After years of dreaming, we finally made it to Zanzibar, the island of magic in Tanzania, West Africa! My first sight of Zanzibar is its very small and quaint airport. Get off the plane in Zanzibar and you will be transported in time and space, to the ancient kingdom of Persia.
Zanzibar is called ‘The Spice Island’ due to the number of different spices grown there and it’s also famous as the birthplace of Freddie Mercury. In my mind, there’s nowhere on Earth quite like Zanzibar. Often described as a ‘cultural melting pot’, owing to the various different peoples who’ve settled here over the ages. All of which have all left their mark in one way on this island, whether it be in the architecture, the customs, the food, the beliefs, religion or on the people themselves.
In Zanzibar, we stayed at a small boutique hotel at Stone Town, a small and vibrant town steeped in culture. Narrow cobbled lanes, beautiful homes and lodges with a very Arabic influence, ornate doors and windows. Something about the place is intriguing. Stone Town is UNESCO World Heritage Site and the kind of place you could spend days and days wandering around. But if you don’t have a lot of time, you need to make the most of it!
So, here’s our list of things to do in Stone town:
- Get lost in the narrow streets of Stone Town, dive into the maze and you could end up popping out into a quiet square near the waterfront, or in a market. It can take a day or so of roaming the streets before you get your bearings, but getting lost in the streets and pausing for a break in one of the hidden coffee houses is half the fun.
- Sunset drinks at Africa House Hotel
- Snap the doorways, no trip to Stone Town could ever be complete without photographing a memory card full of carved doorways! Exquisite, even in their crumbling state, these wooden beauties somehow typify this city and its exotic sense of a lost world.
- See Freddy Mercury’s house
- Make an international call at Jaws corner, acknowledged as the centre of Stone Town (although it’s hard to be sure in the mass of winding streets!) the red bunting that adorns Jaws Corner looks a bit like Tibetan prayer flags. In the centre is a great sign with a phone strapped to a pillar inviting free international calls!
- Sip on a spiced tea
- Enjoy some souvenir shopping
tequila shots for the soul 