11 Things to Do in Zanzibar That Aren't Just Lying on a Beach
I came to Zanzibar planning to do nothing. Five days of sand, a paperback, maybe a swim if I felt ambitious. By day two I'd torn that plan up. The island is small — you can drive coast to coast in under two hours — but it crams in more than the resort activity board lets on. Here's what earned a spot on my list, with the prices I actually paid and the stuff nobody warns you about.
1. Get Lost in Stone Town (On Purpose)
Google Maps gives up the moment you step into Stone Town's alleys. They're too narrow, too tangled, and half of them aren't mapped. So don't fight it. Wander. The whole UNESCO-listed maze is maybe a kilometer across, so you can't really get lost lost — you'll hit the seafront eventually.
Look up for the carved wooden doors (the brass studs were originally meant to stop war elephants — a detail a shopkeeper near Kenyatta Road told me, and I've chosen to believe it). Duck into Emerson on Hurumzi for a rooftop mint tea around sunset. Go early or late, though. Midday the alleys hold heat like an oven.
2. Eat Dinner at Forodhani Night Market
Every evening around 6PM, the Forodhani Gardens on the waterfront fill with grills, lanterns, and the smell of charcoal. Skewers of kingfish, octopus, and prawns run 2,000–5,000 TZS each (under $2). Get the Zanzibari pizza — it's not pizza, it's a folded, fried egg-and-meat crepe thing, around 4,000 TZS, and it's better than it has any right to be.
One rule: skip anything that's been sitting out. Point at what's going on the grill fresh. The "sugarcane juice" guys are fun but the hygiene is a gamble — I stuck to the hot, cooked stuff and was fine.
3. Snorkel Mnemba Atoll Before 9AM
Mnemba is the postcard — a tiny private island ringed by reef in water so clear it looks fake. You can't land on the island (it's a $1,500-a-night resort), but the reef around it is open. Boats from Nungwi or Matemwe run about $30–50 per person for a half-day trip.
Go on the first boat out. By 10AM there are twenty dhows dropping snorkelers on the same patch of coral and the dolphins clear off. Earlier, I had green turtles to myself. Bring your own mask if you're picky — the rental gear leaks.
4. Do a Spice Farm Tour — the Working One
Zanzibar earned its old name, the Spice Island, honestly, and a farm tour is genuinely interesting if you pick a real working farm and not a staged one. Tours run $15–25 and last a couple hours. You'll crush cinnamon bark, smell raw nutmeg, taste a lipstick fruit, and watch a kid scramble up a coconut palm for a tip.
Honest take: it's touristy. But it's the good kind of touristy, and lunch is usually a proper Swahili pilau cooked over a fire. Tip the guide and the climber directly — a few thousand shillings each goes a long way.
5. Find the Red Colobus at Jozani Forest
Jozani-Chwaka Bay is the only place on earth you'll see the Zanzibar red colobus monkey, and there are only a couple thousand left. Entry is around $10 (roughly 26,000 TZS) and includes a guide. The monkeys are so used to people they'll sit two feet from you, picking through leaves, completely unbothered — proper big-game wildlife, though, means crossing to the mainland for a safari out of Arusha.
There's also a mangrove boardwalk that nobody seems to bother with — do it, it's quiet and the light through the roots at midday is unreal. Bring closed shoes. The forest floor gets muddy and the mosquitoes are committed.
6. Sail a Dhow at Sunset
The traditional wooden dhow has been the island's workhorse for centuries, and watching the sun drop into the Indian Ocean from one is the single most "Zanzibar" thing you can do. Sunset cruises out of Stone Town or Nungwi run $25–40 and usually include a beer or a soda and someone playing music.
Book one with an actual sail, not a motor strapped to a hull. The whole point is the quiet. When the wind catches and the engine cuts, that's the moment you remember.
7. Swim at Nungwi — and Cross the Island for the Tides
Nungwi, on the northern tip, is the rare Zanzibar beach where the tide doesn't strand you on a sandbar twice a day. You can swim at almost any hour. It's busy and a bit built-up, sure, but the water is that impossible turquoise and the sunsets line up perfectly off the point.
For a contrast, spend a day on the southeast coast at Paje or Jambiani, where the tide pulls out half a kilometer and leaves a shimmering flat you can walk across with seaweed farmers. Two completely different beaches, one small island — and if you want more of that Indian Ocean blue, the Bazaruto Archipelago down the Mozambique coast scratches the same itch.
8. Stand in the Old Slave Market
This one isn't fun, but it matters. Stone Town was the last open slave market in East Africa, and the Anglican Cathedral was built directly over the auction site. Entry to the memorial and the underground holding chambers is about $5. The cells are low, airless, and grim — you'll be quiet afterward, and you should be.
Go with a guide who'll give you the actual history. It reframes the whole island, the spice wealth and the carved doors included.
9. Take the Boat to Prison Island for the Tortoises
A short boat hop from Stone Town (around $30 round trip, plus a $4 entry), Changuu — "Prison Island" — never actually held prisoners. It does hold a colony of giant Aldabra tortoises, some of them over 150 years old. You can feed them spinach while they plod around, ancient and totally indifferent to you.
Go at low tide when the water's calm; the crossing in chop is a wet, bouncy 20 minutes. Negotiate the boat price before you step in, not after.
10. Photograph the Rock Restaurant at Low Tide
The Rock, perched on a coral outcrop off Pingwe beach, is the most photographed spot on the island. At low tide you walk out to it; at high tide a little boat ferries you. Dinner is pricey and honestly more about the setting than the food.
My move: go for a drink at low tide, climb out, take your photo, and have your actual dinner somewhere cheaper. The view costs you nothing from the beach.
11. Watch Sunrise at Paje (and Maybe Try a Kite)
The southeast coast faces east, so Paje gets the sunrise the rest of the island misses. Set an alarm once. The flat is mirror-still at dawn and you'll have it almost alone.
Paje is also Zanzibar's kitesurfing capital — steady wind, shallow water, dozens of schools. A beginner lesson runs around $50–60 an hour. I was terrible. I also can't stop thinking about going back to get less terrible.
Pro Tip
Get around by bajaji (the little three-wheeled tuk-tuks) for short hops and negotiate before you climb in — 5,000–10,000 TZS for a town ride is fair. For longer trips, hire a driver for the day (around $40–50) rather than chaining taxis. Dress modestly outside the resorts and beaches — Zanzibar is predominantly Muslim, and covering shoulders and knees in town is just basic respect that locals notice and appreciate. And carry small bills. Nobody, anywhere, will have change for your big notes.
