Structure
Sold as three nights of lying down, which is a waste of an island
Stone Town is a World Heritage Site with a history it does not hide. The forest holds a primate found nowhere else. The reef is genuinely good. A resort perimeter is very effective at keeping all of it at a distance.
Assembly
Four questions that decide a Zanzibar trip
None of them is which hotel has the best photographs, which is where most of the planning time goes.
After a safari
It attaches in half a day, it is a separate immigration formality, and the transition from dawn starts to sunloungers is more abrupt than people expect.
How to join them
Stone Town
The part most people skip and most regret skipping. Coral-stone alleys, a spice market, and a history of trade in cloves and in people.
Why give it a night
Beyond the beach
A primate found nowhere else, a reef that is properly good, spice farms, dhows — and one excursion we would rather you did not book.
What else is here
Which traveller
Honeymooners, families, divers, kitesurfers and people who came for the town. Each points at a different coast.
Find yourselfThe thing nobody mentions
On much of the east coast, the sea goes away
The tidal range here is large. At low water the sea can retreat several hundred metres, leaving a shallow reef flat you can walk out across — which is genuinely interesting, and is not swimming.
A hotel photograph is taken at high tide. It tells you nothing about the six hours either side of it, and for a honeymoon or a family week that is the difference between the holiday you booked and the one you get.
It is entirely manageable once you know: the north coast is barely affected, and on the east you plan the swimming around the water rather than the other way round. Nobody tells people beforehand, which is the only real problem with it.
- North coast — Nungwi and Kendwa — swimmable all day
- East and south-east — large tides, and seaweed farming in the shallows
- Most hotels publish a tide table; ask for it before booking
- A pool matters more on the east coast than on the north
Free download
Assembling Zanzibar
The structural questions — nights, coast, Stone Town, and what the brochures leave out about the tide.
- An island with a beach, not a beach with an island
- How many nights it actually wants
- Attaching it to a safari
- Stone Town, and why to give it a night
- Beyond the beach
- Which coast for which traveller
- What the brochures leave out
- When to go, and when not to
No cost, no obligation. We ask for an email so we can send it and, if you want it, follow up once.
Before you ask
Questions about fitting it in
How many nights should we give Zanzibar?
Six or seven is the version most people should book: a beach week with a night in Stone Town. Four or five works well as a straightforward beach add-on.
Three nights at the end of a fortnight is the commonest mistake — you arrive tired and leave before the island registers as anywhere in particular.
Is it easy to get there from a safari?
Yes. Zanzibar has an international airport with short hops from the Tanzanian safari circuits and from Nairobi, and the move takes half a day rather than most of one.
It is a separate immigration formality from mainland Tanzania, which surprises people who assume it is domestic. It is quick.
Is Stone Town worth a night?
Yes, and it is the part of the island most people skip and most regret skipping. It also solves the abrupt transition from dawn starts and open vehicles to a sunlounger.
It is a working town rather than a preserved one, it is hot, and modest dress outside the hotels is expected and appreciated. The former slave market site and its memorial are a serious hour and not a sightseeing stop.
When should we avoid?
The long rains, broadly around April and May, when some hotels close entirely. There is a shorter rainy period later in the year that disrupts far less.
Otherwise the choice is between a hotter, calmer monsoon and a cooler, windier one. The windy months are the kitesurfing months and the calm ones are the diving months, which is a trade rather than a ranking.
Who actually arranges my safari?
This site is a planning guide. When you send an enquiry it goes to Nomad Africa, our partner travel agency in Kenya, who prepare your itinerary and quote and handle the booking, the payments and you on the ground.
You deal with one team from the first email to the airport transfer home.
Start planning
Tell us what the rest of the trip looks like
Zanzibar is almost always the second half of something, and how it should be assembled depends entirely on what the first half was.
Our Zanzibar specialist replies within 24 hours with how the island fits, which coast suits you, and an itemised price.
- The coast chosen for how you actually want to spend the days
- Tide and season stated plainly rather than left for you to discover
- Stone Town included or not, deliberately
- No deposit to see a plan, and no obligation at any point
Who answers
Nomad Africa, our partner travel agency in Nairobi, builds and prices every itinerary we send. You deal with one team, on the ground, for the whole trip.
Founded in 2017 as East Africa’s only dedicated travel magazine, Nomad still publishes — so the people planning your trip are the ones who write about these places for a living.
Get your tailored itinerary and quote
Our Zanzibar specialist replies within 24 hours with a costed plan built around your dates.
More from our Zanzibar guides
Specialist guides across our Zanzibar network
Each of these is a focused guide we publish. Same Zanzibar specialist behind every enquiry.