Zanzibar🇹🇿

Written By Dolly Oyebadejo

February 2022.

Notes

  • Visa

    • At the time we traveled in February 2022, US Passport holders needed a visa. (I’m not sure if this is still true.) We got our visas from iVisa.com. Rather easy, affordable, and quick.

  • Dressing:

    • Zanzibar’s population is predominantly Muslim. While staying in the touristy beach towns (Nungwi, Paje, Jambiani, etc.) you can dress as you would normally for a beach vacation. But while in Stone Town, dress MODESTLY. Avoid short dresses, short shorts, spaghetti straps, etc. Don’t need to have long sleeve shirts and full length skirts/pants, but just more modest.

  • Although you’re in Africa, there are a lot of white people. You’ll see a lot of white tourists, mostly europeans. So if you’re hoping for a blackity-back experience, this ain’t it. Also a lot of the white european tourists are unfriendly and will stare at you.

  • The tide changes greatly during the day,

  • We split our stay between Nungwi and Stone Town. I recommend doing the same to not only get 2 different experiences, but it also helps with commuting to different activities.

  • Recommend hiring a driver or staying at a villa that provides a driver. Makes getting around the island so much easier. Stone Town is walkable though, so you don’t need a driver.

  • Here's a link to my google doc that contians all the information in this post, which may be easier to reference.

  • Also, Justine made a vlog of our trip. So check it out, if you would like to see some more visuals and hear more of her thoughts on the trip.

 
 

Activities

As you can see below, sites are spread across the island, so it’s easier if you group them based on location, especially when planning out your itinerary. So I already grouped them below based on location.

 
 

  • Paje (4)

    • Beach 

    • Maasai men

  • Jambiani (3)

    • Kuza Cave

      • Ancient limestone jungle cave with fresh water you can swim in

Kuza Cave

  • Nungwi (5)

    • Baraka Natural Aquarium

      • “Swim” with turtles ($10-20)

    • Zanzibar Horse Club

      • Horse riding on the beach.

      • Can’t be during low tide. Closed on Sunday.

    • Maasai Men 

    • Z Hotel Sky Spa

Baraka Natural Aquarium

  • Stone Town (10-15 mins from airport) (2)

    • Darajani Market (food)

    • Former Slave Market

      • Very solemn experience. You have the opportunity to enter into the actual former slave quarters.

    • Walking Tour – staff at any hotel can help you arrange it

      • walking tour will take you to Darajani Market, Slave Market, and other places.

    • Sunset at Africa House Hotel restaurant 

    • Art/souvenirs 

    • Spa

    • Park Hyatt 

Walking tour of Stone Town

Darajani Market on private walking tour

Darajani Market

  • Prison/Changu island tour— catch ferry from stone town

    • Tortoise, prison/slave port 

    • Snorkeling

  • Kendwa Rocks Beach (6)

    • Beach party every Saturday

    • Snorkel

  • Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park

  • The Rock Restaurant

    • Restaurant on top of rock, surrounded by water. More information below under “Restaurants”, but it is still worth visiting even if you don’t plan on eating.

  • Buda Spice Farm (7)

  • Kizimbani Spice Farm

Coconut palms at Kizimbani Spice Farm

Spice Farm

Spice Farm

  • Cheetah Rock (8)

    • See and feed animals

  • Mnemba Island (10)

    • Catch a boat from Nungwi Beach to Mnemba Island, which is uninhabited. You cannot actually get onto the island.

    • Coral reef snorkeling  in beautiful crystal blue water. Usually can see dolphins on the boat ride to island.

boat ride to Mnemba Island

offshore of Mnemba Island

  • Safari on Tanzania mainland

    • Several different companies offer safari tours on different parts of Tanzania and provide transportation to the mainland.

    • Saadani National Park

      • The tour we did.

      • HOWEVER, I DO NOT recommend this one. The boat they take you on to get from Zanzibar island  across the Zanzibar Channel to mainland Tanzania is NOT SAFE. Boat is too small for that rough water. Actually very frightening. BUT we survived, so book at your own risk.

      • We also did not get to see many animals, but that could be related to the time of year we visited.

Saadani National Park

Restaurants 

Most of the meals were just okay, and most cocktails were pretty bad. You’ll also won’t really find many breakfast places. But do highly recommend trying chapati.

  • The Rock Restaurant (9) in Pingwe

    • A MUST visit. The iconic restaurant on a rock, surrounded by water. 

    • Best photos/views if you go during high tide, so ask locals when high tide will be, and make a reservation for then.

    • During low tide, you can walk right from the beach to the restaurant. During high tide, they have a boat that takes you the short distance to the restaurant.

    • Food was pretty good actually.

The Rock Restaurant

The Rock Restaurant

Mama Mia

Z Hotel Sexy Fish

  • Stone Town

    • Lukman restaurant 

      • Local restaurant, with a large selection of food on display for you to choose from.

      • Only DELICIOUS meal we had while in Zanzibar. 

      • Love yourself, get the chapati!

    •  Sunset Bar at Africa House Hotel

      • Go at Sunset

      • Drinks are not great. But views are remarkable. 

    • Floating Restaurant 

    • Dolphin Restaurant 

      • Pretty good seafood

Accommodations

  • AirBNB Villa in Kidoti

    • ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! Stunning large pool and lounge areas. Highly recommend

    • Comes with a private driver, chef, and the host will help you plan and arrange bookings.

    • We weren’t a great fan of the chef’s cooking.

AirBNB Villa

Our villa’s private pool

the villa’s grounds were beautiful

very kind staff; the chef surprised me with a birthday spread, but completely misspelled my name lol

another beautiful surprise set up by the staff

Villa was beautifully decorated with local art

  • Stone Town: Tembo Hotel

    • Beautiful hotel. Traditional architecture. Has a great buffet breakfast.

    • I wanted a completely different feel from our villa, and I didn’t want something that looked like any other hotel somewhere else in the world. So I chose Tembo Hotel because of its architecture and design, and good reviews.

    • Room: Family Room w/ balcony + sea view

loved the design of the shower in our room

Tembo Hotel

Tembo Hotel

Itinerary 

can use our itinerary as an example for your trip planning

Mon 01/31

  • Flight out of ATL at 7: 10 PM

Wed 2/2

  • Land in Zanzibar at 7:10 AM

  • Kendwa Beach

  • Snorkeling at Mnemba Island

  • Dinner @ Mama Mia

Thur 2/3 

Fri 2/4

  1. Breakfast at AirBNB

  2. Chill morning of swimming

  3. Baraka Natural Aquarium - swim with turtles

  4. Zanzibar Horse Club - horse riding 

  5. Dinner @ Sexy Fish at the Z Hotel

Sat 2/5

  • Breakfast at AirBNB

  • Paje + Jambiani

    • Jozani National Park

    • Kuza Cave/Voodoo Cave

    • Dhow boat ride 

  • Lunch @ The Rock Restaurant in Pingwe

  • Kendwa Rocks beach party

Sun 2/6

  • Breakfast at AirBNB

  • Check into Stone town hotel

  • Stone Town Walking Tour

  • Dinner @ Sunset Bar – Africa House Hotel

Mon 2/7

  • Breakfast at hotel

  • Kizimbani Spice Farm Tour

  • Cheetah Rock

  • Prison island, changu island Half-day Tour

  • Spa

Dolly Oyebadejo
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