Zanzibar Travel Guide: Best Beaches, Stone Town, and When to Go

Zanzibar shows up on almost every "best beaches in the world" list, and it's genuinely earned — white sand, warm turquoise water, and a slower pace than mainland Tanzania. What a lot of first-time visitors don't realize until they're already booked is that "Zanzibar" isn't one beach experience; the island's coasts behave differently enough that picking the wrong one for your priorities can be the difference between a great trip and a slightly frustrating one. This guide covers how to pick your coast, when to go, and how to fold Stone Town and a mainland safari into the same trip.

When to go

Zanzibar has two dry seasons and two rainy seasons, similar to the East African mainland. The best windows are late June through October and December through February — both dry, warm, and low-humidity, with October and November also drawing kitesurfers to the east coast for consistent wind. March through May is the long rains, heavy and sustained enough that a meaningful number of resorts close or discount steeply; it's the cheapest time to visit if you don't mind the risk of several rainy days in a row. November is a shorter, lighter rainy period, and a reasonable shoulder-season bet for travelers who want lower prices without the full unpredictability of the long rains. See our best time to visit Africa guide for how this lines up with a mainland safari, since combining the two is one of the most common ways to visit.

Choosing a coast

This is the single most important decision in planning a Zanzibar trip, and it's the one most first-timers get wrong by not knowing to ask about it.

The north coast (Nungwi and Kendwa) has consistently swimmable water regardless of tide, because the beach shelves off gradually rather than exposing a wide tidal flat at low tide. This is the coast to pick if being able to swim at any hour matters to you — it's also the most developed, with the widest range of resorts, bars, and nightlife, and correspondingly the busiest.

The east coast (Paje, Jambiani, Bwejuu) has a dramatic tidal range — at low tide, the water can retreat hundreds of meters, leaving a wide flat of sand and shallow tide pools rather than swimmable water. This frustrates visitors who didn't know to expect it, but it's also exactly what makes this coast the center of Zanzibar's kitesurfing scene, since the wind is more consistent here than on the north coast. If you're not kitesurfing and want guaranteed swimming, factor the tide chart into which resort you pick, since some sit on stretches with a shorter tidal flat than others.

The south coast (Kizimkazi) is quieter and less developed than either the north or east, known mainly for dolphin tours and a slower pace generally — a reasonable choice if you've already done a more built-up beach destination and want something calmer.

Stone Town

Zanzibar's old capital is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it's worth at least a full day even for travelers whose main priority is the beach. Narrow alleys, ornately carved wooden doors, the old fort, and the Old Slave Market (now the site of the Anglican Cathedral, with a sobering memorial in its grounds) all sit within a compact, walkable core. It's also the best place on the island for genuinely good food, with a strong Swahili-Arabic-Indian culinary fusion reflecting the island's trading history — the Forodhani Gardens night food market, right on the waterfront, is a low-key essential for a first evening in town. Most visitors base themselves in Stone Town for one or two nights at the start or end of the trip, rather than the whole stay, given how different the pace is from the beach resorts.

Spice tours and Jozani Forest

Zanzibar earned its old nickname, the "Spice Island," from centuries as a major clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon trading hub, and a half-day spice tour — walking through a working plantation, smelling and tasting things straight off the plant — is one of the better cultural add-ons on the island, usually arranged as an easy day trip from Stone Town. Jozani Forest, the island's only national park, is the best place to see the red colobus monkey, a species found nowhere else on earth, and pairs well with the spice tour as a single day out.

Combining Zanzibar with a mainland safari

This is one of the most common and genuinely effective itinerary patterns in East Africa: a safari in the Serengeti or Ngorongoro Crater, followed by a flight to Zanzibar to unwind on the coast. The logistics are straightforward — direct flights connect Zanzibar to Arusha, Kilimanjaro, and Dar es Salaam, all common safari gateway points — and the contrast between a few intense days of early-morning game drives and several days of doing very little on a beach is, for a lot of travelers, exactly the pacing a longer trip needs. A week on safari followed by four or five days on Zanzibar's coast is a well-tested structure that neither rushes the wildlife nor shortchanges the beach. Our best safari parks and Great Migration guide covers the Serengeti side of that combination in detail.

Getting around

Ferries connect Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam on the mainland, roughly a two-hour crossing, though flying is faster and only modestly more expensive if time matters. On the island itself, resorts typically arrange airport transfers, and taxis or arranged drivers are the standard way to move between Stone Town and the beach coasts — self-driving is uncommon and not particularly recommended given road conditions and local driving norms.

Where to stay

Accommodation ranges from backpacker-friendly beach bungalows on the east coast to high-end resorts on the north coast, with genuinely wide variation in what "beachfront" means in practice given the tidal differences described above — always check recent reviews specifically for water access at low tide if that matters to your plans. Stone Town's boutique hotels, often set in converted historic merchant houses, are worth the modest premium over generic mid-range options for the atmosphere alone.

Booking a Zanzibar trip

Search hotels for both Stone Town and the beach coasts, and pair the island with a safari or tour on the mainland, all on Tripvia. If you're not sure which coast fits your priorities — swimming at any tide versus kitesurfing wind versus a quieter, less developed stay — a local expert can point you to the right stretch of beach before you book, which is a genuinely useful five-minute conversation to have before committing to a resort you can't easily change once you've arrived.

The bottom line

Zanzibar's reputation is well earned, but which beach you pick changes the trip more than most first-time visitors expect — check the tide behavior for your chosen coast before booking, plan at least a full day in Stone Town regardless of how beach-focused the rest of the trip is, and if a mainland safari is anywhere in the plan, the Zanzibar-as-the-relaxing-second-half pattern is about as well-tested as East African itineraries get.