Guides & tips

Plan your trip like a local

Honest answers to the questions travellers ask us most.

A pod of dolphins gliding through clear blue water beside a snorkeller in bright yellow fins

Swimming with dolphins in Zanzibar: read this before you book

Kizimkazi, Mnemba and the research from this exact coast. What the ratings say about cheap dolphin trips, what the science says about the boats, and the version that is defensible.

Read the guide →
Close-up of a red colobus with a white mane and dark face, chewing a leaf among green foliage

Jozani Forest and the red colobus: the only place on earth

Zanzibar's only national park holds a monkey that lives nowhere else. What the ninety-minute walk is really like, why the speed bumps matter, and the entrance-fee trap in the listings.

Read the guide →
Split-level photo: shoals of striped sergeant majors and bright blue surgeonfish in shallow turquoise water, a boat and a wooded island on the horizon above

Snorkelling at Mnemba: the island you are not allowed to land on

The best reef on Zanzibar rings a private island. What the eight-boat rule means for the trip you booked, what the conservation fee buys, and why the dolphin stop is the weak part of the day.

Read the guide →
Aerial view of a small white sandbank ringed by turquoise shallows, a wooden dhow with a blue canopy moored at its edge

Prison Island and Nakupenda: the island that never held a prisoner

Changuu's giant tortoises, the sandbank that only exists at low tide, and the entrance fee that half the listings leave out. What the boat day is really made of.

Read the guide →
Riders in helmets cheering with raised arms from four parked quad bikes in front of a pale stone gateway

Quad biking in Nungwi and Kendwa: village tracks, not dunes

The best-rated thing on Zanzibar with real review volume behind it is a quad circuit behind the north-coast beaches. What the terrain is really like, the licence question nobody raises, and why this category is thinner than it looks.

Read the guide →
Lioness walking straight towards the camera across dry, sun-bleached grassland

Safari from Zanzibar: Mikumi, Nyerere and the price nobody quotes

A mainland game drive and back in one day, by light aircraft. What it costs in reality, why the cheap end of the listings is not a safari at all, and when a day trip is the wrong choice.

Read the guide →
A guide in a white shirt talking to two visitors in a narrow alley, a weathered carved door behind them

Stone Town on foot: what a guide adds, and what is closed

Three hours in the alleys of a UNESCO town. Which buildings you can still go into, the one on every postcard that you cannot, and the dress rule that carries a real fine.

Read the guide →
A green turtle seen from directly above, gliding through clear shallow water over pale coral rubble, its shell marked in brown and amber

Swimming with turtles at Kizimkazi: what you are actually booking

Salaam Cave is a pool, not the open sea, and the feed is in the price. The difference between the three turtle places on Zanzibar, and the questions to ask before you book one.

Read the guide →
View across Stone Town's flat roofs and rooftop terraces, whitewashed walls and rusted iron, the sea beyond

What to see in Zanzibar: an honest map of the island

Stone Town, Jozani, the sandbanks and the mainland safaris – what is worth the drive, what is closed, and how far apart it all really is.

Read the guide →
Cloves, vanilla pods, nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon bark and lemongrass laid out on a weathered wooden table, two cups of coffee beside them, the sea behind

The Zanzibar spice farm tour: what it is, and what it is not

The cheapest excursion on the island, and the one most often misunderstood. What an hour on a working smallholding actually gives you, why the clove trade has collapsed, and where the real plantations are.

Read the guide →

Zanzibar tours from €14.55 · available today

Check availability