for a good 45 minutes or so. There were three of them, one young and two good size sharks, probably about 30 feet or so. That was fantastic and well worth it. Other actives that we very enjoyable were sunset sailing trip, a local village visit on one of the neighboring islands and a great snorkel trip to the south end of the island to swim at some old ruins of earlier civilizations. The snorkeling was very good. We had a beach cook out and then returned. All of the prices were reasonable. I'd like to go back. I think there is a lot to see, but the operator we were with either didn't think we were serious enough divers or it just didn't matter that much. Which is unfortunate. It is somewhat untouched and very uncrowded compared to Zanzibar just north of Mafia. It is undeveloped and incredibly beautiful. I was very pleased with pretty much everything in Tanzania. It is a great place to visit. And I look forward to returning in the future.
Websites	Blue World Diving, Kinasi Lodge Kinasi Lodge
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	USVI, Cozumel, Belize, Bonaire, Little Cayman, Brac, Key Largo, Kona, Fiji, Galapagos Islands.
Closest Airport	Dar es Salaam, Mafia Island	Getting There	Detroit to Amsterdam, to Tanzania. Pick up local hopper to Island.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	83-83°F / 28-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	15-25 Ft/ 5-8 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Follow dive master for reasons you will read.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	no
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	> 2
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	we did not bother with our camera (except with the whale shark), but they had no facility for someone if they had brought their camera.

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Dive Review of Blue World Diving, Kinasi Lodge/Kinasi Lodge in Africa/Mafia Island, Tanzania

Blue World Diving, Kinasi Lodge/Kinasi Lodge: "Beautiful place, but diving not the focus....", Nov, 2019,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Blue World Diving, Kinasi Lodge/Kinasi Lodge in
Africa/Mafia Island, Tanzania