This week’s travel dream: Escape to Mafia Island

The crowds can keep Zanzibar, said Brendan Spiegel in The New York Times. About 80 miles down Tanzania’s coast lies an island with its own white-sand beaches but a far more soothing atmosphere. “Mafia Island is hardly a tourist hot spot,” as it draws only a few thousand visitors annually. It also offers “few of the high-end accoutrements that draw hordes of honeymooners to other Indian Ocean isles.” But after staying in Zanzibar recently and getting turned off by its overdeveloped coast and “omnipresent beachside hawkers,” my girlfriend and I were thrilled to find our way to a beach getaway of simpler charms.

Mafia has already developed “a small but passionate following” among travelers who enjoy spending some of their time underwater. The large marine preserve off its coast “offers some of the most magnificent diving and snorkeling in the region, perhaps the world.” The preserve is home to giant sea turtles, 400 species of fish, and even a few dugongs—a nearly extinct relative of the manatee. Ras Mbisi Lodge offered guests a chance to swim with whale sharks, but I often chose to spend my time “reading alone on the beach with nothing in sight but coconut trees and an endless expanse of aquamarine water.” The only interruptions were when I was summoned for meals—usually “centered around the catch of the day.” Electricity and hot water were spotty in my room, but that’s a fair trade-off for such tranquillity.

The island’s official commitment to limiting tourism’s effects “isn’t just talk.” No big, international hotel chains operate on the island, and the two dozen or so lodges and guesthouses hire only locals. In 2010, organizers of a large international music festival were forced to refund tickets after island officials decided to block it. Word is getting out, though: The number of international tourists was up 300 percent in 2010 from four years earlier. The question now is “whether Mafia can maintain its laid-back milieu and dedication to conservation if its popularity continues to grow.”

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Doubles at Ras Mbisi Lodge (mafiaislandtz.com) start at $280 a night, meals included.