Zanzibar, Tanzania
With tasty flavour-rich food, idyllic white beaches and turquoise warm water, balmy weather, interesting culture and architecture of Stone Town, Zanzibar is the perfect place for 3-4 day relaxing days after bumpy safari rides and/or climbing Kilimanjaro
– Or your romantic getaway.
This is exactly the reason why I came to this island. I wanted to spend some days on the beach to relax, especially after my challenging climb of Kilimanjaro.
Initially, I also wanted to dive in Zanzibar. Supposedly, it’s a very good location for diving as this island is famous for clear warm waters, coral reefs and rich marine diversity but there were some issues.
DIVING IN ZANZIBAR:
Late December/early January is not a good season for diving, as there are big waves.
All the diving companies that I saw on Zanzibar just have wooden boats (“Dhows”) without any bathroom facilities on board and they fill them to the rim with people. I’m not sure that’s a great experience for an entire day of diving.
Having looked at the equipment provided by Zanzibar diving companies, I was also concerned with the level of safety...
Therefore, I spent 3 days on the beach reading a book. It’s an amazing white sand beach but the tides (at least in Nungwi) were huge. You can either swim early in the morning, until 11am or after 3pm as otherwise, the water level is very low and you need to walk a lot for the water to be deep enough to swim in and there are many sea urchins…
Remember to use a high level of sun block, as the sun there is very strong.
Practical tips:
The flight from Kilimanjaro airport to Zanzibar with Air Tanzania costs USD 150. It takes one hour. Everything is very efficient - no problem at all, the only difficulty with the flight is the booking process: I could not do it online from Switzerland. So ask your local Tanzanian agency to book it for you.
My transfer, arranged through my hotel in Nungwi, was not on time. There were some locals outside of the airport, which turned out to be very nice and gave me their phone so that I could call my hotel. The transfer from Zanzibar airport to Nungwi costs USD 50. It takes less than an hour to get to Nungwi from the airport.
Nungwi is a nice place to stay. It’s a small town (not just a resort) and there is at least some kind of life there. You don’t want to be in a remote romantic resort if you travel alone…
I liked my hotel in Nungwi – “Green House”. It was very simple, no wardrobe even to hang the clothes but price/quality was perfect for Zanzibar (USD 56 per night with breakfast). I had a room with a shared shower but with air conditioning (AC). You should definitely choose a room with AC, as it is very hot at night. It‘s not directly on the beach but it is only 7 min walking. The hotel staff was very friendly.
Do change USD to local currency. Even though USDs are accepted everywhere, it’s still cheaper if you pay in the local currency. You can exchange money in many hotels. A lot of good hotels and restaurants accept credit cards. I could not withdraw money in the ATM on Zanzibar.
Overall comments for Nungwi/beaches of Zanzibar:
Nungwi is the perfect beach destination: white sandy beaches and warm turquoise water. Picture perfect.
I actually liked the fact that Nungwi is not just a remote beach resort but also a rather big village with nice beaches, beautiful sunsets, good restaurants and parties/bars (with live music). You can walk everywhere – no car/taxi needed. That is a good thing as I would otherwise feel very weird being alone in a resort in the middle of nowhere.
There are almost no jellyfish. This a very important fact for me as I love swimming but I don’t like jellyfish (I have had a few bad experiences). However, one of the days I got stung rather badly by a jellyfish I did not see. The appearance of jellyfish depends on the day and the currents/winds.
I rented a sunbed (always negotiate the price). I got it for USD 5 per day. Normally it is USD 10. It’s good to have a sunbed as:
– You need to have a sun umbrella – the sun is too strong without,
– You will have somebody looking after your bag when swimming (but still I did not bring my phone with me and brought very little cash. However, I always felt very safe there).
Kendwa beach is the best on Zanzibar (it is close to Nungwi). It should be better than Nungwi as it is larger and also there are less tides - you can swim the whole day there. At Nungwi you can swim till 11am and then from 3pm - in-between it’s low tide and you cannot walk too far out as there are sea urchins. You need to go to the hotel or have a long lunch instead.
East coast is much worse for tides than Nungwi.
There are a lot of Russian tourists there. Everywhere! I was told that this trend started 2 years ago as there now is a direct flight to Zanzibar from Russia. First tourists to Zanzibar were actually Italians and there are still a lot of Italians going there. You meet mostly Russian and Italian tourists - I did not hear any other languages there.
In Zanzibar, you mostly find couples and families – very few single travellers.
Not to be missed: take a boat ride to see the sunset. I had the boat all to myself.
My favourite restaurants:
– “Baraka” on the beach for a good and simple grilled seafood or fish.
– Rooftop “Z bar” at sunset – on Wednesday and Saturday they have live music. (Actually, I liked all the restaurants of Z hotel; however, they are on the expensive side).
– Loved the peanut ice cream in “Mamma Mia”.
Stone town:
Two days in Stone town is enough. It’s an interesting place to visit: especially historic quarter of Stone town with its many minarets, the spires of St. Joseph’s Cathedral and the massive old fort.
Accommodation: I stayed in “Zanzibar Coffee House”, dating back to 1885. It has a very nice coffee shop on the first floor and a great rooftop terrace where you can enjoy a very good breakfast with excellent coffee. The only minus was that my bathroom (private use only) was outside along a corridor and it had no windows. A bathroom without any ventilation becomes very hot and humid and it was impossible to stay more than 1 min there.
My favourite restaurant experience was a dinner show at “Emerson on the Hurumzi” Rooftop teahouse – amazing views, music and food. Approx. USD 40 with drinks.
Day trips: I went to Prisoners’ Island where you can see giant tortoises. But be careful! You are given lettuce leaves at the entry but it’s better not to feed the tortoises! One tortoise bit me rather badly (it was too hungry for my lettuce leaf, I guess ). I did not know whether it carried any disease, it could transfer to me, so I got very scared. Luckily, these giant tortoises do not transport any dangerous diseases, worst one is salmonella. However, they have very strong bite that can take your finger off so you better not feed them…or be more careful than I was.
I would definitely recommend a 3-4 day stay in Zanzibar. Especially after climbing Kilimanjaro, I enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere, the swimming, the beautiful sunsets and the good food.
It is more on the romantic side – so better go there with a loved one, hold hands and enjoy the sunsets together.
0
29.11.2019
