Zanzibar, with the parts nobody puts in the brochure left in.
An independent guide to the archipelago: which coast fits the trip you actually want, what the tides decide for you, what things cost, and the few things worth booking before you land.
A guide written to be useful the morning you set out.
Most Zanzibar guides are a listicle recycled from other listicles, or a booking page wearing a guide's clothes. This one is neither.
Written from the island, not from other guides
Opening hours, transfer times and what a beach looks like at low tide, checked here rather than copied across.
Who a place suits, and who should skip it
Some of the most photographed spots on Zanzibar get a qualified no. We say which, and why.
Orders of magnitude, never fake precision
Prices move with the season. You get a realistic range and what it covers, not a figure nobody has checked since 2024.
Funded by bookings, not by coverage
When a tour is genuinely the easier option we link to it and earn a commission at no cost to you. Free things stay free here.
The short list of things that do not wait for you.
Almost everything here can be arranged from your hotel the night before. The exceptions are the boat trips that leave on the tide and fill up in season, and the transfer waiting at the end of a ten hour flight.
This guide is going up one page at a time.
No email capture, no funnel. The French edition already covers the archipelago in depth, and this one is catching up.