Top Things to Do in Zanzibar
(Beyond the Beach)

Zanzibar's fertile interior — known as the "Spice Island" — once supplied the entire world's clove production and still grows a remarkable variety of tropical spices and fruits. A spice farm tour is one of the most sensory-rich experiences available on the island: guides lead you through working farms where you smell, taste, and hold fresh cloves, vanilla pods, cardamom, cinnamon bark, black pepper, nutmeg, turmeric root, lemongrass, and ylang-ylang before eating fresh pineapple, jackfruit, star fruit, and more. Many tours include a traditional lunch and a demonstration of how to make coconut oil.

The best farms for a genuine experience are located in the central-north of the island around Kizimbani and Kidichi. Avoid "show farms" that have been stripped of authenticity for mass tourism — ask your operator about the farms they use and whether proceeds support local families. A reputable tour lasts 2–3 hours and should cost $20–$40 per person including transport from Stone Town.

Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park protects the last significant patch of indigenous forest on Zanzibar and is the only place on Earth where you can see the Zanzibar red colobus monkey — a critically endangered species found nowhere else in the world, with a population of approximately 3,000 animals. The monkeys are remarkably habituated to human presence, and guided walks bring you within just a few metres of family groups lounging, feeding, and grooming in the forest canopy above a quiet boardwalk trail through mangrove swamp and tropical forest.

Beyond the colobus, Jozani is home to Aders' duiker (a tiny endemic antelope), Sykes' monkeys, African civet cats, and more than 40 bird species. The mangrove boardwalk trail takes about 30 minutes and passes through a coastal forest ecosystem that very few visitors make time for. Budget an easy half-day including the drive from Stone Town (45 minutes). Park entry costs around $10 per person with a compulsory local guide included.

Changuu Island — better known as Prison Island — sits just 20 minutes by dhow boat from Stone Town and holds one of the Indian Ocean's most unexpected encounters: a colony of over 150 Aldabra giant tortoises, some of them well over 100 years old and weighing up to 250kg. Originally gifted to Zanzibar by the British governor of the Seychelles in the 1920s, the tortoises now roam a small reserve where visitors can hand-feed them and pose for photographs beside animals that were alive during the First World War.

The island itself has a beautiful colonial-era prison building (never fully used as intended, it later served as a quarantine station) and clear water around its shores that's excellent for snorkelling. Most tours combine Prison Island with a snorkelling stop at a nearby reef. The full trip takes 3–4 hours from Stone Town. Combine it with a late afternoon return to be on the Stone Town waterfront in time for sunset.

Every evening from dusk, the seafront gardens of Forodhani in Stone Town transform into one of East Africa's great street food markets. Dozens of vendors set up over charcoal grills and cast-iron pans to cook Zanzibar pizza (a thin dough envelope stuffed with egg, minced beef, cheese, and vegetables, folded and fried on a griddle), grilled lobster and king prawns, urojo (a fragrant soup of potatoes, lentils, coconut, tamarind, and spice), fresh sugarcane juice, Zanzibar mix (a snack bowl of crispy bits in chilli-coconut sauce), octopus skewers, and much more.

The market is a genuine community gathering space — families, schoolchildren, locals on evening walks, and visitors all share the waterfront under string lights with the dhow harbour glittering behind them. Go hungry, and go twice if you can. Prices are set by pointing and negotiating gently in Swahili ("Bei gani?" — how much?). Budget $5–$12 for a full, memorable meal.

The waters off Kizimkazi village on Zanzibar's southern tip are home to resident pods of bottlenose dolphins and Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins. Early morning boat tours offer snorkellers the chance to enter the water alongside wild, free-swimming dolphins — an extraordinary experience when managed responsibly. Tours depart before sunrise for the best chance of encounters, as the dolphins are most active in calm morning water before wind builds.

A strong word of caution: the dolphin tourism industry at Kizimkazi has a troubled history of overcrowding and boat harassment that stresses the animals. Choose an operator who follows wildlife-first guidelines — no more than two boats per pod, no chasing, no entry into the water if dolphins are resting or with calves. Responsible operators do exist. Ask your safari or hotel directly for a vetted recommendation rather than booking on the beach. Combine the trip with a visit to the atmospheric Shirazi mosque — one of the oldest in sub-Saharan Africa, with coral-stone inscriptions dating to 1107 CE.

The traditional Zanzibar sailing dhow — a lateen-rigged wooden vessel unchanged in design for over a thousand years — is the defining image of the island's maritime culture. A sunset cruise from Stone Town's old harbour, with cold Kilimanjaro beer in hand and the city's roofline silhouetted against an equatorial sky, is one of Zanzibar's most reliably beautiful experiences. Smaller private dhows (6–12 people) offer a more intimate atmosphere than large tourist boats; look for operators who run actual traditional wooden vessels rather than fibreglass imitations.

Most sunset cruises last 1.5–2 hours and include drinks and light snacks. Some combine the cruise with a snorkelling stop at a shallow sandbar earlier in the afternoon. Depart between 4:30–5:00pm for optimal light. The Stone Town dhow harbour — filled with traditional boats being repaired, loaded, and launched — is itself worth watching for an hour before boarding.

Zanzibar was the Indian Ocean's largest slave trading port for several centuries, with an estimated 600,000 to 900,000 enslaved people passing through the island's markets between 1830 and 1873 — the year the slave trade was officially abolished under British pressure on Sultan Barghash. The Anglican Cathedral was built in 1873 directly on the site of the main slave market as a statement of abolition; the altar stands where the whipping post once stood, and the original underground slave holding cells — where people were kept chained for days before sale — are preserved beneath the cathedral courtyard.

This is genuinely harrowing, important history, and standing in those cells is a profound and sobering experience. Allow 1–1.5 hours for the cathedral and museum, and consider pairing it with a visit to the Slave Trade Memorial sculpture in Mnazi Mmoja Park. A knowledgeable guide adds immeasurable depth — the stories of individual enslaved people documented in the cathedral's records make the history human rather than abstract.

Nakupenda — its name meaning "I love you" in Swahili — is a pristine white sandbar that appears from the turquoise Indian Ocean about 4km from Stone Town at low tide, only accessible by boat. Operators bring visitors by dhow for a half-day experience: snorkelling the surrounding reef, walking the luminously white sand bar in knee-deep warm water, and eating a fresh seafood lunch prepared on board — usually grilled prawns, octopus, lobster, and rice cooked over charcoal on the dhow itself. There is almost nothing on this sandbar except sea, sand, and sky.

Timing matters: Nakupenda only fully emerges at low tide, so trips are scheduled accordingly and change daily. Check with your operator for that day's low tide schedule. The sandbar is small and becomes busy on peak-season mornings — book the earliest departure (typically 8am) for the most space and the best snorkelling light before the midday sun bleaches the colours from the reef.

Zanzibari cuisine is a remarkable synthesis of Swahili, Arab, Indian, and Portuguese influences that developed through centuries of Indian Ocean trade. A cooking class — most running 3–4 hours in a family kitchen or rooftop space in Stone Town — teaches you to make dishes like mchuzi wa samaki (coconut fish curry), pilau (spiced rice with meat and aromatic whole spices), kachumbari (a sharp tomato-onion salad), and fresh chapati, using the spices you may have encountered at the farm that morning. You eat what you make, and you leave with recipes.

The best experiences are run by women's cooperatives and family-led small businesses that give you a window into domestic Zanzibar life as much as a cooking lesson. Look for classes that take you to Darajani Market first to buy the day's ingredients — the market itself, with its towers of spices, dried fish, tropical fruits, and live chickens, is an experience worth the price alone.

Mnemba Atoll, a protected marine conservation area off Zanzibar's northeast coast near Matemwe, is consistently rated one of the best dive and snorkel sites in the Indian Ocean. The atoll's shallow coral gardens, deeper walls, and channel currents support an exceptional diversity of marine life: green and hawksbill turtles (almost guaranteed year-round), spinner dolphins, whale sharks (October–March), reef sharks, eagle rays, octopus, and an extraordinary density of reef fish across dozens of coral species. The visibility frequently exceeds 20 metres in calm conditions.

Day trips depart from Matemwe Beach (2.5 hours from Stone Town) for both snorkellers and certified divers. Several excellent dive centres operate on the northeast coast. If you are not yet certified, a PADI Open Water course in the warm, calm waters of Zanzibar — with turtle sightings likely on your qualifying dives — is one of the best ways to learn to dive anywhere in the world. Plan your dive trip for the October–March period when the northeast trade wind brings calm sea conditions to this coast.