As I hang out in another beach town in a very different part of the world, I realize it’s now or never to get a post out on Zanzibar. We visited Stone Town, Jambiani Beach, Jozani Forest, and Nungwi Beach during our week in Zanzibar. We visited this gorgeous Tanzanian island in October of 2024.
Stone Town
Stone Town is the oldest part of Zanzibar City and the former capital of the Zanzibar Sultanate. When Zanzibar and Tanganyika joined together to make present day Tanzania, Zanzibar kept a semi-autonomous status with Stone Town as its local government center. Stone Town got its name from the use of coral stone as the primary building material. Stone town is full of small, intertwined alleys, making navigation challenging without trusty google maps. Bicycles and motorbikes cruise through these streets that are too narrow for cars.
Stone Town’s intricately carved wooden doors, many with brass studs on them are well known. These beautiful doors can be very elaborate, especially if the family of that home was wealthy. There’s even one on the original home of Freddy Mercury.
We joined a free walking tour and while the actual sights weren’t that exciting, we really enjoyed hearing about the history of Zanzibar. It’s nice walking around a new city with a guide to get a sense of the city and how to get around.
Visiting the Darajani Market with a guide was great since he explained what was sold there and we could look at products without vendors hassling us. When we returned on our own, they did hassle us rather intensely trying to get us to buy stuff. A section of the market is filled with locals selling freshly caught fish. Next door the fresh fruit and vegetables are on display and lots of spices out for sale.
The Old Fort (also known as The Arab Fort) is the oldest building in Stone Town. It was built by Omani Arabs in 1699 after they pushed out the Portuguese who had been controlling the area.
The Old Dispensary was built in 1894 originally as a charity hospital but was later converted to a dispensary.
During the tour, we stopped outside the old slave market but didn’t go in. We had hoped to return and visit the museum here. If we hadn’t been so worn out from the last 2 weeks in Tanzania, I think we would have fit it in. The Anglican cathedral of Christ Church is right next to the museum. The church was built at the end of the 19th century where the biggest slave market in Zanzibar had existed. The location was chosen to celebrate the end of slavery.
We walked around the nightly food market at Forodhani Gardens to try out some local cuisine. This small, seafront food market is right next to the Old Fort. There are many different food stalls, but only a handful of different types of food. We checked out the local “pizza” by visiting Mr. Mango. Zanzibar pizza is layers of dough piled on top of each other and various items inside. The menu had all sorts of options: various meats, veggies, or even sweets fried between the thin layers of dough. We also had a couple somosas and some pressed sugarcane juice.
Jambiani Beach
Jambiani Beach is quiet, relaxing, and has gorgeous teal water. This beach is on the east side of the island of Zanzibar. We splurged on a beachfront room in a small resort, which was still a very reasonable price around $125 per night. We stayed at the Cinnamon Hotel which had a restaurant and pool as well as beachfront rooms.
The tide in Jamibani Beach is very dramatic. The ocean came up to the steps of our room at high tide and went way out so you could hardly see the ocean anymore at low tide. The downside of the area is that lots of debris is left on the beach at low tide. This including sticks and seaweed but also some garbage. I recommend wearing shoes if walking far on the sand unless you want to diligently watch where you are stepping the whole time. I wasn’t paying attention and I struck a sharp piece of wood peaking out of the sand, taking a small chuck out of my foot. Ouch!
At low tide, dozens of local women walk far out onto the exposed floor bed to work. The area is used for growing seaweed and natural sponges. These grow on lines strung between sticks poking out of the ocean floor and then harvested for sale.
While I mostly found the beach here relaxing, the main thing that I didn’t enjoy was frequently being approached by the Masai sellers. Some Masai people come to the island to sell souvenirs to tourists to make a living. Every time one of them sees you, he (they are mostly men) will try to start a conversation with you. It always starts off like they just want to chat and be friendly. They hope this will make you feel like you should look at the items they are selling and buy something. I understand needing to make a living, but it would be nice to be able to go for a quiet uninterrupted walk. There are lots of these people selling stuff, so it’s a bit tiring being bothered so often.
There is a great pizza place right on the beach close to the Cinnamon Hotel named Bahari Pizza Restaurant. It was super relaxing and had really good and affordable pizza. You can even sit at a table out on the sand with a nice ocean view. The only negative is that the Masai trying to sell things will talk to you over the fence if you sit too close to it and it can be hard to dissuade them from continuing to talk to you.
We also walked to a local restaurant named Scuola Restaurant in the small town. It had a nice relaxed vibe, was quick service, and the vegetable curry was cheap and quite good.
Jozani Forest
Located between Stone Town and Jambiani Beach is Jozani Forest. This national park is well worth a visit. We walked through the quiet forest and saw so many monkeys!. Zanzibar is the only place in the world that has Red Colobus monkeys. They and the Blue Sykes monkeys are all over in this forest. These two species get along well and even play together.
A favorite moment of our visit to Jozani Forest was when a young red colobus monkey ran down a branch near some tourists. He then proceeded to violently shake the brach with all his energy before running back up the tree. Trying to scare us off or just play with us maybe?
We even spotted a timid elephant shrew hiding in the forest!
I recommend getting to Jozani Forest early and taking the first tour in the morning when less people are there and the temperature is cooler.
Nungwi Beach
Nungwi Beach has incredible clear water and almost white sand. This gorgeous beach is on the northern tip of Zanzibar. The tide isn’t as dramatic as on the east coast but it is still significant. The area has lots of hotels built up on stilts above the sand over the beaches. When the tide is in, the water fills in the space below the hotels. There are many restaurants, souvenir shops, and taxis a short walk from the beach.
On the beaches in Nungwi there were Masai men trying to sell items to the tourists like in Jambiani. There were also a bunch of other people trying to sell tours. There were more sellers to bombard you on the beach here then in Jambiani Beach, but luckily there are also more people for them to be busy with. It’s easiest to avoid them by being in the water or within a restaurant.
The beaches here have way more people on them than in Jambiani Beach. So while the water and sand are prettier here, you need to share it with many more people.
Mnemba Snorkeling and Sandbar Tour
The only tour we took while in Nungwi Beach was the Mnemba snorkeling tour. This tour was to start with looking for dolphins and trying to snorkel around them. Next it would go to a snorkeling are to see colorful fish. It ends with a trip to a popular sand bar.
Our tour wasn’t well executed. There was no explanation ahead of time of how it works. The guides didn’t hand out their snorkeling masks until we were already out in the ocean. Once passed out, it was discovered that a couple masks and snorkels were in poor condition, but they didn’t have any more. So unfortunately a couple people had to deal with leaky, damaged snorkel gear.
I had mixed feelings about the trying to see/swim with dolphins part of the tour. The boats would race to the dolphins, pretty much encircle them with some boats occasionally cutting off the dolphins path. This of course made the dolphins dive down to escape. It makes no sense because once the dolphins dive down it is hard to spot them and follow them. I did have a good view of the dolphins and manage to swim along with them on one try. If you spot them below you and are able to swim fast enough to keep up with them, then when they decide to come up you may get a good view.
The snorkeling was extremely underwhelming. It was in a tiny area. There were a decent amount of fish, but not much area to swim around. There were so many people in the same spot that it was hard not to run into people or get kicked by another snorkeler’s fin.
The sandbar was nice but also almost comically crowded. It was nice to just sit on the white sand peaking out of the shallow aqua water around you. The water really is an incredible color. Just be prepared for tons of people all around you. If you really try, you can still get a pic without anyone in it to make people think you have it to yourself.
This was the end of our time in Zanzibar. After our 8 day Safari in Tanzania and Swimming with Whale Sharks in Mafia Island, relaxing on white sand beaches and cooling off in gorgeous teal water was a fabulous end to our time in Tanzania. Time to head home.
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