The 12 best things to do on Zanzibar, and one we tell people to skip
Zanzibar is small, and it holds more than people expect. An old port town you can get lost in on purpose, a monkey that exists nowhere else on earth, a sandbank that surfaces for a few hours and then goes under again, and the beach you came for.
Twelve of them below, each with how long it takes, when to go, and what we think of it. And at the end, the one excursion that appears on almost every list online and that we will not arrange for you.
1. Getting lost in Stone Town
Stone Town has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000, and it was listed as a whole town rather than for any one building. The houses are built of coral stone, and the Omani, Indian, Persian and European influences sit on top of one another in the same street, in the carved wooden doors with their brass studs most of all.
It is also busy and chaotic, and people split two ways on it. Some have had enough after two hours. Others stay a day longer than they planned.
Practical. Half a day covers the old centre, a full day lets you stay for the evening market. The alleys are too narrow for cars, so you walk. Shoulders and knees covered, men included. Take a licensed guide, because the town is a maze and he will show you things you would walk straight past.
What we think. Go in without a plan, it is the one place on the island where being lost is the point. And stay a night rather than coming over for the day, because Forodhani Gardens only comes alive late in the afternoon, when the food stalls go up and the grilled fish and the Zanzibar pizza come out. Agree the price before anybody starts cooking, and pick a stall with a queue.
2. The former slave market and the Anglican cathedral
The cathedral was built from 1873 onwards on the site of the former slave market, the same year the sultan banned the export of slaves under British pressure. Next to it are two underground rooms where people were held before being sold, and in the ground outside stands a monument from 1998, five figures in chains, sunk in a pit so you look down at them.
Practical. One to two hours. A guide comes with the ticket, so you do not need to arrange one. There are men at the entrance offering to guide you for free who will expect payment afterwards. Walk past them to the ticket desk.
What we think. This is the heaviest hour of the trip and it is the one we would not skip. The guides here speak plainly and without decoration, and that is the right way to tell it.
One thing to know before you go. Estimates of how many people were traded through this coast vary enormously between historians, and you will sometimes hear a guide give the highest of them as a flat fact. What is established is more than enough.
3. The Old Fort and the House of Wonders
The Old Fort is the oldest building in Stone Town, Portuguese to begin with and rebuilt by the Omanis in 1699. It has been a garrison, a prison and a railway station building, and it is now a cultural centre with a courtyard, shops and an open-air amphitheatre. Sauti za Busara runs here in February and the ZIFF film festival in June.
Next to it stands the House of Wonders, built in 1883 and the first building in East Africa to have electric light and a lift. Part of it collapsed on Christmas Day in 2020 and two workers were killed.
Practical. The fort courtyard is free and half an hour is plenty. The House of Wonders is closed and wrapped in scaffolding. Restoration was about halfway through in early 2026 and there is no reopening date. The Palace Museum next door is closed too, with only a small exhibition open.
What we think. The fort is a good place to sit down in the shade in the middle of a Stone Town day. The House of Wonders you see from the outside, and that is all. Most of what you will read online about going inside it is years out of date, so adjust your expectations before you walk over rather than after.
4. Jozani Forest, and the monkey that lives nowhere else
Jozani is the only national park on Zanzibar, about 50 square kilometres, around 19 square miles, of forest and mangrove halfway out towards the east coast. It holds the red colobus, which exists on this island and nowhere else in the world, along with blue monkeys, Ader’s duiker and the galagos that come out after dark.
Practical. Open from about half past seven in the morning until five in the afternoon. Come before nine, when the monkeys are moving and it is still cool. An hour and a half to two hours covers it, including the boardwalk out over the mangroves. A guide is compulsory and there is one waiting at the entrance.
What we think. An hour is enough, and it is not a safari, so do not arrive expecting one. It fits neatly into a day on the east coast, and it works better with children than almost anything else on this list, because the monkeys come close and nothing is dangerous.
5. A spice tour among the clove trees
Zanzibar was once the largest clove exporter in the world, and you can still read that in the landscape. The plantations inland grow cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla, nutmeg, black pepper and turmeric, with jackfruit, mango and papaya coming up between them.
The guides hand you a leaf to smell before they tell you what it is, which is the right way round. Cinnamon turns out to be bark. Vanilla is an orchid, pollinated by hand, one flower at a time. Cloves are flower buds, picked before they open. After an hour your hands smell of four things at once and you cannot separate them again.
Practical. Half a day, usually in the morning, leaving from Stone Town or from where you are staying. You walk among the crops rather than looking at them from a path, you smell and taste as you go, and somebody cuts fruit for you at the end.
What we think. One of the best mornings of the whole trip, and the most variable thing on this list. Some tours take you to a working plantation and some take you to a garden planted for tour buses. The difference is the operator, not the price, and you cannot tell from the description which one you have booked.
6. Prison Island and the tortoises
An islet about 5 kilometres, roughly 3 miles, off Stone Town, twenty to thirty minutes in a boat. The name is misleading, because it was never used as a prison. It became a quarantine station instead, for yellow fever among other things.
What is there now are Aldabra giant tortoises. The oldest is reckoned to be a little over 190 years old, and you can read the number painted on her shell.
Practical. Half a day including the boat. Go in the morning, because the afternoon is busier and hotter. There is a small reef off the island if you want to snorkel while you are there.
What we think. We send people here with children and without them. A tortoise the size of a coffee table walking slowly towards a six-year-old does something to that child, and to the adults watching. The crossing is short and the island is small, which makes it an easy half day to put between two beach days.
7. Lunch on a sandbank
At low tide, strips of sand come up out of the sea offshore, stay for a few hours and go under again. Nakupenda, close to Stone Town, is the best known of them. Further to the southwest there is Safari Blue, which leaves from Fumba and makes a full day of it, sailing by dhow through Menai Bay with snorkelling, a sandbank, and lunch of fish caught that morning.
Practical. The timing is set by the tide, not by you, so it is usually confirmed only the day before. Half a day for Nakupenda, a full day for Safari Blue. Go early, because the middle of the day is when every boat arrives at once. Safari Blue is not suitable for children under five.
What we think. One of the best days available on this island. A dhow under sail, a reef to snorkel over, and the boatman grilling fish on the sand while you stand there. People talk to us about standing on a strip of sand in the middle of the sea years after they have been home.
8. Chumbe Island, the reef that was left alone
A small island southwest of Stone Town with one of the best preserved coral reefs in East Africa. It was set up in the 1990s as a privately managed marine park, one of the first anywhere, and no fishing has been allowed there since.
Practical. A full day, by boat. The number of day visitors is capped, and the trip depends on the weather, so book two to four days ahead rather than the night before. No diving, only snorkelling, because the reef is shallow. The boat, lunch and a guide are included.
What we think. The best snorkelling on the island, and an honest answer to the question of whether protection works. Thirty years without a net in the water, and what you swim over is what a reef is supposed to look like. If you want to dive, or want a bigger reef, go to Mnemba off the northeast coast instead, and read what we have written about diving and snorkelling before you choose.
9. A dhow at sunset
A dhow is the wooden sailing boat of this coast, with one triangular sail and a hull shape that has not needed changing in a very long time. Late in the afternoon they go out for a couple of hours.
Practical. Two to three hours, usually leaving around four or five in the afternoon. On the west and northwest coast, Stone Town, Nungwi and Kendwa, the sun goes down into the sea. On the east coast it does not, because there the sun comes up out of the sea instead, which is worth knowing before you book a sunset trip from the wrong side of the island.
What we think. Two hours on the water at the end of a day, with the sail above you and nothing to do. There are plain dhows and there are dhows with a bar and a speaker on board, and that is a matter of taste rather than quality. We prefer the quiet one, and a dhow with a drink in your hand is also a good evening.
10. Eating at The Rock
A restaurant standing on a rock in the sea off Michamvi Pingwe. At low tide you walk out to it. At high tide somebody comes to fetch you in a boat.
Practical. You have to book, and often weeks ahead. Booking is online with a small deposit that comes off the bill when you get there. Which time slot you are given depends on the tide rather than on what suits you. Allow two hours.
What we think. The menu is fairly simple and the location is the reason you go, and we would rather say that than pretend otherwise. Go for lunch at low tide if you want to walk out, or late in the afternoon if you would rather arrive by boat.
11. Kitesurfing at Paje
Paje, on the southeast coast, is one of the better kitesurfing spots in the world. A wide lagoon, water you can stand up in at half tide, and two wind seasons you can rely on.
Practical. The kusi, the southeast monsoon, blows from June to October and it is strong, which suits riders who already know what they are doing. The kaskazi, the northeast monsoon, blows from December to the middle of March and is lighter, which is the one to learn in. November has almost no wind at all. A beginner course runs three to four days.
What we think. Learn here rather than at home. Shallow water you can stand up in saves you a week of being dragged around, and the schools here teach beginners all day every day. And if you have no intention of kitesurfing, Paje on a windy afternoon is worth the drive just to sit and watch.
12. From one coast to the other
The coasts of Zanzibar differ more than people expect, in the water, in how busy they are and in what they feel like. Which beach suits whom, and where you can still swim at low tide, is a question of its own and we have written about the beaches separately.
What we think. If you are staying longer than five nights, split it and do two coasts. They are about an hour apart by road and they feel like two different islands.
And then there are Pemba and Mafia
Pemba and Mafia get mentioned in the same breath and they are not the same thing. Pemba is greener and quieter than Zanzibar and it is a diving destination of the first order, and it is a trip of its own rather than a day out. Mafia sits outside the mandatory Zanzibar insurance, which makes going there a separate decision rather than an extension, and one we are glad to talk through with you.
What we do not recommend, and why
Swimming with dolphins at Kizimkazi is on almost every list of things to do on this island. It is not on this one.
On an ordinary morning several boats converge on the same group of dolphins. Animals that are resting get moved on, and mothers with young get followed. That is a pursuit rather than an encounter, and we do not sell it, arrange it or send guests to it.
You can see dolphins here without any of that. Off Mnemba they come past the boat, and on the way to Chumbe they sometimes swim alongside for a while, because they decided to.
Which of the twelve fits your trip depends on where you are staying, when you are travelling and how many days you have. The tide decides The Rock, the sandbank and Chumbe, and not all of them can be fitted into the same week. Which coast suits which season is on our Zanzibar page.
We put guests on these trips every week, which is how we know which operators do the job properly and which ones have stopped bothering. We book them for you, so you are not standing on a beach negotiating with somebody holding a laminated card.
Safari njema.
Fourteen days, worked out day by day
Which of the twelve fit your week depends on the tide, the season and where you are sleeping, and that is the part we do for you.