Welcome to Jannah, the latest hospitality project of Kenyan designer-hotelier Anna Trzebinski, who has incorporated old village buildings and outdoor spaces into one innovative “constellation hotel” – located in the former fishing village of Shela, on the Island of Lamu.
Jannah—now the highest building on the skyline—features Gaudí-esque curved windows and a vertiginous staircase tower, which connects the bedrooms to the penthouse and communal roof terrace. The Swahili-chic décor is punctuated with touches of glamour, and terraces overlook the wooden dhows on the bay—three of which are at the disposal of Jannah guests.
Jannah owns a canopied and cushioned barge, for languid day trips to distant dunes and islands, morning swims through the mangrove inlets where turtles like to surface, or shopping trips to vibrant Lamu Town just along the coast. The facility also features four lovingly restored traditional wooden boats.
This hotel’s name translates from the Arabic word for “paradise” and aims to offer a particularly different experience to visitors, as a bohemian hot spot for shedding stress – the pleasantly familiar sounds of children kicking around a football, the calls to prayer, the village elders steering activities, and donkeys drinking from stone basins at the hotel’s bougainvillea-cloaked entrance.
Anna plans for this Constellation Hotel and its offshoots to have a significant social impact on the village, and for visitors to benefit from this magical, deeply traditional place.
