Beach Holidays

Lose yourself in narrow lanes of coral-stone houses and brass-studded wooden doors. With a local guide, visit the Old Fort, the busy Darajani Market and the cathedral built on the site of the former slave market, then join the evening food stalls at Forodhani Gardens.

Walk through a working farm outside Stone Town where cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla and black pepper grow side by side. Your guide will have you crushing leaves, peeling bark and tasting fresh tropical fruit along the way.

Off the northeast coast, the protected reefs around Mnemba shelter coral gardens, shoals of reef fish, green turtles and passing pods of dolphins. It is Zanzibar’s top spot for snorkelling in clear, shallow water.

Step aboard a wooden dhow, the lateen-sailed boat that has carried trade along this coast for centuries, and drift along the shore as the sky turns orange. Fresh fruit and cool drinks are served on board.

A short boat ride from Stone Town, Changuu Island is home to Aldabra giant tortoises first brought from the Seychelles, some well over a hundred years old. Built as a prison, the island was used as a quarantine station instead.

In Jozani Chwaka Bay, Zanzibar’s only national park, troops of Zanzibar red colobus — found nowhere else on Earth — feed in the trees just metres away. A boardwalk through the mangroves completes the walk.