I flew to Harare this weekend to shoot a wedding, and we stayed in the most awesome B&B I’ve come across in Harare.
I’ve had some really rotten experiences when flying to Harare for weddings, so this time I insisted on staying at Casa Kadiki. The lodge, which is in Chisipite in Harare, was a referral from my family who stay in Harare… referrals always win in my books, especially after this experience!
Casa Kadiki was amazing to stay at. The owner, Mike, was so friendly, and everyone made us feel so comfortable. Lerika (my second photographer for the weekend) and I stayed in a twin room with a gorgeous newly done en-suite bathroom with corner bath and a huge shower in the house (some of the rooms are in the main house, and then there’s also a seperate cottage with a few rooms too). It was impeccably furnished with such comfy beds… perfect after a 10 hour wedding on our feet! The heater in the room made the world of difference, because it was much colder than we expected, and neither of us had packed properly for the trip!
Oh and then there was the food… even though we arrived later than expected on Friday afternoon, Annamarie organised dinner for us… and we spent the rest of the afternoon drinking tea on the patio overlooking the amazing gardens and reading our Kindles. You would never know it was winter in their garden. The breakfasts were fabulous… Lerika declared the joghurt to be the best she’d ever tasted, and I had a fruit salad and a proper fry-up before we headed off for our long day.
On Sunday, instead of getting the bridal party to give us lifts to the airport, we chose to use the lodge’s shuttle service… and the driver kindly stopped at the stone market for us to buy a few goodies for the family. It was so well worth the money we spent on the shuttle, just so we could at least experience a bit of the tourism industry before heading back home. More about that in another post.
There’s no point talking about it without showing you right ๐ so I took a few photos on Sunday morning after breakfast. I should’ve taken more actually, they don’t really show everything, and I would’ve loved to show you the room we stayed in, but by then it was all messy ๐
If I do another Harare wedding, I’m definitely staying there again… Casa Kadiki isย now on my list of non-negotiables! It’ll be one less source of travelling stress for me.
Disclaimer: I was not asked to blog about this lodge, I’ve had terrible experiences at B&B’s in Harare before this one… so my Casa Kadiki experience needs a little sharing.
It looks gorgeous! I could go and stay there for 3 – 4 days just reading and walking those grounds.
PS it’s a good idea to have in your policies what is part of your expectations. When I still organised clients’ offices and travelled, I had a rule – no air travel on One Time (I hated One Time) and must be a nice B&B/ hotel approved by me. Nothing terribly fancy but CLEAN. There’s nothing worse than being expected to PERFORM after having a terrible travel experience because you’ve got to just suck it up and do your thing.
I do have policies on travel… I need to vett all the bookings before they’re made. You cannot tell from the photos on the websites how dire the place really is though!
Sounds like a lovely place to stay. Will definitely check it out if I’m ever in Zim again!
Oh my that looks, and sounds, amazing!!! True ‘Rhodesian’ hospitality ๐ Would love to wander round the garden – I need new ideas
That looks and sounds lovely Jeanette!
Personal referrals are the best.