Adding Zanzibar to Your Safari: How Long, When, and Which Coast

Most Tanzania safaris end with a flight to Zanzibar. It is an easy sell - an hour and a quarter in the air takes you from dust and early mornings to warm water and no alarm clock.

What most people don't decide is where on the island to stay, and the coasts are not interchangeable. Two beaches an hour apart can give you completely different holidays, and one of them may not let you swim in the afternoon.

Here's how to plan the second half of the trip properly.

The short answer

Give it four to five nights. Go after the safari, not before. Stay north if swimming matters most, east or southeast if you want space and quiet. Avoid April and May.

The rest of this is why.

Why it goes after the safari, not before

Safari days start before sunrise and involve a lot of driving. By the end of a week you are pleasantly worn out. Zanzibar is the recovery, and it works far better in that order.

The practical argument is stronger than the emotional one. If a flight is delayed, a vehicle breaks down, or weather closes an airstrip, the slack has to come from somewhere - and losing a beach afternoon costs you nothing. Losing a Ngorongoro morning costs you the thing you came for. Put the flexible days at the end.

There is one exception. Travellers arriving from a long haul who want to reset before the early starts sometimes take two nights on the coast first, then fly inland. That works, but it is a jet-lag decision rather than a holiday one.

How many days

• Three nights - enough for Stone Town and two days on a beach. It works, but you will spend a noticeable share of it in transit.
• Four to five nights - the sweet spot. A day for Stone Town and the spice farms, two or three full beach days, and a day with nothing in it. This is what our 5-Day Zanzibar Beach Escape is built around.
• Seven nights - worth it if you want to dive, island-hop, or genuinely do nothing. Our 7-Day Zanzibar Honeymoon sits here, with the extra days used for private dining, dhow cruises, and spa time rather than more sightseeing.

Below three nights, the transfers eat the trip. Above seven, most people run out of things they want to do unless they dive.

When to go, and the month to avoid

Zanzibar runs on the monsoon, not on the safari seasons - so the best island months are not identical to the best Serengeti months.

June to October - dry, breezy, reliably sunny. This overlaps with the best mainland game viewing and the Mara River crossings, which is why it is the busiest and most expensive stretch of the year.

December to February - hot, calm, and clear. Excellent water visibility for diving and snorkelling. It also lines up with the calving season in the southern Serengeti, so a January safari-and-beach trip works well on both halves.

March, and especially April and May - the long rains. April and May are the wettest months of the year on the island. Many smaller hotels close entirely. If your dates are fixed in April or May, we would rather talk you out of the beach leg than sell you a wet one.

November - the short rains. Showers are brief and usually afternoon-only. Prices drop and the island is quiet. This is the best value month if you can accept some rain.

Which coast

This is the decision most people skip, and it is the one that changes the holiday.

North - Nungwi and Kendwa. The only part of the island where you can swim at any state of the tide. The water is deep close in, the sunsets face west over the sea, and there is a real village-and-bar scene. It is also the busiest coast. Choose it if swimming and evenings out matter.

East and southeast - Paje, Jambiani, Bwejuu. Long, wide, extraordinarily beautiful beaches - and a tidal range that pulls the sea out several hundred metres twice a day. At low tide you walk on the flats among the seaweed farmers rather than swim. Most hotels have pools for exactly this reason. Paje is the kitesurfing centre of the island. Choose this coast for space, wind sports, and quiet.

East-central - Michamvi and Pongwe. Calmer and less developed, with smaller coves that hold water better than the long southeast beaches. A reasonable compromise if you want quiet without the full tidal retreat.

Southwest - Kizimkazi. Quiet, low-key, and the departure point for dolphin trips. Fewer hotels, less to do in the evening.

The tide is the single most useful thing to know before booking. Nobody minds walking the flats when they expected it. People mind a great deal when they booked a beach holiday and found the sea half a kilometre away at two in the afternoon.

Stone Town is not a beach day

Give Stone Town its own day, and preferably its own night, at the start.

It is a UNESCO-listed Swahili port where Persian, Indian, Arab and European influences have been folded together for centuries - the carved doors, the Old Fort built by the Omanis, the alleys you cannot navigate by map. It is also where the East African slave market stood. The Anglican cathedral is built directly over the site, and you can go down into the holding chambers beneath it.

Zanzibar's spice wealth and that history are the same story, and a good guide will tell you both halves. Our Stone Town and spice farm tour is built around a Swahili historian rather than a driver with a script, which is the difference between an afternoon and an education.

Practical notes: dress modestly in town - covered shoulders and knees - which is normal courtesy in a Muslim-majority place rather than a rule aimed at visitors. During Ramadan many restaurants close during daylight; hotels still serve, but plan around it.

What Zanzibar is not

• It is not a wildlife destination. Jozani Forest has the endemic red colobus monkey and is worth a half day. That is the extent of it. Do not shorten the safari to lengthen the beach.
• It is not uniformly luxurious. The island runs from backpacker guesthouses to serious resorts, often on the same stretch of sand. Our 4-Day Island Hopping Escape uses clean, well-located mid-range hotels and local restaurants - a different trip from the honeymoon itineraries, deliberately.
• It is not always swimmable. See the tides, above. This is the thing people are most often surprised by.
• It is not a short hop from the Serengeti. It is a short flight from Zanzibar's own airport. Getting there from a northern-circuit airstrip usually means connecting through Arusha or Kilimanjaro, and that is most of a travel day.

Practicalities

• Flights - roughly 1 hour 15 minutes from Kilimanjaro International. Coastal and light-aircraft carriers also run from the northern-circuit airstrips, usually via Arusha.
• Luggage - light aircraft on the safari leg limit you to a soft bag, typically 15 kg. Pack for the whole trip against that number, not against your international allowance.
• Money - US dollars are accepted widely; Tanzanian shillings are better in Stone Town and at local restaurants.
• Malaria - prophylaxis is advised for the island as well as the mainland. Take medical advice before travelling.
• Visas - Zanzibar is part of Tanzania. Your Tanzanian visa covers it; there is no separate entry requirement, though you will pass through an immigration desk on arrival.

Our recommended trips

• Safari first, beach second, one booking: our 10-Day Honeymoon Safari and Zanzibar Escape and the shorter 8-Day Northern Wilderness and Zanzibar Honeymoon.
• Beach only, already have the safari sorted: the 5-Day Beach Escape or the 4-Day Island Hopping Escape.

If you are still deciding on the mainland half, our month-by-month guide covers the safari seasons - and the two halves do not always want the same dates.

Tell us which of those matters more and we will build the trip around it.