The atmospheric cultural heart — Stone Town, a UNESCO-listed labyrinth of narrow alleys, coral-stone buildings, carved wooden doors, bazaars, mosques, sultans' palaces and Swahili history, right by the harbour. Fascinating, characterful and walkable (if maze-like), the arrival point and cultural core; the base for a night or two to soak up the history, markets and food before the beach. Zanzibar's soulful, storied side. Enchanting and evocative.
A look around
What you’ll be living next to. Swipe through.
$60–140
typical per night in Tanzania
The sensible middle
Typical prices for Zanzibar — neither steal nor splurge.
Where it sits
The circle is Stone Town and roughly a 10-minute walk around it.
How far is everything?
From the middle of this area to the city's headline sights — pick your own on the city page and these become your list.
- Jozani Forest & red colobus81 min taxi27.1 km
- Snorkelling & diving111 min taxi37.2 km
- The white-sand beaches118 min taxi39.4 km
- Kitesurfing at Paje118 min taxi39.4 km
- The Rock Restaurant121 min taxi40.3 km
- Snorkelling at Mnemba Atoll131 min taxi43.8 km
- Nungwi & Kendwa (beach)149 min taxi49.8 km
- A sunset dhow cruise149 min taxi49.8 km
- Nungwi & the northern tip149 min taxi49.8 km
On your doorstep
What you’re living next to if you stay here.
- 1.Explore Stone Town — The soul of the island — Stone Town, a UNESCO-listed labyrinth of narrow, winding alleys lined with weathered coral-stone buildings, ornately carved wooden doors, bustling bazaars, mosques and grand old palaces, reflecting a thousand years of Swahili, Arab, Indian and European trading history. Getting delightfully lost in its maze, discovering a spice market, a hidden café or a sultan's palace around each corner, is the essential Zanzibar cultural experience. Wander with no fixed plan, admire the famous doors, and soak up the exotic atmosphere. Utterly captivating and unmissable. Magical and evocative.
- 3.A spice farm tour — Zanzibar is the fabled 'Spice Island', and a spice-farm tour is a delicious, fragrant highlight — wander the lush plantations with a guide who plucks and shares cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, cardamom, pepper and exotic fruits straight from the trees, explaining their history and uses, often with tastings, a Swahili lunch and palm-tree climbing thrown in. It's a fascinating, aromatic window into the island's spice-trading heritage that gave it its wealth and name. A wonderful, sensory and only-in-Zanzibar experience. A must-do; aromatic and enlightening.
- 5.Forodhani Night Market — The tastiest evening in Stone Town — the Forodhani Gardens Night Market, where each sunset the seafront gardens fill with stalls grilling fresh seafood skewers, lobster, octopus and fish, cooking up 'Zanzibar pizza' (a savoury-or-sweet stuffed pancake), sugarcane juice and samosas, amid a buzzing, social crowd. Graze your way around the smoky stalls as the sun sets over the harbour and the dhows; it's a delicious, atmospheric and quintessentially Zanzibar experience. A wonderful, only-in-Stone-Town highlight. Come hungry; tasty and lively. A must at dusk.
- 7.The slavery history & Anglican Cathedral — A profoundly moving and important part of Stone Town's story — the site of the former slave market, once one of East Africa's largest, now home to the Anglican Cathedral (built on the spot as a symbol of abolition) and a powerful, unflinching museum with memorials and the preserved holding cells beneath. Visiting the museum and cathedral is a sobering, essential reckoning with the island's dark history as a centre of the East African slave trade. Deeply affecting and important; a vital counterpoint to the island's beauty. A moving, essential visit. Sombre but necessary.
When are you staying?
Booking.com & Airbnb open searched to Stone Town; flights via Google Flights.