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Zanzibar
Feb 5 - Feb 26, 2006
 7 slideshows
 1 blog
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Back to Africa Prev: Tanzania Next: South Africa |
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Overview:
The archipelago half of Tanzania
(the country was formed and named by uniting mainland Tanganyika and islands of Zanzibar),
the 3 largest islands of Zanzibar are Zanzibar (also called Unguja), Pemba and Mafia islands
(off the northeast coast of mainland Tanzania);
for simplicity, I treated mainland Tanzania separately on its own page. Zanzibar's population is just under 1 million, or roughly 3% of Tanzania. We spent 2 weeks on Zanzibar: 3 nights in Stone Town (the oldest part of Zanzibar Town) and 9 nights on the beach in little Kendwa in the northwest corner of the island (after having spent 1 week on safari in northern mainland Tanzania). Even the name Zanzibar conjures up exotic images! The name comes from the Arabic Zinj el-Barr (Land of the Blacks). It's a conservative, Muslim society, with heavy Arabic and Indian influences (on architecture and food, amongst other things). Scroll down for the stories, or skip directly to a section: Airport Arrival, Stown Town, Spice Tour, Kendwa Beach, Stown Town II, Airport Departure, Tips Quickly expand or collapse all sections below, which contain additional information. |
Tanzanian Shilling (TZS) TZS 1 = US$ 0.00083 US$ 1 = TZS 1,200 check current rates Telephone: +255 Time Zone: GMT+3:00 no daylight savings |
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 Map is copyright Lonely Planet Note that Kendwa is slightly misplaced on the map: it should be on the northwest coast |
See Lonely Planet's site for more info |
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Satellite Photo:
See this satellite map
with pushpins and then zoom in at least once. |
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Airport Arrival:
Our 1 hour flight from Moshi/Arusha/Mt Kili on mainland Tanzania on the local airline
Precision Air
was uneventful. We grabbed a taxi from the airport taxi stand for the short ride
into town, following the coast and then the water's edge through town.
Even though we had told our driver which hotel we wanted to go to, he kept pointing out all the big hotels
along the way, and even stopped in front of one, asking if we wanted to take a look (we declined). |
Zanzibar Kisauni Intl Airport (ZNZ) is 10 min southwest of downtown Zanzibar Town Taxi: TZS 10,000 |
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Stone Town:
This is the oldest part of Zanzibar Town in the northwest corner of the city, surrounded by ocean on 3 sides.
It's also a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
With narrow cobblestone alleys, it reminded me of a dirtier version
of the town centres in some very old European cities. |
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We stayed at the
Warere Town House,
a small family run hotel in a dodgy looking area near the port
(in the Malindi neighbourhood, the northeast corner of Stone Town). Additional details:
this hotel and our room. |
US$30/room inc. breakfast |
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It was very hot and humid. Very humid. Much more humid than Moshi (on the mainland) had been.
Just before sunset, we set out to walk to a nearby restaurant,
but Susan felt very, very uncomfortable walking by the traffic circle at the port entrance
(50m from our hotel), as there were lots of "scruffy" guys hanging around doing nothing.
The fact that they were local Muslims and we were the only tourists around didn't help either
(the guidebook warns about dangers, especially in isolated areas).
After a brief retreat to the hotel and regaining her composure, we set out again without incident. |
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We ate dinner at the touristy waterfront Mercury's resto, which is named in honour of singer Freddie Mercury
of the rock band "Queen," who was born nearby. We had a nice sunset, though no camera due to personal safety fears.
Kids played soccer and swam on the "beach" next door, and a live band played at 20:30.
We took a taxi home even though we were only 250m away from the hotel, as you aren't supposed to walk around
at night. |
Dinner: TZS 25,000 inc. drinks Taxi: TZS 2,000, 1 minute |
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For our dinner the second night, we ventured through the waterfront Forodhani Gardens night market,
but settled on a resto in the Shangani neighbourhood, which is the dense northwest corner of Stone Town. Additional details:
our second evening out. |
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The morning before our afternoon taxi to Kendwa Beach:
After breakfast we left our backpacks in the hotel office and walked around Stone Town
to run errands and shop on Gizenga St; and we enjoyed a nice lunch with a waterside view. Additional details:
that errand-filled morning. |
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Stone Town
(inc. views from airplane, hotels, Gizenga St, town beaches, taarab orchestra) |
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 Spice Tour:
At 9:30 one morning we took the informative Mr. Mitu's Spice Tour
(recommended both by our hotel and Lonely Planet); their office (in Stone Town) was just around the corner
(our hotel receptionist led us via a shortcut through the alleyways).
There were 2 minivans, each stuffed with 12 tourists, plus a guide and a driver.
Susan and I ended up sharing the front bench, with only one seatbelt, as we were the last to arrive.We made a brief stop outside the main market so that the guide could buy fresh food for lunch, and we could buy water if needed. Then we drove 20 minutes northeast into the centre of the island to a few plantations, including government-owned ones, and one with now-unused Persian baths that had been built for a sultan's wife (to say nothing of the 5 squat toilet rooms in a row just outside the baths). At the first plantation, a knowledgeable local botanist, who also spoke English well, joined us for the tour. He gave us lots of information (kept me busy writing notes!) as well as the occasional "scratch and sniff" stop, where he would cut off a fruit, spice, branch or leaf with his pocket knife. On occasion he would put his knife in the split end of a branch so that he could cut something higher up. He also let us taste a few things. |
US$10 pp inc. lunch |
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Sitting on mats under a shade roof at a plantation, we ate a tasty lunch of fish in sauce, rice,
"spinach" (actually cooked tapioca leaves), chiapati and banana.
After lunch we were able to buy some water and sodas at a roadside shop.Then we drove to Mangapwani on the coast to visit the slave caves, which are actually stone huts that are 90% underground so that they are very hard to see from a distance. There was a long informative sign about the slave trade, which the British helped to end. Then we had our first warm ocean water swim at a nearby beach, complete with a local selling nice cold sodas and beers from a cooler! We did not return to Stone Town until almost 16:30, which was a long day without toilets! Spice Tour
(inc. spices, fruits, slave cave and beach) Additional details:
the spices, fruits and plants. |
Water: TZS 600 Cold soda: TZS 250 (if we left the bottle for its deposit value) Soda on the beach: TZS 2,000 |
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Kendwa Beach:
We had arranged the taxi through our hotel (actually we thought the clerk was going to drive us
for a better rate).
Kendwa Beach is near the northwest-most tip of the island.
The road was paved for the first half of the hour journey, and then became a dirt road;
the final 2km from the road to the beach, past a small village, was very rutted and almost required 4WD.
Shortly before arrival, our taxi driver said he was paid TZS 15,000 and asked how much we paid the hotel;
we didn't tell him, but gave him a good tip.
We had bargained the hotel's taxi price down US$50 to TZS 30,000 (US$25).There are in fact share taxis between Stone Town and beach towns (TZS 5,000 pp), but as it was low season, there wasn't guaranteed to be one in the afternoon and we didn't want to rush out very early in the morning. There are 6 low key hotels on the beach, plus, unfortunately, one brand new Italian 5-star all-inclusive resort, complete with guards on the beach, and expensive prices set in euros. |
Taxi: TZS 30,000 + tip 1 hour |
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Tip: The northwest coast beaches are better than the east coast for swimming.We had planned on splitting our beach time between Kendwa Beach and an east coast beach (e.g. Jambiani) but we scrapped that plan and stayed at Kendwa Beach the whole time. Why? Because the east coast beaches are flat and have a problem at low tide: the water is very far from shore and unswimmable. It was so hot that we only laid around in the shade, we really couldn't bear the thought of not being able to swim at mid-day when low tide occurred! Kendwa Beach, and neighbouring Nungwi, are the only beaches with good swimming 24 hours per day (since the water gets deep quickly). And they don't have seaweed like the east coast beaches. Plus, on the west coast, you get great sunsets instead of early morning sunrises! |
Low tide was at 11:20 when we arrived, happening 20-25 minutes later each day before cycling earlier again |
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We stayed at the aptly named
White Sands Hotel,
a cluster of semi-bungalows set on a 5m cliff overlooking the beach.
Our "warm welcome" (per the website) consisted of an odd "what are you doing here?" question from the owner,
Jan (a man from Belgium); we must have caught him in a bad moment, for he was actually very pleasant and helpful.Update: Since we were there, Jan was unable to renew his lease and the new management may not be as friendly, judging from the emails they sent to us (and other recent guests). Otherwise I would have heartily recommended this laid-back hotel. |
US$65/room inc. breakfast 10% discount for 5+ nights smaller rooms for US$50 and US$30 cash only, with bad rate of TZS 1,100 per US$ |
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Hotel
(inc. hotel grounds, beach, sick Susan, lobster dinner) Additional details:
this hotel and our room. |
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Other things of note regarding the beach and nearby:
In short, it reminded me a lot of beach life on Thailand islands (though more expensive). Nearby
(inc. art, Maasai, Vervet monkey on Susan) |
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Here is a rough breakdown of our exhausting beach schedule:
The Beach
(inc. us in blue water, fishing boats, water's edge) |
Lobster: TZS 20,000 pp |
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Additional details:
our afternoon walk to Nungwi village, inc. Susan's
playing with a pet Vervet monkey. |
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Did I mention the water was very blue and bathtub warm? So delightful... always refreshing as the air
was hot and humid.The local fishermen used simple canoe-like boats which they often pushed along using poles (like the gondoliers in Venice). Sea
(inc. fishermen, underwater, boating past Nungwi) |
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There were 3 snorkeling trips offered on the beach:
Additional details:
the all-day snorkeling trip. |
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Additional details:
Susan's illness. |
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Additional details:
more prices for food, drinks and Internet access. |
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What more can I say than fabulous sunsets, which is also a nice time for a final swim of the day. Sunsets
(inc. dhows, fishermen, fabulous sunsets) |
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Stone Town II:
Not wanting to take an early morning share taxi, we had called our previous taxi driver, Habib,
the day before to arrange for an 11:30 pickup (called using the hotel owner's mobile phone,
for which he did charge us on checkout).
Habib didn't show up, so we negotiated a rate with a taxi minivan that just dropped off a couple
at our hotel and were returning to Stone Town. The TZS 5,000 pp rate, which morphed into TZS 10,000 pp
on arrival, but it was still a good deal by any measure (it also meant no tip was necessary).
Susan had a lengthy interesting talk with the co-driver about rural vs town life, wages and costs etc. |
Taxi: TZS 35,000 |
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We were dropped off at the
Tembo Hotel
where they luckily had a room due to a recent cancellation; in fact we received the last room,
on the ground floor with no view nor balcony/patio, but it did have A/C.
The waterfront hotel had a nice deck right on the in-town beach, plus a refreshing courtyard swimming pool. We tried to reconfirm our flight, but the nearby Air Tanzania office was closed, as were all the phone numbers that our hotel's concierge tried for us. |
US$105/room inc. buffet breakfast tembo is Swahili for "elephant" |
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We went for a long walk through the old town, meandering down side alleys to see the cathedral
and to just get off the main touristy Gizenga St (alley).
In front of the cathedra, Susan played with a pet monkey, which ripped the cover of her unread book
the she was about to resell (thus decreasing the value).
In other side alleys we saw locals, including kids, at work, rest and play;
we never felt unsafe (in the daytime).
Susan bought a Tingatinga painting as a gift; it's a style of colourful squares with whimsical
animals, named after a famous Tanzanian artist.
Walking around, we noticed how many of the doors at ground level were remarkable heavy old timber. We circled back to the Darajani Market, where this late in the afternoon, the smell & flies on the meat and seafood were too much for us. We passed through some quieter area on the way back to our hotel, where we took a refreshing dip in the pool (there were even pool towels, such luxury!) before enjoying a drink on the hotel's deck overlooking the beach. |
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We went to Monsoon Restaurant for dinner; this time we had reservations and breezed by some unfortunate
tourists who did not. We removed our shoes before entering the traditional style dining room
where one sits on floor cushions.
The Swahili cuisine was excellent, and the atmosphere was enhanced by the live 4-man taarab orchestra.
The word taarab comes from the Arabic tariba, meaning "to be moved," and fuses African, Arabic and Indian
musical influences. |
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For convenience, here is a link to the Stone Town slideshow that appeared near the start of this page: Stone Town
(inc. views from airplane, hotels, Gizenga St, town beaches, taarab orchestra) |
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Airport Departure:
With an early 8:20 flight, we packed the night before and woke up at 6:00.
We ate a light breakfast (unfortunately missing the well-rated buffet that didn't start so early)
and settled the bill, with some difficulty, with a combination of one US$ travelers cheque, US$ cash
and TSZ cash (I was trying to get rid of local currency and avoid using a credit card). |
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A brief taxi ride brought us back to the airport, where a good three dozen porters tried to grab
our (rolling) backpacks for the 7m walk to the end of the long check-in line.
It turned out that line was for the Italian charter flight and we found a much shorter check-in line
at another desk. However, we all had to go through the same long line to pay departure tax and
through immigration. It wasn't obvious that there were two lines, so I jumped out of line to go
pay the departure tax (a quicker process) and returned just in time for Susan to reach the front
of the immigration line. The only washrooms were outside of the departure lounge, but you could exit and re-enter the security checkpoint. |
Taxi: TZS 10,000 |
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Our
Air Tanzania
flight to Jo'burg (as Johannesburg is known), South Africa,
was comfortable enough, with a stop in Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) which was a surprisingly small airport
for such a large city.
At the modern Jo'burg airport, we had to pick up our luggage and check-in again for our
South African Airways
flight to Cape Town. |
Airport codes: ZNZ, DAR, JNB, CPT |
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Tips:
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