Top 9 Things to Do in Zanzibar from Kenya: Beyond the Beaches

Stone Town: Carved Doors, Coffee Corners and the Forodhani Grills

Start in the old town, because nearly all the other things to do in Zanzibar are a drive or a short boat ride from its seafront. UNESCO listed it in 2000 as an outstanding example of a Swahili trading town, and on the ground that means a knot of lanes too narrow for cars, lined with 2-storey houses built around open courtyards, with stone benches called barazas along their front steps where neighbours sit and talk. The doors are what everyone photographs, elaborately carved double 'Zanzibar' doors in UNESCO's words, and if you've walked Mombasa's Old Town, the style will look familiar.

The seafront is where the town comes together at the end of the day. Forodhani Gardens, a waterfront park restored in 2009, turns into an open-air food market as the sun goes down: grills of fish and octopus, Zanzibar pizza folded and fried to order, and sugarcane pressed with ginger and lime. Back in the lanes, Jaws Corner is the old town's coffee square, where small cups of strong, unsweetened coffee are poured from a kettle kept hot over charcoal and drunk on the barazas.

A few of the big landmarks are under repair, and it's worth knowing which before you build a morning around them. The House of Wonders, a ceremonial palace from 1883 and among the first buildings in East Africa with electricity, partly collapsed in December 2020 and is still being restored, so it's one to admire from the gardens rather than from inside. The Old Fort beside it, built by Omani Arabs around 1700 where a Portuguese church once stood, is being turned into a cultural centre, so what's open inside depends on how far the work has got. Darajani, the main market since 1904, sells fish, meat, fruit and sacks of spices, and the Old Dispensary, built in the 1880s and 1890s as a charitable hospital, is a short walk away.

The town's hardest history is here too. The last open slave market on the island closed in 1873, and where it stood there's now a memorial and an exhibition, opened in 2016, that's worth an hour early in your stay. A guided walk through the lot takes about 3 hours, and 2 nights in Stone Town leaves room for the islands offshore.

Giant Tortoises on Prison Island, Then a Sandbank Called Nakupenda

Changuu, better known as Prison Island, is about 30 minutes by boat from the harbour, and its English name oversells its past. A prison was finished there in 1894 and never held a prisoner; it became a quarantine station instead, for travellers suspected of carrying yellow fever, which is a neat thing to know with your own certificate in your bag. Today the island's best-known residents are giant tortoises brought over from the Seychelles, some of them more than a century old, living in a sanctuary you stroll through at their pace, and the water around the island is good for snorkelling. The island tour runs from 9am to 3:30pm, so it suits a morning.

The trip is often paired with Nakupenda, a strip of white sand that rises out of the sea at low tide and slips back under as the water comes in. Kenyan readers won't need the name translated. There's no shade on it at all, so a hat matters more than a towel, and the timing follows the tide rather than the clock. Together they're one of the easiest things to do in Zanzibar on a half-day from town.

Jozani Forest and the Red Colobus Monkeys Found Only on Zanzibar

The island's only national park lies about 35 km south-east of town, just off the road to Paje, so it slots neatly into the drive to the east coast. It's been a national park since 2004, a patchwork of mangroves, tropical forest and coral-rag forest, and it's the stronghold of the Zanzibar red colobus, an endangered monkey that lives on these islands and nowhere else in the world. A 2017 census counted more than 5,800 of them, most of them inside protected areas like this one. It's the one wildlife outing among the things to do in Zanzibar that doesn't need a boat.

A visit is a guided walk in 2 halves. The forest trail takes under an hour, and guides keep you at least 3 m back from the monkeys, which is closer than it sounds. Nearby, a boardwalk runs through the mangroves above a tidal creek, the quieter, greener half of the visit. Sykes' monkeys and Aders' duiker live here too, the wider reserve counts about 168 kinds of bird, and the morning is the cooler time to walk Jozani Forest.

A Morning Among the Clove Trees Near Kizimbani

Zanzibar's other name, the Spice Islands, comes from cloves, and of all the places to visit in Zanzibar, a spice farm is where that name starts to make sense. Cloves only arrived in the early 19th century, and by 1850 Zanzibar and Pemba were the world's biggest producers; most of today's crop is grown on Pemba, but the farms around Kizimbani, a short drive from town, still grow the whole spread. A guide walks you through the plots and hands you things to crush and smell: cinnamon bark, nutmeg in its red web of mace, vanilla pods, ginger, cardamom, and the clove buds themselves, which are picked by hand and dried on mats in the sun.

The main clove harvest runs from September to November. On the way back, the Kidichi Persian baths and the ruins of Maruhubi Palace make an easy 2-stop history add-on, and if you know the Kenyan coast, the smell will be familiar: the cloves in a Mombasa pilau are a nod to this island's long connection with the coast.

Mangapwani's Coral Cave and the Chamber Cut by Hand

About 20 km north of town, on the same road as the spice farms, Mangapwani has 2 caves that are easy to confuse and shouldn't be. The first is natural: a coral cavern you reach down a flight of stone steps, with a pool of fresh water at its lowest point. The second was cut by hand: a chamber dug into the coral rock around 1880, 7 years after the slave market in town closed, and used to hide people who were still being traded illegally. A modern memorial stands nearby. It's one of the quieter things to do in Zanzibar, and one that explains a lot about the old town. Paired with a spice farm, it fills a morning, with time to get back for Forodhani at sunset.

Where the Dhows Are Still Built: Nungwi and Kendwa in the Far North

Of the 9 places to visit in Zanzibar, the northern tip is one of the longest drives, about an hour to an hour and a half from town by road. Nungwi is a large fishing village with a long tradition of boatbuilding, and on the sand next to its fish market, builders still make wooden dhows by hand, in teams of 3 or 4 and without power tools; a 2014 study counted 5 or 6 boats a year coming off that beach. At the very tip, Ras Nungwi's lighthouse, a 14 m tower from 1926 on a station first lit in 1881, stands over the point; the grounds are open, but the tower isn't.

Kendwa, a short way down the west coast, faces west, so the sun drops straight into the sea at the end of the day, and watching it go is one of the simplest things to do in Zanzibar. Divers off this stretch regularly see green and hawksbill turtles, and the northern villages are also a jumping-off point for boats to Mnemba, about an hour away by sea.

Snorkelling the Reef Around Mnemba Island

Mnemba is a small island about 3 km off the north-east coast, and the island itself is private: a protected zone around it is kept for the guests of its lodge, so day visitors don't land. What the boats come for is the reef, an oval of coral roughly 7 km by 4 that rings the island inside a marine conservation area declared in 2002, where a conservation fee applies. The shortest crossing is from Muyuni beach near Matemwe, about 20 minutes, and Matemwe is about an hour's drive from town.

Green turtles nest on Zanzibar's offshore islands, Mnemba among them, mainly from February to July, with the peak in April and May, and snorkellers see them now and then on the reef, while dolphins are sometimes seen on the way out. Because boats leave from both the north and the north-east, it's one of the places to visit in Zanzibar that fits a stay on either coast.

Paje and Jambiani: Kites on the Lagoon, Seaweed Farms on the Flats

The south-east coast is one of the shorter transfers from the airport and about 50 minutes from town, and it's flat, shallow and wide open. Paje's lagoon sits behind an offshore reef that takes the waves out of it, so the water stays shallow over sand, and that's made the village one of the island's kitesurfing centres, with the windy months running from June to September and from mid-December to mid-March. Even if you've no plans to try it, the kites out on the water are part of the view.

Walk out at low tide and you're among the seaweed farms: rows of wooden stakes and lines on the flats, planted and picked at low water, mostly by women. Farming started in Jambiani in 1989, and a crop is ready roughly every 6 weeks, so the rows are worked right through the year. Jambiani, the next village south, is quieter, and its Kuza Cave, a limestone cave with a clear freshwater pool, is visited with a local guide.

It's also the easiest coast to reach after a late flight. Kenya Airways flights from Nairobi to Zanzibar land several times a day, including in the evening, and from the airport Paje is about an hour away, so an evening arrival can still mean your first night on the lagoon.

Kizimkazi and Menai Bay, Home Water for 2 Kinds of Dolphin

At the island's southern end, about an hour from town, Kizimkazi looks out over Menai Bay, a conservation area since 1997 of coral reef, seagrass and mangrove, scattered with small islands and sandbanks. The bay has resident dolphins, Indo-Pacific bottlenose and Indian Ocean humpback, so they're there all year, and boats go out from the 2 Kizimkazi villages, Dimbani and Mkunguni, to look for them. Zanzibar's fisheries department has issued guidelines on how boats and swimmers should behave around the dolphins. Between June and November, humpback whales come into the bay on their migration, and a morning out with them is one of the rarer things to do in Zanzibar.

Kizimkazi's mosque is worth a short stop on the way. A Kufic inscription dates it to 1107, which may make it the oldest Islamic building on the East African coast, though most of what stands today is a rebuild from the 1770s. It's still in use, so visitors dress modestly and ask before going in.

Getting Around: Taxis, Dala-Dalas and How Long Each Drive Takes

The island is small, but its roads are slow, so plan the things to do in Zanzibar in drive times rather than kilometres. Taxis don't use meters, so agree the fare before you get in, and for the day trips a driver for the day saves a lot of haggling; the shared dala-dalas, Zanzibar's answer to a matatu, run between town and the villages if you don't mind a squeeze. Swahili gets you a long way, too: Standard Swahili was built on Kiunguja, the Swahili spoken in Zanzibar Town, so you'll be understood everywhere you go.

All 9 places to visit in Zanzibar here are a day trip or less from town, so 2 bases cover the lot without a long drive every day.

Urojo, Zanzibar Pizza and Halal Food on the Island

Eating is one of the easiest things to do in Zanzibar well, because the best of it is street food and it's never far away. Urojo, sold as Zanzibar mix, is a tangy mango-and-turmeric broth piled with fried bhajia, potatoes, egg, kachumbari and skewers of grilled mishkaki, and you'll know it from the Kenyan coast, where it's eaten too. Zanzibar pizza is the other must: thin dough folded round a filling and fried on a hot griddle, and the story goes that it started when a Zanzibari cook tasted the egg chapati in Mombasa and brought the idea home. Pilau and biryani came with the island's Arab and Indian traders, and the grills at Forodhani do the rest.

On halal, the short answer is reassuring. Zanzibar is predominantly Muslim, and halal food is easy to come by, from the market stalls to the beach villages. What the island doesn't have yet is a halal certification body of its own, so if you need it confirmed, ask the kitchen; it's a normal question here. There are mosques throughout Stone Town, and the call to prayer sets the rhythm of the day.

How the 9 Places Fit Into 4, 5 or 7 Nights

The places to visit in Zanzibar are spread from the far north to the far south, so the trick is to split the stay between 2 bases rather than chase everything from one, and to let the day trips start from each. None of these plans needs a car of your own.

4 Nights: Stone Town and the East Coast

Spend 2 nights in the old town: the lanes and Forodhani on the first evening, Prison Island and Nakupenda the next morning, and a spice farm with Mangapwani after that. Then move to Paje or Jambiani for 2 nights, stopping at Jozani Forest on the drive across.

5 Nights: Add the North and Mnemba

Keep the 2 town nights, then go north for 3 nights in Nungwi or Kendwa, with a morning on the Mnemba reef from Matemwe and an evening watching the dhow builders and the sunset.

7 Nights: All 9 Places, Top to Bottom

Two nights in town, 3 in the north with Mnemba, then 2 on the south-east coast, with Jozani Forest on the way down and a morning dolphin boat from Kizimkazi before you fly home.

Zanzibar's Year: 2 Rainy Seasons, 2 Windy Ones and the Turtle Months

Most things to do in Zanzibar work in any month, but the weather decides how they feel. The island has 2 rainy seasons and they're not alike: the long rains peak in April, the wettest month by far, with more than 400 mm over about 18 rainy days, and May is still wet, while the short rains of November and December are lighter but still bring 12 to 14 rainy days a month. June to September is dry and at its coolest, and January and February are hot and mostly dry, with February seeing the fewest rainy days of the year.

Those are the long-term averages for 1991 to 2020 at the airport's weather station. The sea keeps a calendar of its own: the kite winds blow from June to September and again from mid-December to mid-March, green turtles nest on the offshore islands from February to July, and humpback whales pass through Menai Bay from June to November.

Nairobi to Zanzibar, Plus the Wilson, Mombasa and Dar Routes

The quickest way over is the obvious one. Kenya Airways flies from JKIA to Zanzibar several times a day, the flight takes about 1 hour 20 minutes, and since Kenya and Tanzania both keep East Africa Time, the clock on your ticket is the clock on the ground. On the way home, Air Tanzania and Precision Air also fly from Zanzibar to Nairobi, on routes that start in Dar es Salaam.

Safarilink also flies from Nairobi to Zanzibar, out of Wilson Airport rather than JKIA, calling at Mombasa on the way for most of the year; its afternoon flight goes non-stop from July to October and in late December, and the hop from Mombasa takes 45 to 50 minutes. There's no passenger ferry from Mombasa, so the only sea crossing is from Dar es Salaam, by fast ferry in about 2 hours, and arriving that way you still clear Zanzibar's own checks on the island.

Zanzibar's airport is about 5 km south of Zanzibar City, so Stone Town is around 15 minutes from arrivals and the beach villages about an hour.

Passport, Yellow Fever, Insurance and Ramadan: What Kenyans Need to Know

None of this gets in the way of the things to do in Zanzibar, but each of these rules catches somebody at the airport, and it's easier to sort them at home.

• Passport and visa - Kenyans need no visa for Tanzania, and East African citizens can be given a visitor's pass of up to 6 months. Fly on your passport, valid for at least 6 more months.
• Yellow fever certificate - Tanzania requires one from travellers arriving from Kenya, with the vaccination given at least 10 days before you land. Certificates are valid for life, and arriving without one can mean being refused entry, or being vaccinated on arrival and kept under observation for up to 10 days.
• Zanzibar's visitor insurance - compulsory since 1 October 2024, and it applies to Kenyans. It's bought before you travel, only from the island's state insurer through the government's visitor portal, covers up to 92 days, and comes as a certificate with a QR code that's checked when you land; your own travel policy doesn't replace it.
• Coming in via Dar es Salaam - the mainland began its own scheme on 1 October 2026 and exempts East African citizens, but that exemption doesn't carry over to Zanzibar, and nobody has to buy 2 policies for 1 trip.
• Plastic bags - plastic carrier bags aren't allowed into Tanzania and are taken off you on arrival. Zanzibar has run its own ban since 2006 and enforces it strictly, so the simplest plan is to pack with no plastic bags at all, zip-locks included.
• Ramadan - expected from about 8 February to 9 March 2027, depending on the moon. In 2026, restaurants and food stalls outside hotels stayed shut in daylight and reopened at sunset for iftar, hotels served their own guests indoors, and eating, drinking or smoking in public by day was restricted, so plan for the same.
• Dress - all year, cover shoulders and knees away from the beach. Swimwear belongs on the sand and at your hotel, not in Stone Town's lanes.
• Money - prices and payments in Tanzania are in Tanzanian shillings by law, so change money at a bank or bureau, or pay by card.

August, Not April: Fitting Zanzibar Into the Kenyan School Year

If you're travelling with children, the Kenyan school calendar and Zanzibar's weather line up far better in some breaks than in others. The April holiday lands in the island's wettest month, when the long rains are at their heaviest. The August holiday is the opposite: it falls in the dry season, with under 40 mm of rain in the whole month and some of the coolest nights of the year. The long holiday from late October runs into the short rains of November and December, and the weather turns once January comes round, with February drier still. And because the flight from Nairobi to Zanzibar is so short, even a half-term break is long enough for a few days on the island.

A few 2027 dates are worth planning around. Ramadan is expected from about 8 February to 9 March, which suits a quiet beach stay better than an old-town one. Sauti za Busara, the island's big music festival, runs from 19 to 21 March 2027 in Stone Town, moved later on purpose to fall after Ramadan and Eid. And in July, Makunduchi in the south holds Mwaka Kogwa, the Shirazi new year, with mock fights and a shared pilau on the beach.

Whichever break you choose, the things to do in Zanzibar stay the same and only the weather moves, so pick the month first, then compare flights to Zanzibar from Kenya for those exact dates, because the August holiday only runs about 3 weeks.

Disclaimer - General travel information drawn from Tanzania's immigration and health authorities, WHO, the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation, the Bank of Tanzania, UNESCO, the World Meteorological Organization and published airline schedules, current as at October 2026. Entry, health and insurance rules, schedules and Ramadan arrangements change without notice. This is not medical or insurance advice; confirm your own position with the relevant authority, insurer or airline before booking anything non-refundable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Kenyans Need a Visa for Zanzibar?

No. Kenyan passport holders travel visa-free to Tanzania, Zanzibar included. You'll need a passport valid for at least 6 more months, a yellow fever certificate and Zanzibar's own visitor insurance, bought before you fly.

How Long Is the Flight From Nairobi to Zanzibar?

About 1 hour 20 minutes non-stop from JKIA, with Kenya Airways flying several times a day. There's no time difference, so the scheduled time is the real time.

What Are the Best Things to Do in Zanzibar in 5 Days?

Two nights in Stone Town for the lanes, Forodhani, Prison Island and a spice farm, then 3 nights in the north for Nungwi's dhow yards, the sunsets at Kendwa and a morning on the Mnemba reef. That covers 6 of the 9 places to visit in Zanzibar without rushing.

Is Jozani Forest Worth a Stop on the Way to Paje?

Yes. The park is just off the Paje road, about 40 minutes from Stone Town, and a guided walk through the forest and along the mangrove boardwalk fits easily into the drive across.

Is the Food in Zanzibar Halal?

Zanzibar is predominantly Muslim, and halal food is easy to find. There's no island-wide halal certification yet, so if you need it confirmed, ask where you eat.

Which School Holiday Suits Zanzibar Best?

The August holiday. It falls in the dry season, when the things to do in Zanzibar are at their easiest, and January and February are hot and mostly dry too. April is the wettest month of the year, so it's the one to avoid if you can.

Can I Pay in Kenyan Shillings in Zanzibar?

No. Prices and payments in Tanzania have to be in Tanzanian shillings, so change money at a bank or bureau when you arrive, or pay by card.