Where is Zanzibar?

Zanzibar lies in the Indian Ocean, about 25 to 35 kilometres off the east coast of Tanzania, in East Africa. The main island sits at 6 degrees south and 39 degrees east, just below the equator.

Between the island and the mainland runs the Zanzibar Channel, about 120 kilometres long and 29 to 37 kilometres wide. The exact distance depends on where you measure from, which is why every source quotes a different number.

Which islands are Zanzibar, and which are not

The Zanzibar archipelago is made up of two large islands and a great many small ones.

Unguja is the island everyone calls Zanzibar. It holds Stone Town, the airport and the beaches you see in the photos. When someone says they are going to Zanzibar, they mean Unguja.

Pemba lies about fifty to sixty kilometres further north. Greener, hillier, far fewer visitors, and underwater, steep walls counted among the best dive sites in East Africa.

Around them lie smaller islands, of which only Tumbatu and Uzi are inhabited. Others you may know are Changuu, which everyone calls Prison Island, and Chumbe with its protected coral reef.

Is Mafia part of Zanzibar

This is the question almost every travel site gets wrong, and getting it wrong costs you money.

Geographically, some sources count Mafia as part of the archipelago. It lies in the same ocean, off the same coast.

Administratively, Mafia is not part of Zanzibar. It falls under the Pwani region on the Tanzanian mainland. The semi-autonomous government of Zanzibar governs only Unguja and Pemba.

Why that matters: the mandatory Zanzibar insurance covers Unguja and Pemba, not Mafia. Going to Mafia for the whale sharks, you need the mainland insurance and not the Zanzibar one. Going to Pemba, the Zanzibar rules apply.

How big Zanzibar is

Two figures do the rounds here, and it is worth explaining why.

Unguja is given as 1,554 square kilometres in one place and 1,666 in another. We use 1,554 km², because that is what follows from the 2022 Tanzanian census. The higher figure turns up in travel sources with no stated origin and does not match the official numbers.

The island is about 85 kilometres long from north to south and 30 kilometres wide at its widest point. The highest point stands at 195 metres.

How many people live there

According to the 2022 Tanzanian census, 1,889,773 people live on Zanzibar. Of those, just over 1.3 million live on Unguja and just over half a million on Pemba.

You will often read "about 1.3 million inhabitants". That is the figure for Unguja alone, not for Zanzibar.

Zanzibar City is the capital, with about 219,000 inhabitants. Stone Town is not the capital, it is the historic heart of Zanzibar City, home to some 20,000 people. The much larger modern part is called Ng'ambo.

Zanzibar belongs to Tanzania, and governs itself

On 26 April 1964 Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined together. On 29 October of the same year the country took its current name, a blend of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

Zanzibar has been semi-autonomous ever since. In practice that means:

1. Its own president, alongside the president of Tanzania, with its own elections
2. Its own parliament, the Zanzibar House of Representatives
3. Its own laws, its own budget, its own healthcare, education and tourism policy

What the Union handles, and Zanzibar therefore does not: foreign affairs, defence, citizenship, customs, aviation and a number of taxes.

For you as a traveller, one thing matters: you need one Tanzanian visa, valid for the mainland and for Zanzibar. There is no separate Zanzibar visa. And you need one mandatory insurance, from the place where you land first. See visa and mandatory insurance for Zanzibar.

Keep your passport with you on the travel day, even if you are coming from the mainland. On arrival in Zanzibar you go past the desk, even after a domestic flight from the Serengeti or Kilimanjaro. That catches out guests who have left their passport in the lodge safe.

Language

On Zanzibar people speak Swahili, Arabic and English.

What few people know: the Swahili taken as standard on the mainland is based on the Zanzibari dialect Kiunguja. So the Swahili you hear across East Africa comes from this island.

About 95 percent of the population is Muslim.

How far it is from home

Zanzibar has no daylight saving time. The difference shifts twice a year not because Tanzania changes anything, but because Europe and North America put their clocks forward and back.

And from the Tanzanian safari parks

That is why safari and beach work so well together. You stand in the Serengeti in the morning and lie by the sea the same afternoon.

From the Serengeti to the beach

On this map, the distance between a safari park and the Indian Ocean is shorter than people expect. That is why nearly all our trips end by the sea. Our fourteen-day journey through Tanzania finishes with five nights on Zanzibar, worked out day by day, with the guide price per season.

View our itineraries