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  • Is Zanzibar safe? The question needs two more words

    Start with current advice and your own itinerary Before deciding whether a Zanzibar trip suits you, check current official travel advice and the arrangements for your own itinerary. This page covers questions about transport, water activities and booking terms; it does not provide an island-wide safety rating. Both are answers to a question that cannot…

  • Spice farms and village visits: who you are actually paying

    “Spice farm” is not a protected term Nobody licenses the phrase. It covers a working smallholding where a family grows cloves and cardamom and lets visitors walk through it; a demonstration garden planted for the purpose, where a dozen species are gathered within thirty metres for convenience; and several arrangements in between. All three are…

  • Zanzibar nature and wildlife: what is wild, and what is staged

    Plan wildlife visits in Zanzibar: questions for Jozani guides, dolphin-trip operators and turtle sites, covering viewing rules, inclusions and terms.

  • Stone Town: a place you walk, not a list you tick

    The mistake is treating it as an attraction list Stone Town, the old quarter of Zanzibar City and an inscribed UNESCO World Heritage site, is usually presented as five or six landmarks with a route drawn between them. Visitors follow the route, photograph the landmarks, and leave with the impression that they have seen a…

  • Where to eat in Zanzibar: the question is not which café, it is which kitchen

    The two words that ruin a week “Options available.” It appears on almost every Zanzibar hotel page and it is the least informative phrase in travel. It can mean a kitchen with a separate vegetarian section and a chef who understands why you are asking. It can also mean the same grill, the same oil,…

  • Zanzibar beaches: the tide decides more than the sand

    The same beach, twice a day A Zanzibar beach is not one place. On much of the island the sea withdraws a long way at low water and returns at high, and the beach in the photograph you booked from exists for part of the day rather than all of it. This is not a…

  • Can foreigners buy property in Zanzibar? What the law actually says

    The claim Ask this question online and almost every answer we found is “yes, easily” — and almost everyone answering is selling property in Zanzibar. We are not. So here is what the signed law itself says, with the schedule and page for every figure. The short version: the question is framed wrong. Zanzibar’s land…

  • Destination wedding in Zanzibar: what it really costs, and what you’re actually buying

    The comparison everyone makes, and why it is wrong Search for Zanzibar wedding costs and you will find the same framing repeated everywhere: book local and pay hundreds, book through an international agency and pay thousands. The implication is that the gap is markup, and that the fix is to cut out the foreign middleman.…

  • Nungwi, Zanzibar: an honest area guide

    Plan a Nungwi stay: compare beach access, accommodation locations, nearby activities and transfer arrangements, with questions to confirm before booking.

  • Paje, Zanzibar: an honest area guide

    What Paje is Paje is a kitesurfing village on Zanzibar’s south-east coast that also happens to have a very good beach. That order matters: if you arrive expecting a quiet swimming resort and find a lagoon full of kites, you have picked the wrong village — and if you came to learn to kite, there…