Things to Do in Zanzibar: How to Plan a Week
A week in Zanzibar is enough time to see the island's main sights without rushing: the old lanes of Stone Town, a spice farm near Kizimbani, the tortoises of Prison Island, a full day sailing on the Safari Blue route, a morning looking for dolphins off Kizimkazi, and the red colobus monkeys of Jozani forest. Add two or three days on a north coast beach and you have a trip that mixes culture, wildlife and the sea in roughly equal measure.
The island is small enough that most of these places are within an hour or two of each other by road, so a week lets you group activities by area rather than criss-crossing back and forth. Below is a practical order to do things in, what each stop actually involves, and a simple day-by-day plan you can adjust around your flights.
Stone Town: start with a half day in the old town
Stone Town is Zanzibar's old trading port and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, built from coral stone with narrow lanes, carved wooden doors and buildings that date back to the nineteenth century. Highlights include the House of Wonders, the Old Fort, the former slave market site and the fish and spice markets near Darajani. It rewards slow walking rather than a checklist, and most visitors need three to four hours to see the main sites properly.
A Private Stone Town Walking Tour with a local guide is useful here, since the old town has no street signs in the way visitors expect and many buildings only make sense with some background. Guides typically cover the market, the House of Wonders and a few of the historical sites along the waterfront in a single morning or afternoon session.
Go early morning or late afternoon to avoid the midday heat, which is intense in the stone-walled lanes with little shade. Wear comfortable shoes for uneven paving, and keep shoulders and knees covered, since parts of the old town are residential and some sites, such as mosques, expect modest dress.
A spice farm tour: what it actually involves
Zanzibar earned the name Spice Island from plantations established in the nineteenth century, and farms around Kizimbani still grow cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, black pepper and cardamom. A spice farm tour is a walk through a working smallholding, usually led by a farmer or guide who breaks open pods, rubs leaves and lets you smell and taste as you go, rather than a formal lecture.
Most visits run for two to three hours and end with a tasting of tropical fruit grown on the same land, followed by a lunch cooked with the spices just seen. The Zanzibar Spice Tour and Lunch Experience follows this format, combining the farm walk with a local meal afterwards.
Spice farms sit inland, roughly thirty to forty minutes from Stone Town, on the same road that leads towards Jozani forest. Because of this, many visitors pair the two in a single day rather than treating them as separate outings, which saves on driving time.
Prison Island and the Nakupenda sandbank
Prison Island, also known as Changuu, is a short boat ride of around twenty minutes from Stone Town harbour. It takes its name from a building constructed as a prison in the nineteenth century, though it was never used for that purpose and now houses a small visitor centre. The main draw is a colony of giant tortoises, some well over a century old, brought from Aldabra and kept in an enclosure you can walk through.
Many day trips combine Prison Island with the Nakupenda sandbank, a stretch of white sand that appears in the shallows south of Stone Town at low tide and disappears again as the water rises. The Prison Island and Nakupenda Sandbank Tour covers both in one outing, usually with swimming, snorkelling and a seafood lunch cooked on the sandbank.
Because the sandbank depends on tide times, departure times shift from day to day, so operators usually confirm the schedule the evening before. Bring a hat, reef shoes if you have them, and a change of clothes, since there is little shade out on the sand.
The Safari Blue boat day in the south
Safari Blue is the name given locally to a full-day boat trip run from Fumba, on the south-west coast, through the Menai Bay Conservation Area. The format is a traditional dhow sailing between mangrove channels, sandbanks and reef, with stops for snorkelling in calmer, clearer water than you find off the busier north coast beaches.
A typical day runs seven to eight hours and includes snorkelling gear, a stop to swim near mangroves, and a seafood lunch grilled on a sandbank at low tide, often with fresh fruit served afterwards. Operators vary in size and style, so it is worth asking in advance how many guests will be on the boat.
Because Fumba and Kizimkazi are both on the southern coast, a number of visitors combine a Safari Blue day with an early dolphin trip on a separate morning, using the same stretch of road rather than returning south twice from Stone Town.
Dolphins at Kizimkazi: what to expect, and the caveats
Kizimkazi, a fishing village on the southern tip of Zanzibar, is known for resident pods of bottlenose and humpback dolphins that feed in the shallow water offshore. Boat trips leave early, usually between six and eight in the morning, when the sea is calmer and the dolphins are more active near the surface.
It is worth knowing that dolphin numbers around Kizimkazi have drawn concern in recent years, with multiple boats sometimes converging on the same pod. Choosing a smaller operator that keeps a distance and does not chase the animals makes for a better outcome for the dolphins and a calmer trip for you, though no operator can guarantee a sighting.
Bring a snorkel and mask if you want to get in the water once dolphins are spotted, along with seasickness tablets if you are prone to it, since the approach can be choppy before sunrise settles the water.
Jozani forest and the mangrove canoe trip
Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park, roughly forty minutes from Stone Town, is the only place on the main island where you can see the red colobus monkey, a species found nowhere else in the world. A boardwalk trail leads through groundwater forest and a patch of mangrove swamp, with a guide pointing out monkeys, which are generally easy to spot and unafraid of people.
Some operators extend the visit into a longer day that includes a village stop and a mangrove canoe paddle through the tidal channels nearby, which gives a different view of the same ecosystem from water level. The Private Full Day Trip Exploring the Zanzibar Nature covers the forest, a village visit and the canoe stretch in one outing.
Morning visits generally give better chances of seeing the monkeys active and feeding, and since Jozani sits on the same road as the spice farms, it pairs naturally with a spice tour on the same day.
North coast beaches and watersports: Kendwa and Nungwi
Zanzibar's north coast, around Kendwa and Nungwi, is where most visitors base themselves for beach days. Nungwi has a wide stretch of sand and a cluster of dive operators, while Kendwa, a short drive further round the coast, is less affected by the tide, meaning the beach stays swimmable through most of the day rather than disappearing at low water.
Kendwa is also a base for watersports, including jet skiing along the shoreline. The Jet Ski Experience from Kendwa Beach runs short sessions suited to a free afternoon, and is a straightforward add-on if you are already staying along this stretch of coast.
Evenings at Kendwa draw a crowd for sunset, with beach bars setting up tables on the sand, which makes it a reasonable place to end a day that started further south or inland.
A sunset dhow cruise to close out the day
A sunset dhow cruise uses the same traditional sailing boats found around the island, departing in the late afternoon from Stone Town or a nearby beach and sailing slowly along the coast as the light changes. There is little to do beyond sit, watch the water and the shore, which makes it a quieter counterpart to the more active days built around snorkelling or wildlife.
The Zanzibar Romantic Sunset Cruise with Dinner adds a cooked dinner served on board, typically fresh seafood, timed to the sunset itself rather than a fixed clock time.
This works well as an evening slotted in after a Stone Town day, since the dhow usually departs from the same harbour area, or as a closing activity on your last evening before an early flight.
A simple seven-day plan
Day one: arrival and transfer to your hotel, with the rest of the day free to settle in. Day two: Stone Town in the morning, dhow cruise and dinner in the evening. Day three: spice farm tour combined with Jozani forest, both on the same inland road. Day four: Prison Island and the Nakupenda sandbank, a full day based from Stone Town harbour.
Day five: the Safari Blue boat day from Fumba, a longer outing best treated as a full day with no other plans attached. Day six: an early dolphin trip at Kizimkazi, followed by rest in the afternoon, since the morning start is early. Day seven: move north to Kendwa or Nungwi for a beach day, with jet skiing or simply swimming, before departure.
This order groups the southern activities, Prison Island, Safari Blue and Kizimkazi, around similar driving distances, and leaves the beach days for the end of the trip when a slower pace is welcome. A private airport transfer at the start and end of the week keeps the logistics simple if you are moving between Stone Town and the north coast.
Practical notes: season, transport and what to bring
Zanzibar has two dry seasons, roughly June to October and December to February, when rainfall is lowest and seas are calmer for boat trips such as Safari Blue and the dolphin tours. March to May brings the long rains, with heavier downpours that can affect boat departures, though Stone Town and the spice farms remain accessible year-round.
Roads outside Stone Town are mixed, with some stretches unpaved, so most day trips include transport as part of the arrangement rather than expecting visitors to self-drive. A private driver or transfer is the simplest way to move between the north coast and the southern sights in a single day.
Pack modest clothing for Stone Town and the spice farm, reef shoes or sandals that can get wet for sandbank and canoe stops, and sun protection for boat days, since there is often little shade once out on the water.