Welcome to Pakachere Backpackers Lodge. The number one hostel in Zomba, known for its beautiful location at the golf course, close to the centre.
We feel extremely lucky that cyclone Idai did not affect us badly. ‘Only’ 5 days of torrential rains in March; Zomba is safe, dry, the roads are fine and not flooded. Our thoughts are with the communities that are badly hit and we have been donating clothes, nets and money to emergency response organisations.
Rooms & rates
Have a look at our different room types. We offer bunk beds in dorms (16 beds), 2 private en-suite rooms, 2 private rooms with shared facilities, as well as tents! We also cater for groups. Please contact us for long-term accommodation (from end 2019).
FACILITIES
Have a drink in our relaxing garden, or come over for a nice meal in our restaurant. On Tuesdays Zomba's expat community comes up for a drink and a (special) meal! Our restaurant serves local & internationl food from 7AM till 8PM.
CREATIVE CENTRE
We work with local artists and women's groups who sell their products at Pakachere (from jam to pillow pets, tea boxes and coffee). We organise events & training courses in our meeting room and the space is available for meetings and studying.
ACTIVITIES
Ready for some action? Pakachere offers different kinds of trips & workshops. We also share our personal experiences of traveling around Malawi with links to nice places to stay in the country. Have a look and book your favourite!
QUIZ NIGHTS
We organise quiz nights every 2 months on Friday evening. Dr Mike makes 7 rounds of fairly difficult questions. Usually with a picture round, entertainment, sports, science & nature, and more. Teams of max 6 people; K2,000 per team (for charity). Start 7PM and usually finished by 10. Check our Facebook page for dates!.
YOGA
Yoga is good for mind & body. Sometimes we organise low-budget no-frills yoga events, like our Yogae & Pilates weekend 3-5 May 2019. We try to do yoga every Tuesday, but unfortunately our yoga teacher moved to Rwanda, so we use videos or share our favourite moves. We also have a short yoga weekend 18-19 May!!
MUSIC
We love music and we love to dance. Sometimes we invite DJs to play till late. In the dry season we organise garden parties with live music, food (barbecue & cakes) and drinks (cocktails and more). The garden parties are usually on Saturday or Sunday afternoon, and are child friendly. We also have the occasional karaoke night.
AND RELAX
Just chill! From karaoke to charity events and Paka Tuesday ; we like offering evening/weekend entertainment, but we are a lodge at the end of the day so your REST is important. More often we have NO events, so you can relax, have a good night sleep, play bawo, and enjoy our beautiful garden to get fit to explore Zomba Plateau.
Check our activities page for Paka’s subjective travel guide for Malawi with tips.
NEWS UPDATE
Cyclone Idai has affected us just a little with non-stop rain between 4-9 March. We have been very lucky that Zomba did not get flooded; we only had some material damage and nobody got hurt. Zomba is dry and safe, the roads are good and there is no reason to panic and no reason to avoid Zomba. Our thoughts are with the people further south, in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
