Quick Guide: Zanzibar, Tanzania

Many have this postcard picture in mind when thinking about Zanzibar. Azure blue ocean, white sand beaches, palm trees. Both a truth – and not.

Table of Contents

What we think you NEED to know

Zanzibar can be exactly like you see on the picture above. But it the depends on the weather that has become more unstable the last years. Seaweed and trash covering the beaches occur too.
There is A LOT of locals wandering all over the beaches and streets trying to sell you everything from magic mushrooms to wood animals. They are VERY consistent, even when saying a clear no.
It is not as cheap as you may think or hope. Prices has risen all over the world, and Zanzibar for sure is no exception. The prices where in general more similar to European than not.
We wouldn’t recommend renting a car. The traffic is best described as extremely chaotic, with locals driving fast, sometimes dangerous, and often way too many vehicles on too little space.

Our key moments

Having the so far most incredible dives with the most chilled and cool instructor from the Spanish Dancer Divers. The visibility was amazing, water warm, and marinelife magic!
Experiencing that azur blue ocean, white sand beaches, and palm tress, as we’ve seen so many times in commercials. Felt a bit surreal to finally make a childhood dream come true.
Having a laugh over our “bad luck” with the weather (it was raining a lot, even though we visited in July one of the driest months), deciding to go snorkling and swimming in the rain while everyone else kept dry or stayed indoors.

High season: June-October and December-February

Currency: Tanzanian Shilling (TZS) (but many prefer USD) 1000 TZS = 0,34 EUR/0,4 USD

Population: 1,2 million people living on 2,462 km²

Location: in the Indian Ocean, off the eastern coast of mainland Tanzania in East Africa

Weather: hot, humid, tropical climate with consistent warm temperatures year-round

“Sellers” on Zanzibar:

The “sellers” will quite frankly disturb you both while eating at a restaurant, taking a nap on the beach, and anywhere else for that matter.

They even unwanted sit down on your towel, throw things up to you on the restaurant while standing down on the beach etc.

They won’t leave you alone even when saying NO and GO AWAY in a harsh tone, yelling, or showing anger. So frustrating!

This will be NICE to know

There is a lot of big black sea urchins just a few meters out. Be carefull and definitely a good idea to bring some shoes for bathing.
Planning on making your trip into a diving vacation and mostly being out on the ocean, Zanzibar most likely is a very good and cool spot.
We expected our time at Zanzibar to be relaxing with time to fill up our “mental batteries”, but it was actually quite stressfull because of countless annoying sellers disturbing all the time, trash and smell everywhere, constant noise, multiple more creepy locals offering us drugs (probably just because we are young) etc. Bad weather a lot of the time probably didn’t do our opinion any favors as well.

“Sellers” on Zanzibar:
The “sellers” will quite frankly disturb you both while eating at a restaurant, taking a nap on the beach, and anywhere else for that matter.

They even unwanted sit down on your towel, throw things up to you on the restaurant while standing down on the beach etc.

They won’t leave you alone even when saying NO and GO AWAY in a harsh tone, yelling, or showing anger. So frustrating!

Our favorite locations

Being in- and under water by far. As mentioned the marinelife, ocean temperature, and visibility was purely amazing! No matter if you are an experienced diver or fairly new, as we are, it is absolutely worth it!
The beach is very nice and beautiful of course, aside from not so nice local sellers. The sand is just as soft and ocean just as pleasant as it looks.

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Quick Guide: Zanzibar, Tanzania

This Quick Guide is just a glimpse of Zanzibar. We only spend a little week there, and only up in the far North. Maybe you’ll have better weather, experiences, and relax more than we did.