From swimming with wild dolphins to exploring 1,000-year-old Stone Town — here's your definitive Zanzibar bucket list. Updated for 2026 with insider tips from our local team.
Zanzibar is one of those rare destinations that manages to be all things at once: a world-class beach paradise, a UNESCO historical city, a wildlife haven, a culinary adventure, and a cultural immersion. With so much on offer, knowing where to focus your limited time is essential. Here are our top 10 experiences curated by people who have lived here for decades.
1. Swim with Wild Dolphins at Mnemba Island
Swimming with wild spinner dolphins in the turquoise waters off Mnemba Island is arguably the single most extraordinary experience Zanzibar offers. These are wild, free animals not captive performers and the encounters are magical precisely because they're entirely on the dolphins' terms. Our Mnemba Island Snorkeling Tour is consistently rated our #1 experience. Book the tour here.
2. Explore UNESCO Stone Town
Stone Town is one of the most extraordinary urban environments in Africa and the world. It is a living, breathing city of 1,000 years of continuous habitation. Get lost in the alleyways, discover the carved doors, sit in a chai house watching life pass by, and absorb the complex layers of Omani, Indian, African, and European history that created this remarkable place. Book a guided walking tour here.
3. Experience Safari Blue
Safari Blue is the iconic full-day tour that combines snorkeling, sandbanks, mangroves, and the most legendary seafood lunch in Zanzibar. It is an experience so good that many guests book it twice. The grilled lobster feast on a deserted sandbar in the middle of the ocean is worth the trip to Zanzibar on its own. Book Safari Blue here.
4. Watch the Sunset from a Dhow
Zanzibar's sunsets are world-famous for good reason. Witnessing one from a traditional wooden dhow — glass of sundowner cocktail in hand, live Taarab music floating over the water, the old Stone Town skyline silhouetted against the glowing sky — is an experience of pure, uncomplicated joy. Book the cruise here.
5. Visit a Spice Farm
Understanding why Zanzibar is called the Spice Island requires a visit to a working spice farm. Smelling fresh vanilla, tasting raw cinnamon bark from the tree, and discovering the extraordinary range of spices grown here transforms your understanding of the island's history and your appreciation for the remarkable ingredients you use every day.
6. Snorkel at Nakupenda Sandbank
Nakupenda ("I Love You") is a miraculous sandbar that emerges from the turquoise sea between Stone Town and Prison Island at low tide. Snorkeling the surrounding reef and then having a grilled fish BBQ lunch on the sand, with nothing but ocean in every direction, is an experience that belongs on every traveller's bucket list. Book the tour here.
7. Take a Cooking Class
Zanzibari cuisine is extraordinary. The Village Tour & Traditional Cooking Class is a fusion of East African, Arab, Indian, and Portuguese culinary traditions that creates dishes unlike anything you'll taste anywhere else. Learning to cook with a local family, using spices you picked yourself that morning, is one of the most intimate and memorable cultural experiences the island offers. Book the class here.
8. Feed Giant Tortoises on Prison Island
Meeting the 150-year-old giant Aldabra tortoises on Prison Island is one of those experiences that defies expectation. These prehistoric creatures regard you with ancient, unconcerned eyes and accept offerings of grass with regal dignity. The knowledge that they were alive during the Zanzibar Sultanate, through two World Wars, through independence and independence again, is genuinely humbling. Book the tour here.
9. Discover the Night Market at Forodhani Gardens
Every evening from around 6pm, the beautiful Forodhani Gardens in Stone Town transform into one of Africa's best street food markets. Vendors grill octopus, calamari, sugar-cane juice, Zanzibar pizza (a local street food speciality), and dozens of other local dishes right before your eyes. Eating here under the stars, surrounded by locals and travellers, is the quintessential Stone Town experience.
10. Simply Be on a Zanzibar Beach
Sometimes the most extraordinary thing you can do in Zanzibar is nothing at all. The beaches of Zanzibar, from Nungwi, Kendwa, Paje, Matemwe, and Nakupenda are genuinely among the finest in the world. White coral sand, impossibly blue water, palm trees, and the knowledge that you are on one of the world's great islands. Some moments require no activity to be perfect.