Cruise Port Guide · 10 cruises visit Zanzibar →
The bucket-list things to do — and the private, expert-led way to do each.
Here’s the bucket list for your day ashore: the most extraordinary thing to do at each stop, and the private, small-group, or expert-led way to make it yours — your own pace, real access, none of the crowd.
Sail traditional dhows through the Menai Bay Conservation Area, snorkel pristine coral gardens, drift to a deserted sandbank, and feast on a freshly grilled seafood barbecue under the open sky. The Indian Ocean at its most untouched.
Lose yourself in Zanzibar's labyrinthine medieval streets with a licensed local historian — carved Arab doors, Persian bathhouses, and the haunting Anglican Cathedral built on the site of East Africa's last slave market. A walk through centuries of civilisation.
Take a short dhow crossing to Changuu (Prison Island) to walk among a colony of 200-year-old Aldabra giant tortoises, then snorkel the coral gardens that ring the island's white-sand shore — all within an hour of the Stone Town waterfront.
Trek the emerald depths of Zanzibar's only national park to observe the critically endangered Zanzibar Red Colobus — found nowhere else on Earth — at arm's length, then wind through ancient mangrove boardwalks. Pure, rare, wild Africa.
Walk a working spice plantation — the foundation of Zanzibar's 'Spice Island' identity — guided by a farmer who coaxes cloves, vanilla, cardamom, and ylang-ylang from their raw forms, then sit down to a home-cooked Swahili lunch of curries, coconut rice, and fresh fruit.
Join a small-boat dolphin-spotting excursion in the warm channels off Kizimkazi — home to resident pods of bottlenose and humpback dolphins — then sail back to Stone Town on a traditional dhow as the sky ignites over the Indian Ocean at sunset.
⚓ Your bucket-list concierge
Tell us your sailing and we'll send the bucket list for every port — the most extraordinary thing to do at each, and the private, expert-led way to make it yours.
No spam. The honest plan, even when it says skip the ship’s tour.