Zanzibar Stone Town Travel Guide

Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island, Zanzibar, offers much more than a tropical vacation with its pristine white beaches, spice gardens, warm people, and untouched nature. We began our exploration of this beautiful island in Zanzibar’s capital, Stone Town.

Stone Town Travel Guide: Transportation and Visa

Firstly, our flight was not direct to Zanzibar, but to Tanzania’s capital, Dar Es Salaam. Upon landing in Dar Es Salaam, we paid $50 per person and obtained our visas at the airport. You can check your visa requirement from here.

There are two ways to get to the island from here: ferry or small plane. To save time, we chose the small plane. And within 20 minutes on these toy-like aircraft, we were in Zanzibar. There are at least 5-6 different companies offering propeller planes. We flew with Coastal. You can check the Dar Es Salaam – Zanzibar flight options and prices from here, and book your tickets online.

Stone Town Travel Guide: Accommodation

Because we were planning to go to other parts of the island later on, we chose city accommodation instead of a beachfront hotel in Stone Town.

We stayed one night at Alminar Hotel and one night at Abuso Inn, total of two nights in Stone Town. Alminar Hotel offered free shuttle service from airport to Stone Town. At Abuso Inn on the other hand, the hotel and rooms were generally nicer. Both of our hotels served breakfast, and it was quite delicious. Being in a tropical place, we had breakfasts rich in fruits.

You can find other Stone Town hotel options here.

Booking.com

Stone Town Travel Guide: Internet

If you want to avoid any internet inconveniences while exploring, you can purchase an e-sim from Airalo here. When making your first e-sim purchase on Airalo, use the code IAMONT3974 to receive a $3 discount. 🙂

Zanzibar Stone Town: Places to Visit

Streets of Zanzibar

As soon as we arrived in Zanzibar, we headed to the streets of Stone Town. This island has been used as an exploitative colony throughout history by Iran, Oman, Portugal, and England. The encounter of all these different cultures with African culture gave rise to the streets of Stone Town. We let ourselves loose in these narrow and colorful streets of the city. These streets are filled with shops where you can buy souvenirs. Undoubtedly, the must-haves are miniatures of Masai tribe members, who live in Northern Tanzania and Kenya. I’m sure you’ll find many things you like in these souvenir shops, but my advice is to definitely try bargaining. 🙂

Old Slave Market/Anglican Cathedral

Formerly a slave market, now transformed into a museum; Old Slave Market/Anglican Cathedral. Here, we saw the rooms where slaves used to live in cramped conditions, almost without seeing daylight, and the real chains placed around their necks. Additionally, in the garden of the museum, there is a monument representing the slave trade. The pictures inside the museum, the rooms, the gloom, and the fact that all this actually happened have such a powerful effect on a person.

Freddy Mercury’s House

Famous artist Freddy Mercury, born in Zanzibar in 1946, spent a part of his childhood in this house in Stone Town. Freddy Mercury, who made Zanzibar known to the world, is greatly loved by local people. Therefore, it’s possible to see the famous artist’s name in many places. We didn’t enter this house turned museum. But visiting this house is one of the important tourist activities of Stone Town. The entrance fee is $8.

The Beach

In the late afternoon, a market with various street foods is set up on the beach. We visited the stalls around dinner time. If you don’t have hygiene concerns, you can have a very filling meal here for a very reasonable price. However, we didn’t dare to eat from here.

Prison Island

On our second day in Stone Town, we decided to go to Prison Island. It’s an island where slaves, prisoners, those with contagious diseases were held in the past. There are many boats doing tours like this by the sea.

We arranged one of them and paid $10 per person to go to Prison Island. It is 20 minutes away from Stone Town. This island turned its back on its dark history, and has become a tourist area. Here, we saw the building that used to be a prison.

Then we moved to a section where there were giant tortoises and fed them lettuce. These tortoises, the oldest of which is 160 years old, seemed quite pleased with the attention from tourists. We spent about two hours on Prison Island and then returned to Stone Town.

Local Market

The other stop of our second day in Stone Town was the Local Market. This market, where the local people buy food, clothes, was quite crowded. Or rather, it was like a real carnival. The sounds, the colors, the fruits, the vegetables, and, on the other hand, the animals being sold.

Stone Town Travel Guide: Social Life

Majority of Zanzibar’s population is Muslim, and as a sign of Oman influence, they wear the same hats as them. The majority of the people here live below the poverty line. Just strolling through a few streets will be enough for you to get an idea of the living conditions of the local people. While we were walking in streets, we chatted with the people as much as possible. The people are very friendly. There’s a sentence that everyone says, which means “No problem, everything’s fine”; Hakuna Matata. If you know this sentence, you’re all set, you’re already among them 🙂

The doors of the houses here are so beautifully and meticulously made that regardless of how old the houses are, the doors shine as if they’re saying “I’m here,” attracting attention. I learned that Zanzibar is famous for its doors and that there is even a book called “Doors of Zanzibar” when I came here. To show a few examples of these beauties;

As we wandered the streets without looking at the map, we discovered new things. Some houses seemed so old and fragile that they had added supports to keep them standing. We watched a football match that young kids were playing in the schoolyard.

Despite all these challenges, local people were so positive that it was impossible not to be affected. They don’t hesitate to laugh, and they don’t make you feel like a stranger. You hear Hakuna Matata song from somewhere at any moment, and you start singing involuntarily.