A week in Zanzibar

Over Easter the family decided against going to Europe or the Kenyan Coast and do something half way between - going inernational, but not too far, and still somewhere different that is supposed to be interesting. So Zanzibar, a Tanzanian island, it was, and my mum came out to join us us.

We selected a small hotel with just 10 rooms split across 5 cottages with a wonderful pool, nice deck and beach area and amazing sunset views, that was quite centrally located in the island for travelling to different activities. The kitchen was quite flexible and food and drinks reasonable, though it was not a luxurious resort by any means. There was a lot of nice areas and personal touches. 

Unfortunately the hotel itself doesn't organizer's many activities and just points to others who can organizer's activities, which in Zanzibar are quite expensive. So we skipped the horse riding, for example, though Andrea and the kids did do a cycle ride near the spice farms (mum and I did a walk in the forest instead) which went surprisingly well despite the rain shower. Overall we were quite lucky with the weather, despite it being the rainy season. We only had two other half days of rain really, but the kids could still playing in the pool even in the rain.

We spent a half-day in Stone Town twice; seeing the buildings as well as the odd museum. It was a little disappointing. The museums' info were quite limited (at least the museums that are currently open) though did talk about the role of the town in slave markets and slave trade with the middle east. The buildings were mostly quite run down. There were some that had been nicely restored into hotels, residences or shops, and a bunch that had not been - with authentic and imposing doors, upper balconies, and the like. Of course all the buildings were made of stone and the whole place is a maze of small alleyways with small shops and local items for sale.

Being Ramadan, almost no restaurants were open during the daytime, and we only managed to find the odd place that sold ice cream or baked goods. Potentially the hotels in the town would have sold food. Surviving the intense heat without drinking during daylight every day for a month must be tough!

We rented a car for the week so we could easily go to and from the town (which was a half hour drive away) as well as other places. The car was fairly cheap though quite old. We got a puncture once and also had a dodgy connection on the battery to deal with. Overall we saw a lot of the countryside with a few roads in really good condition and the rest frequently with potholes in. There were police around checking speed and security, and the majority of houses looked quite solid brick and quite large.

The East Coast seems to have more of the fancy resorts and we visited there in order to go snorkeling to Mnemba island where we saw a lot of fish and played on the sandbank for a nice half-day trip (though we found out that even fancy resorts stop lunch at 2pm and there is nothing else available outside that time, whilst no other places in the villages were open). The water was crystal clear and very warm. It was a very nice experience.

We decided against seeing the dolphins off the South Coast as the reports all seemed to reveal that it is not a good experience with masses of speedboats chasing dolphins and scaring them. We did drive over to Jozani forest for a walk there seeing the Tanzania red Colobus monkeys, enjoying the very nicely done Mangrove Boardwalk and also a visit to the Zanzibar Butterfly Center who's Tourism income goes to support locals who provide the butterflies.

We also ended up skipping the slave caves (having seen something similar in Kenya) and the spice farms (we've seen elsewhere and the kids weren't keen), spending a fair amount of time just enjoying the weather and the pool. Overall a very nice trip, friendly people, and worth visiting; but somewhat disappointing due to the high cost of various activities and a feeling that a lot more could be done with Stone Town and the local history than has been done so far.