Traveling to Zanzibar – paradise beaches, Stone Town and giant tortoises

Writer: Helena Bergström

Updated: October 2026 | Traveling to Zanzibar was never really part of our plan. We had traveled to Kenya over Christmas and New Year 2007/2008, but after the unrest in connection with the election, the trip took a completely different turn. We left Kenya, continued through Tanzania and finally ended up in Zanzibar. There were paradise beaches, extreme tides, boat trips, giant turtles and the occasional unexpected encounter.

An unplanned trip to Zanzibar

When we traveled to East Africa, we had not planned to visit Tanzania We had booked cheap flights to Nairobi and packed our backpacks, but after the elections in Kenya in December 2007, serious unrest broke out. We eventually left the country and crossed the border into Tanzania.

This was long before the days when you always had the internet and Google Maps in your pocket. Our Lonely Planet was about Kenya and of course we didn't have a guidebook for Tanzania. We simply continued on and ended up first in Tanga, where we stayed for a few days at a wonderful overlander place by the sea.

After Tanga – local bus to Dar es Salaam

After a few days in Tanga we continued south by local bus towards Dar es Salaam. This was still the time when we traveled with a guidebook in our backpack – and our Lonely Planet was unfortunately about Kenya. We had no smartphone, no Google Maps and no way to quickly google a hotel. However, someone had given us a piece of paper with an address in Dar es Salaam. That was pretty much our entire plan.

The bus journey took many hours and somewhere along the way there was a pee break. Everyone simply got off and disappeared a few meters into the grass and bushes next to the road. The women had long skirts and managed to do it all surprisingly discreetly. I myself had pants on and was very grateful that I didn't have to pee much. I remembered that a long skirt is a practical travel item.

When we finally arrived in Dar es Salaam, we were greeted by a throng of people, cars and vendors. Almost as soon as the bus stopped, people started to come out. A man ran towards us with a carved wooden chair and shouted ”"Mzungu! Mzungu!"” while he was trying to sell it to us. Exactly why two newly arrived backpackers with large backpacks would want to buy a wooden chair was a bit unclear.

An address on a piece of paper

We grabbed our backpacks, found a taxi and showed the driver the address on our piece of paper. He drove us to a quiet residential area with large houses and hedges. At the right address there was a gate and a guard.

The taxi disappeared. And then came the question: ”"Which organization are you from?"” Organization? That's when we realized that this was probably no ordinary hotel. But we were standing there with our backpacks, without internet, without a guidebook to Tanzania and without a plan B. At the time, I was working with public health issues in Sweden and got this out of me: ”Swedish public health.” It worked. We were let in.

Dinner with the world's aid workers

We were given a room and asked if we wanted to join the dinner that evening. Of course we wanted to. Aid workers from different parts of the world were sitting at a long table and a burly woman was walking around, ladling soup onto everyone's plates.

There we sat. We ate our stew and barely dared to talk to anyone. Because what would happen if someone asked which organization we actually worked for? Swedish public health would perhaps not hold up to any particularly advanced follow-up questions...

So we ate in silence, thanked each other for the food, and retired to our room. The next morning we set off for the ferry to Zanzibar.

First class to Zanzibar – we thought

We had heard that you should be careful when buying ferry tickets in Dar es Salaam. Tourists could be scammed or taken to vendors who were not the official ones. Therefore, we were very clear with the taxi driver: ”"Take us to the real office."”

He drove us to a neat and very trustworthy ticket office. There we had the choice between first and second class. The price difference wasn't very big, so we went for it. first class. We could treat ourselves to a little luxury after this trip, right?

With the tickets safely in hand, we continued towards the port. And there was the real ticket office. Fortunately, the tickets we had bought were genuine – but we had paid too much for them. Oh well. At least we had first class.

Then we saw the boat. It was open. There was no first class. There was no second class. There was a boat… And with it we left Dar es Salaam behind and set out across the sea towards Zanzibar.

Paradise beach in Zanzibar

At first we lived on a paradise beach a good distance from Stone Town. Now, almost 20 years later, when we have gone through our old photographs and tried to reconstruct the trip, there is much to suggest that it was in Paje on the east coast of Zanzibar. However, we haven't been able to figure out exactly which small accommodation we stayed in.

And maybe it doesn't matter that much. What we remember is the beach. White sand, palm trees and warm turquoise water – exactly that stereotypical image of Zanzibar that you almost suspect is too beautiful to be true. But here it was real.

When the whole sea disappeared

The most fascinating thing was the tides. The beaches on the east coast of Zanzibar are very shallow and the difference between high and low tide can be enormous. At low tide the sea receded so far that it almost looked like it had disappeared.

We were able to walk far out over the exposed seabed and a few hours later order was restored and the water was back in. It is still one of the things we most clearly associate with Zanzibar.

For those traveling here to swim, it's good to know the tides. On many beaches along the east coast, you can't just step out and swim at any time of day. On the other hand, the change is part of the experience.

Christmas balls and new acquaintances

It was Christmas and New Year's Eve when we were in Zanzibar, although the Christmas spirit may not have really set in between the palm trees.

At least there was a Christmas tree at a restaurant near our place. There we met a French woman who was working as an aid worker somewhere in Africa and was now on leave. She was a colorful person, to say the least, and at some point Christmas baubles started to be thrown.

Why? No idea anymore. We still have the photographs and that should be enough proof that it actually happened...

It was a bit of that kind of trip. We didn't have a detailed plan and met people who were in the middle of different adventures themselves. After the drama in Kenya, it was also nice to just stop for a few days and enjoy the sea.

Onward to Stone Town

After the beach life, we headed back towards Stone Town. Here too, we did some travel archaeology among our old photographs.

We remember a charming seaside accommodation, with a pool, thatched bungalows and a fantastic setting on a small bay. After some detective work we think it may have been back then Hakuna Matata Beach Lodge in Chuini, just north of Stone Town. We are not 100% sure and after almost 20 years we are not going to pretend to be.

However, we remember that we were lucky with our room. Our bungalow was located farthest from the water, with a large veranda where you could sit and look out over the sea. After the much simpler accommodations we had had earlier on the trip, it felt like pure luxury.

Plus, the sunsets here were absolutely magical.

Lost in the alleys of Stone Town

Of course, we also spent time in Stone Town, the historical heart of Zanzibar. Here the environment is completely different from the paradise beaches, with a maze of narrow alleys, old stone houses, beautifully carved doors and small shops. We thought the best way to discover the city was to simply walk around and see where we ended up.

Stone Town has been shaped by centuries of trade and encounters between Swahili, Arab, Indian and European cultures. The historic city has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. It also contains traces of Zanzibar's dark history as an important center for the slave trade in East Africa.

And then of course there is the connection to Freddie Mercury. The Queen singer was born here in 1946 as Farrokh Bulsara and spent part of his childhood in Zanzibar. Of course, we couldn't help but notice that connection and ended up at, among other things, Mercury's, a waterfront bar and restaurant named after him.

It is precisely this combination that makes Stone Town so interesting. Zanzibar is not just white beaches and turquoise waters. A few kilometers from the beach resorts lies a city with a long, complicated and fascinating history.

”"No problem! It's my island"”

One of the stories from Zanzibar that we still laugh about started when we became curious about an island off the coast where giant tortoises were said to live. We asked a man at our accommodation if it was possible to arrange an excursion there.

We understood him to be the owner of the accommodation, but we no longer know exactly what role he had. He chuckled anyway and replied: ”"No problem! It's my island."”

What he really meant by that, we still don't know. Did he own anything there? Was he involved in the business? Or was it just his way of expressing himself? It was a boat trip anyway.

Giant tortoises on Prison Island

Now that we have retrieved the photographs again, we have been able to identify the island as Changuu Island, considerably more famous among visitors who Prison Island. It is located just outside Stone Town and is primarily known for its Aldabra giant tortoises.

And we really did see giant tortoises. In the pictures, Peter is standing with enormous tortoises, and it's almost only now that we see the photographs again that we realize how big they actually were.

We also walked around the island, among greenery and strange coral cliffs, and watched the sea retreat over the shallow bottom. It was a short day trip, but an experience that still remains in the memory.

Zanzibar turned out to be something completely different than we imagined.

The strange thing is that none of this should have happened. We were supposed to be traveling in Kenya. We weren't going to Tanzania and definitely not to Zanzibar. Yet here we ended up, after local buses, a border crossing, an impromptu stop in Tanga, an address on a piece of paper in Dar es Salaam and finally a ferry across the Indian Ocean.

Maybe that's why we still remember Zanzibar so fondly. The island was of course amazing in itself, but it was also the end of an intense and unpredictable journey. After everything that had happened, it was quite wonderful to sit under a palm tree and realize that the biggest problem at the moment was that the sea had disappeared due to the low tide.