Check this link for general information on Tanzania.
Zanzibar is actually not an island but an archipelago. The two main islands are called Pemba and Unguja. And the latter is the island that everyone calls Zanzibar, although, in fact, Zanzibar is the name of the whole archipelago, as well as the name of the island's capital, Unguja.
Zanzibar is famous primarily for its beaches. The rest of the island's attractions are of low interest and lose heavily to beach vacations, but I'll list them nonetheless. The main problem of these places is the difficulty of getting to them without expensive cabs, but you can take excursions in the hotel.
Attractions of Zanzibar:
- An island with large turtles and a former prison (Changu Island); boats leave from the beach at Stone Town, the oldest part of Zanzibar's capital (-6.160861, 39.187778).
- The island that disappears at high tide (Nakupenda Beach), boats depart from the same spot.
We came to Zanzibar with kids, so we were looking for an all-inclusive hotel with a beach and chose RIU Jambo (booking.com), located between Kendwa and Nungwi. Most likely it is the largest hotel in Zanzibar.
It is important to understand that the beaches in Zanzibar are highly dependent on the tides. Many of the island's beaches simply disappear at low tide. The only place where the beaches are always good is the north of the island at Kendwa and at the southern part of Nungwi, up to this point -5.730660, 39.290970.
If you're going anywhere else, open a tide calendar and check the situation at the time you arrive. You need something like this German website (https://www.meerestemperatur.de/) with the schedule months ahead.
The beach near our hotel looked like this, a morning photo during high tide.
The main problem on the beaches is the locals - the Maasai and their wannabes. They constantly bother tourists, offering various services and crafts made of wood. There are also local artists and acrobats walking around.
In general, we were very satisfied with the hotel, good place for children and a great beach. The neighboring hotel RIU Palace also belongs to this chain, they often build two hotels next to each other, one family and the other Adults only.
It is believed that the beach at Nungwi is the same as Kendwa as they are located next to each other, however this is not the case. One day we left the kids at the hotel's Kids Club and went for a walk along the beach towards Nungwi, walked about 2 kilometers.
It is better to go in bathing clothes, as at high tide you will have to walk through the water.
The beach at Nungwi is more party than Kendwa. There are quite a few boats parked here, which is not the case in Kendwa. The locals have learned quite a few Polish words, obviously there are a lot of Poles here now. In 2019-2020 they've definitely learned Ukrainian words as well, as there were a lot of Ukrainians.
Since we planned to see more beaches, we moved to a hotel in the very south of the island, Kwanza Resort by SUNRISE (booking.com). This hotel is going to be a 5 star hotel, but at the moment it's 3 stars max. The hotel itself is good, even the sun beds look 5 stars, but the food selection is very poor, no ice cream, no beach, and the pier is just being built.
The lack of a beach didn't bother us much as we traveled to the south of the island to visit two other beaches by hired car.
Mtende Beach
A small, and extremely picturesque beach amongst the cliffs. We found it from a drone photo on google maps. Parking is here -6.460972, 39.538056, locals charge a couple dollars for entry. It's best to arrive after high tide, when low tide has begun, but you can arrive anytime.
There is a restaurant on the cliff, we gave a small tip and went there just to take pictures. There is no toilet on the beach, only a changing booth, maybe there is a toilet in the restaurant.
A huge beach on the east coast, which is connected to the Paje beach and in total stretches for almost 20 kilometers. As on other beaches you can swim during high tide. We parked here -6.321833, 39.548139.
We did not see any sun beds on the beach, but there are various restaurants and hotels with beds, where you can sit absolutely free, just buying drinks or food in the restaurant. Prices are $2-3 per drink.
Near the place where we parked there was a Bahari Pizza Restaurant Bungalows, where we sat down.
The first line on the beach looks beautiful, but beyond that the houses are pretty poor. The same situation is across the whole island, right outside the gates of the five-star hotels you will find devastation.
Surprisingly, there were absolutely no people on this great beach. For kilometers around we saw no more than 10 vacationers. In this regard, there are not many locals here either, in three hours we were approached a couple of times, the difference with Kendwa and Nungwi is enormous.
- Swim at high tide - Beaches are fairly clean - There are no public toilets, you have to ask in restaurants. - Be prepared to be bothered by locals - No parking lots, we park where we can, all access to the beaches is dirt and broken down - There are few or no public sun beds, you can lie down in restaurants and hotels, where it is allowed.
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