Zanzibar · Unguja and Mnemba

Zanzibar, Spice and Reef

Duration: 7 Days
From: $4,200per person

Seven days on an island that traded with the whole ocean before it traded with the mainland.

Zanzibar is not the beach at the end of a safari, though it does that job well. It is a thousand-year-old Indian Ocean port whose language, food and architecture came in on the monsoon from Oman, Gujarat and Persia, and whose old town is a UNESCO site you can walk across in twenty minutes and still get lost in. We give you two nights inside it before you go anywhere near the sand.

Then the north-east coast: the reef off Mnemba, the sandbanks that appear and disappear with the tide, and four days with nothing on the schedule but what you feel like doing that morning. A dhow crosses you between the two halves of the trip, because arriving at the coast by road and arriving by sail are not the same arrival.

Route: Stone Town · Jozani · Matemwe · Mnemba Atoll · Nungwi
Best Months: June to October and December to February — dry, and the reef is clear
Group Size: Six guests maximum, private departure
Getting There: Fly into Zanzibar (ZNZ), direct from Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Dar or Nairobi
Pace: Slow — two moves in seven days, and nothing that starts before eight

Where the seven days go

One island, two bases, and a dhow rather than a road for the crossing between them.

Day 1—2
Stone Town
The old port on foot
Day 3
Jozani
Forest and spice farms
Day 4
Matemwe
Arrive under sail
Day 5
Mnemba Atoll
The reef, early
Day 6
Nungwi
Sandbank and dhow yard
Day 7
Zanzibar Town
Fly out

Day by day

Every night is offered at two levels. Adventure is a well-run small guesthouse or beach bungalow; Comfort is a full hotel with a pool, a spa and a wine list.

Day01

Into Stone Town

Zanzibar airport is fifteen minutes from the old town and the last of it is on foot, because no vehicle fits down those lanes. The afternoon is deliberately empty: sleep, swim, and at five your guide takes you up onto a rooftop to watch the dhows come in on the tide. Dinner is at the Forodhani night market if you have the appetite for it, and at a table with a door on the street if you do not.

Meals: Dinner
On the road: 15 minutes
Sea temp: 27 °C
Highlight: The dhows coming in on the evening tide

Where you sleep

Adventure
Jafferji House
A restored merchant house of nine rooms, all carved wood and shutters.
Comfort
Emerson on Hurumzi
The old customs officer’s house, with the highest rooftop table in the town.

Day02

Stone Town on foot

Four hours walking with a guide whose family has been in these lanes for four generations — the Old Fort, the Anglican cathedral built deliberately on the site of the slave market, the Persian baths, and the carved doors that tell you the trade and the origin of whoever commissioned them. The afternoon is yours for the Darajani market or the shade, and there is a music night at the Dhow Countries academy most weeks.

Meals: Breakfast
On the road: On foot
Sea temp: 27 °C
Highlight: The carved doors, and what each one is saying

Where you sleep

Adventure
Jafferji House
A second night, and the roof to yourself after nine.
Comfort
Emerson on Hurumzi
A second night, and the taarab set on the roof if it is running.

Day03

Jozani forest and the spice farms

An hour south to Jozani, the last stand of groundwater forest on the island and the only place on earth the Zanzibar red colobus lives — about 6,000 animals, all of them here. Then north to a working spice farm at Kizimbani for the part of this island’s history you can eat: clove, nutmeg, cardamom, vanilla and black pepper, all of it pulled off the plant in front of you and lunch cooked out of the same beds.

Meals: All meals
On the road: 2 hours 30
Sea temp: 27 °C
Highlight: Red colobus at Jozani, found nowhere else

Where you sleep

Adventure
Kichanga Lodge
Bungalows in a coconut grove on the Michamvi side, no glass in the windows.
Comfort
The Residence Zanzibar
Villas in twenty-five hectares of garden with a mile of private sand.

Day04

North under sail

A traditional lateen-rigged dhow up the coast to Matemwe, three hours with the monsoon behind you and no engine unless the wind dies. This is how everything on this island moved for a thousand years, and it is still how most of the fishing fleet moves today. You arrive at the north-east coast in the afternoon, wade the last twenty metres, and the rest of the day is yours.

Meals: All meals
On the road: 3 hours under sail
Sea temp: 28 °C
Highlight: Arriving at the coast the way everything used to

Where you sleep

Adventure
Matemwe Beach Village
Thatched bandas on the low cliff, the reef breaking a mile out.
Comfort
Matemwe Lodge
Twelve suites facing Mnemba, each with a plunge pool and a hammock.

Day05

The Mnemba reef, early

Out at seven, because the water off Mnemba is at its clearest before the day’s boats have stirred it and the current is slack. The atoll is a private marine conservation area and the reef around it holds green turtle, several hundred fish species and — between July and October — the pods of bottlenose and humpback dolphin that work the channel. Two snorkelling sites, a beach lunch, and back before the wind gets up.

Meals: All meals
On the road: 30 minutes by boat
Sea temp: 28 °C
Highlight: Green turtle on the atoll reef

Where you sleep

Adventure
Matemwe Beach Village
A second night, and the fishing fleet leaving under your window at five.
Comfort
Matemwe Lodge
A second night, and a massage that you will not want to end.

Day06

Nungwi, the sandbank and the dhow yard

The north tip of the island, where the tide falls far enough to walk out to a sandbank that is not there at any other hour of the day. Nungwi is also the last working dhow yard on Zanzibar, where hulls are still built by eye without a drawing anywhere on the site. Sunset here is the one the whole island claims, and for once the claim holds up.

Meals: All meals
On the road: 1 hour
Sea temp: 28 °C
Highlight: A sandbank that exists for four hours a day

Where you sleep

Adventure
Langi Langi Beach Bungalows
Family-run, twenty rooms, and the best kitchen on the north coast.
Comfort
Zuri Zanzibar
Fifty-five villas in a botanical garden, on the best stretch of Nungwi sand.

Day07

Zanzibar Town, and home

The drive south is ninety minutes through the clove and coconut country in the middle of the island. There is time for the Darajani market or a last hour in the lanes before the airport, and day rooms and a shower are held for you if your flight is an evening one. Your guide waits with you until you are checked in.

Meals: Breakfast
On the road: 1 hour 30
Sea temp: 27 °C
Highlight: A last hour in the lanes before the airport

What's in, and what isn't

Marine park fees, the dhow and every guided hour are already inside your price. Nothing on the included list is charged again on the island.

Included

Mnemba marine conservation area fees and all Jozani park fees
Six nights' accommodation at your chosen tier, all meals from dinner on Day 1
The private dhow crossing from Stone Town to Matemwe, crewed
A licensed Stone Town guide for the full walking day, and a driver for the island
Two guided snorkelling sites at Mnemba, with masks, fins and a boat to yourselves
Airport transfers at both ends, and day rooms before an evening flight
Drinking water, soft drinks and house beer and wine at your hotel

Not included

International flights and Tanzanian visa
Travel and medical insurance, which we require of every guest
Scuba diving at Mnemba, from $180 for two tanks
Premium spirits, champagne and spa treatments
Gratuities for your guide, crew and hotel staff

Seasonal Rates

Per person, in US dollars

Rates fall as the party grows — the guide, the vehicle and the dhow cost the same whether two of you travel or six.

Party size	Adventure	Comfort	Adventure	Comfort
	Low seasonMarch—May · November		High seasonJune—October · December—February
Travelling alone	6,100	8,400	7,900	10,900
Two guests	4,700	6,500	6,100	8,400
Four guests	4,350	5,900	5,600	7,600
Six guests	4,200	5,650	5,400	7,300

Rates hold for travel through 31 December 2027. Single supplement of $620 applies to the Comfort tier only. Christmas and New Year are quoted separately.

A 20% deposit holds your dates and rooms. The balance is due 60 days before you fly, and is fully refundable until then.

What you are likely to see

Nothing here is guaranteed and we will never pretend otherwise. This is what the island and the reef reliably hold in these months.

Zanzibar red colobus
Piliocolobus kirkii
Around 6,000 animals and every one of them on this island. Jozani is the only place you will ever see them.
Green turtle
Chelonia mydas
Resident on the Mnemba reef and unbothered by snorkellers. The atoll beaches are a nesting site.
Bottlenose dolphin
Tursiops truncatus
Pods work the Mnemba channel most mornings. We go out early and keep our distance — no swim-with boats.
Humpback whale
Megaptera novaeangliae
July to October, on migration up the channel. Seen from the boat and sometimes from the beach.
Ader’s duiker
Cephalophus adersi
A tiny forest antelope down to a few hundred animals worldwide, most of them in and around Jozani.
Whale shark
Rhincodon typus
Off the south coast at Kizimkazi between October and February. A day trip, and worth the drive when they are in.
Fischer’s turaco
Tauraco fischeri
Loud, crimson-winged and easier to hear than to see. Jozani and the Kizimbani spice farms hold them.
Coconut crab
Birgus latro
The largest land arthropod on earth, and it climbs palms. Chumbe and the Mnemba islet are the strongholds.

Things worth adding

Each of these slots into a day already on the itinerary without moving anything else. Tell us at booking, or decide over dinner the night before.

Day 5Two-tank dive on the Mnemba wallHalf a day$180
Day 2Cooking class in a Stone Town kitchenThree hours, from the market$85
Day 6Sunset dhow with a crew of twoTwo hours$120
Day 3Kizimkazi whale sharks, October to FebruaryA full day$210
Day 4Kitesurfing lesson at Paje, wind dependingTwo hours$140

Tell us your week, and we will tell you what the tide and the reef will be doing.

Send us your dates and we will come back inside a day with the tide tables for that week, the rooms still open, and a price for your exact party. No deposit, no obligation, and a person on the other end.