NAAMA House Review: Where to Stay in São Tomé and Principe
When planning my trip to São Tomé, I wanted an environment that balanced daily city life with a coastal flare. Luckily, there are bed and breakfast lodges located all over the island that offer either experience.
While visiting the Chocolate islands, I split my stay between the city center, and a smaller nearby fishing village in Santana. While São Tomé island is compact compared to other island nations, the roads deteriorate as you head south, making frequent travel tedious. These factors lead me to split my stay between the city center and Santana.
Santana is a small fishing town just east of São Tomé city with a population of roughly 11,000 people. Santana caught my eye because of the gorgeous views of the waterfront and the proximity to the local fishing community.
Booking NAAMA House: Logistics & Transportation in São Tomé
I booked NAAMA house, hosted by Yves, through Airbnb for the platform’s security and review transparency. The main draw for NAAMA house was the architecture: an entire wall of floor-to-ceiling glass windows facing the ocean, fitted with flowing drapes to cover. Paired with the glowing reviews about the hosts’ home cooked meals and stood out since I had no plans of renting a car and knew there were no local restaurants within walking distance.
Yves offers car rentals, but since my goal was to stay put and explore nearby, I opted out and arranged a round-trip transportation service from the airport instead for 25 Euros. His team met me at arrivals, stopped so I could pick up an e-SIM at CST, and brought me to the villa.
NAAMA House Property Tour: Room layout & Amenities
NAAMA house is a single-level flat containing a dining area, kitchen, one-bedroom, and an en-suite bathroom with an outdoor shower.
The Living Space & Bedroom: A bamboo sliding door. In the bedroom, there’s a full size bed draped with a mosquito net, and two chairs facing the floor to ceiling windows with uninterrupted views of the ocean.
The Bathroom: The indoor toilet is paired with an outdoor soaking tub and standing shower. While the wall facing the ocean is made of clear glass, privacy wasn’t an issue since there were no establishments up ahead, just some rock formations and the ocean.
The kitchen: Equipped with basic amenities like a stove, small fridge, cutlery and utensils. If you plan to cook, I’d recommend bringing condiments and seasonings.
NAAMA House Highlights
- NAAMA house offers guests an expansive ocean front view. The very first thing you’ll see (and hear) is the blue crashing waves outside. Its a beautiful way to wake up and there are plenty of loungers in the house where you could do just that, all day.
- Yves’s wife prepares the most delicious meals for Lunch and Dinner. Although it will almost always be some variation of fish, I was happily fed throughout my stay.
- NAAMA house is locally owned. So you can enjoy your stay knowing that you’re supporting the community rather than flowing into an international operator.
- This house is located within a fishing village. So, if you’d like to speak with the locals and learn more about them, you can take a few steps outside of the property and meet the community.
Experiencing local life in Santana, São Tomé
During my stay, I wanted to visit the beach. Every morning I’d see men standing on the rocks below and fishing within the tide pools, so I thought it would be a bright idea to visit the area. I walked outside, had my translator in hand, and asked the locals if they could point me in the direction of the beach. This is when I met Gui. He lived in the village with his family while attending the police academy. Although we didn’t speak the same language, we were able to communicate with Google Translate while he led me on a walk to the beach. He knew everyone in the community, so naturally when we passed by, folks would ask him who I was.
Along our walk, we meet kids throwing stones in hopes to hit a mango, women cooking outside, and men socializing. After visiting the beach, we ran into some kids who had fresh palm wine. He offered me a bottle-cap full and let’s just say it wouldn’t be my first drink of choice. I cherish experiences like these because of the kindness I was shown and the genuine interactions I had. If I spoke Portuguese, this would have been an even more fulfilling experience.
Honest Challenges of Staying at NAAMA House
- São Tomé runs on a regional rationing schedule, so outages were to be expected more regularly rather than being an uncommon flux. While at NAAMA house, I experienced an outage that lasted ~15 minutes until the generator for the property kicked in.
- Although the property has amazing ocean-front views, the glass walls were not triple panned, so you can hear the crashing waves at all hours of the day. As a light sleeper, I only found this distracting at night.
- If there’s food present, the ants will find it. The properties review on airbnb mentioned ants, but I didn’t expect the reality to be so extreme. I expected at most 5 ants at a time, but it felt like hundreds. If there’s even a crumb left on the table, you’ll wake up to drives of ants which are very hard to get rid of. By the time I left, I had ants in my handbag, in my purse, and crawling all over my luggage.
- There’s no cleaning services provided during the stay. For the price I paid, it would have been nice to have turn down services to empty the garbage and make the bed. This may have also helped with the ant problem.
- During my last night, a critter got in and left me restless. Its nails were very loud as it ran up and down across the cement floor. When I woke, it left droppings on the floor, table, and even the mosquito net above the bed. When I told Yves, he mentioned he was aware of this happening occasionally, but I would have preferred a more proactive response like setting up traps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
- Lastly, the breakfast offered is very light for the price that is charged, ~15 euros. It comes with bread, butter, fruit, a smoothie, and a fried egg. Because I don’t eat eggs, I asked for a sausage alternative.
Is NAAMA House Worth The Stay?
I am grateful for my stay at NAAMA house. I got the opportunity to enjoy stunning views of the ocean and connected with some of the amazing people in the local community. Despite my shy nature, I pushed myself to not just travel to a new location but to go deeper and connect with the people living besides me. It’s an experience that I’ll never forget. However, at it’s current price point, NAAMA house misses the mark on cleanliness and service. Between the pest issues and lack of proactive management, I would be hesitant to return to NAAMA House or book other properties under the same host.
Planning a trip to the capital next? Check out my review of Sweet Guest House in São Tomé city coming up next.
