It was a family house before it was anything else

The land at Okun-Ajah belonged to Tunde's grandfather, who built one concrete house on it in 1974 and planted the palms that now shade the path. For thirty years it was where the family went at Christmas and nowhere else. The boathouse leaked. The generator was a rumour. Everybody loved it.

In 2016, when Timeless Beach Resort & Hotel opened ten minutes down the shore, guests kept asking the same question at the front desk: is there anywhere smaller? Somewhere with a door that locks and no one in the corridor? We had the answer sitting empty for eleven months of the year.

So we rebuilt it slowly. The original house became Baobab Villa. The boathouse got a new roof and a staircase and became the Superior Room. Four new cottages went up along the palm path, each one placed so that you cannot see into another. We opened with three cottages in 2019 and stopped at six in 2023, which is where we intend to stay.

Haven is run by ten people. Adaeze handles reservations and will almost certainly be the person who answers when you write. Tunde is on the property most days. Bisola cooks. Emeka runs the boat and fixes anything that breaks, which at the coast is a full-time position. The rest of the team have been with us since the first season, and that is the reason this works.