The best things to do in Zanzibar are walking Stone Town, eating at the Forodhani night market, snorkelling Mnemba Atoll and tracking red colobus in Jozani. Give the island 5 to 7 days, come between June and October, and split the trip: two nights in Stone Town, the rest on a beach. Which beach depends on the tide you want.
Zanzibar by Dhow
Zanzibar is an archipelago off the Tanzanian coast that traded with Arabia, Persia and India for a thousand years, and it shows in the doors, the food and the language. Below are the ten experiences worth your time (each mapped, with a Wimup video guide), plus the ferry, the festivals and the tide tables to plan around.
Stone Town went on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2000 as the best surviving example of a Swahili trading town, and it is still a working one. The lanes are too narrow for cars, which is the point: you find the carved doors, the coral-rag walls and the courtyards by getting lost. Start at the seafront and work inland before the afternoon heat.
Street food· Forodhani Gardens, Mizingani Road, Stone Town
The seafront gardens turn into a grill yard at dusk. Zanzibar pizza, mishkaki skewers, urojo and sugarcane juice pressed at the stall, all of it eaten standing up with the dhows behind you. Order what is cooked in front of you rather than the seafood platters that have been sitting out under a lamp.
Marine· Mnemba Atoll, off Matemwe, north-east Unguja
The atoll is a marine conservation area, and the reef around it is the reason most people who dive in Zanzibar dive here: coral gardens, big visibility and resident bottlenose dolphins. Boats leave from Matemwe and Kiwengwa. The island itself is a private lodge, so you swim the reef rather than land on it.
Track red colobus in Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park
Nature· Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park, Central Unguja
The only national park on Unguja, and the only place on earth with wild Zanzibar red colobus. The troops near the road are used to people and let you stand close. Entry includes a park ranger, and the mangrove boardwalk on the far side of the road is the half of the visit most day tours skip.
Christ Church Cathedral went up from 1873 on the site of East Africa’s largest slave market, and it was built to make a point: the altar stands where the whipping post stood. Two holding chambers survive under the neighbouring building. It is the hardest hour in Stone Town and the one that explains the rest of it.
Changuu was bought as a prison and used as a quarantine station instead, so the cells never held anyone. What draws the boats now is the sanctuary of Aldabra giant tortoises, brought from the Seychelles a century ago, some of them well past 150 years old. Twenty minutes out by boat, with a reef to snorkel on the way back.
TimeHalf day
CostBoat plus sanctuary fee
Best atMorning
TipAgree the boat price before you leave the jetty
Built by Omani Arabs around 1700 against the Portuguese, the Old Fort has since been a garrison, a prison and a railway depot. The walls now hold an open-air amphitheatre, craft stalls and galleries, and it is free to walk in. In February the same courtyard becomes the main stage of Sauti za Busara.
Zanzibar was the world’s leading clove producer in the nineteenth century, and the farms inland from Stone Town still grow cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla and ylang-ylang. A good tour is a walk with someone who scrapes, crushes and hands you each one. Wear closed shoes, the ground is red mud after rain.
Time3 hrs
CostTour fee
Best atMorning
TipBook through your hotel rather than at the roadside
Paje is the kitesurfing capital of the island: a shallow lagoon inside the reef, flat water and a wind that runs reliably in two seasons. At low tide the sea walks out several hundred metres and the village goes out with it to farm seaweed. Both halves of that are worth watching.
The northern tip escapes most of the tidal swing that empties the east coast, so this is where you can swim at any hour. Nungwi is the busy one and still builds dhows on the sand at the far end of the beach. Kendwa, twenty minutes down the coast, is quieter and faces the sunset.
Five to seven days is the useful minimum: two nights in Stone Town for the old town, the cathedral and Forodhani, then three or four on a beach with a day for Jozani and a day on the water. Three days covers Stone Town and one beach and nothing else.
What is the best time of year to visit Zanzibar?+
June to October is the long dry season, cooler and the most reliable stretch of the year. December to February is hot, dry and busy over the holidays. The long rains run from mid-March to May, when many east-coast hotels close, and short rains fall in November.
Which part of the island should you stay on?+
The north tip (Nungwi and Kendwa) if you want to swim at any hour, because it escapes most of the tidal swing. The south-east (Paje and Jambiani) for kitesurfing, lower prices and enormous sand flats at low tide. Stone Town for the history, and it is worth two nights wherever else you go.
Do you need a visa for Zanzibar?+
Zanzibar uses Tanzania’s visa system, so the requirement is the same as for the mainland and most visitors need one. Check the current rules and apply through the official Tanzanian immigration service before you travel rather than assuming a visa on arrival. Arriving from a yellow fever country also means carrying the certificate.
How should you dress in Zanzibar?+
The islands are overwhelmingly Muslim, and away from the resort beaches that matters. Cover shoulders and knees in Stone Town and in the villages, keep swimwear to the beach, and expect daytime kitchens to be closed during Ramadan.
Where to swim
Best beaches in Zanzibar
Eight beaches, sorted by the thing that actually decides it: the tide.
The sultan’s ceremonial palace, first building in Zanzibar with electricity and a lift. Part of it collapsed in 2020 and it is closed for restoration, so this is an exterior for now.
A public holiday marking the 1964 revolution. Banks and government offices close; parades in Stone Town.
Feb
Sauti za Busara
Four days of live African music in the courtyard of the Old Fort, and the biggest date in the island’s calendar.
Feb–Mar
Ramadan
A month of daylight fasting. Many local kitchens close until sunset and Forodhani starts late. Dates move roughly eleven days earlier each year.
Mar
Eid al-Fitr
The end of Ramadan, and the biggest family holiday of the year. Expect closures, full ferries and packed beaches for several days.
26 Apr
Union Day
The national holiday marking the 1964 union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. A public holiday across the country.
May
Eid al-Hajj
Eid al-Adha, the second Eid. Another multi-day holiday with the same closures, moving earlier each year with the lunar calendar.
Jun
Zanzibar International Film Festival
The Festival of the Dhow Countries, screening film from across the Indian Ocean world, with the Old Fort as its main venue.
Jul
Mwaka Kogwa
The Shirazi new year at Makunduchi in the south: mock stick fights, a burning hut, singing and four days of feasting.
Getting around
Zanzibar transport & airports
How to arrive and move around the city.
ZNZ
Abeid Amani Karume International
The island’s international gateway, about 6 km south of Stone Town. Terminal 3 handles international flights and Terminal 2 covers domestic plus some international routes. There is no bus or rail link, so it is a taxi or a hotel transfer from arrivals.
Azam Marine and Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries run the crossing from Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar’s Malindi port several times a day, in roughly two hours. Book ahead around Eid and school holidays.
Shared minibuses and converted trucks run fixed routes out of Darajani to every corner of Unguja. They are the cheapest way to cross the island and the slowest, and they stop when they are full rather than when they are due.
No meters anywhere, so agree the fare before you get in. Most people reach the east coast on a hotel transfer, about an hour from Stone Town; the north tip takes a little longer.
Traditional food
Must-try dishes in Zanzibar, Tanzania
The classics to order before you leave.
Urojo
The Zanzibar mix: a tangy mango-and-turmeric soup loaded with potato, bhajia, crisps and chilli. The island in one bowl.
Pweza wa nazi
Octopus slow-cooked in spiced coconut milk until it gives. The dish to order at Lukmaan.
Zanzibar pizza
Not a pizza. Thin dough folded around minced meat, egg, onion and cheese, then fried flat on a griddle at Forodhani.
Mishkaki
Charcoal-grilled beef or chicken skewers, marinated hard and sold from street grills after dark.
Pilau
Rice cooked in broth with cloves, cardamom and cinnamon, usually with goat or beef. The celebration dish.
Biryani
The Indian-trader inheritance: layered spiced rice with goat or fish, served on Fridays and at weddings.
Samaki wa kupaka
Whole fish grilled, then painted with a thick coconut and tamarind sauce and returned to the fire.
Mandazi
Lightly sweet coconut doughnuts, eaten at breakfast with spiced tea.
Zanzibar fact sheet
Zanzibar at a glance
The essentials worth knowing before you go.
Country
Tanzania
Region
Zanzibar Archipelago
Population
1.9M (2022 census)
Founded
Stone Town, 1830s
Nickname
The Spice Islands
Language
Swahili, English
Currency
Tanzanian shilling (TZS)
Time zone
EAT · UTC+3
Calling code
+255 24
Airports
ZNZ
Power
230V · Type D/G
Emergency
112
Interesting facts
Zanzibar keeps its own president, parliament and immigration desk inside the United Republic of Tanzania, so arriving from the mainland still means showing a passport.
Stone Town was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2000 as the best surviving example of a Swahili trading town on the East African coast.
The Anglo-Zanzibar War of 27 August 1896 was over in under 45 minutes, and is the shortest war on record.
Zanzibar was the world’s leading clove producer in the nineteenth century, which is where the Spice Islands name comes from.
Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara in Stone Town in 1946, a few streets back from the seafront.
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