Zanzibar: Heaven Is a Hotel

As the sun sets across the rusting roofs of Stone Town, the cry of the local muezzin merges with the chimes from a Hindu temple and drifts skyward. The brilliant-hued canopy above me flaps lazily in the evening breeze that blows in from the Indian Ocean. I'm dining in the roofless rooftop restaurant of the Emerson & Green hotel on Zanzibar, the semiautonomous island off Tanzania and one of the most romantic spots on the planet. Once the opulent palace of a wealthy Swahili trader, the hotel has just 10 rooms, but each one is exquisite: the North room features...