Things to do in Zanzibar
Zanzibar is a beach holiday with about eleven things attached to it. Three are genuinely excellent, four are worth a morning, and the rest depend entirely on what you like. Nobody needs to do all eleven, and the people who try enjoy the week least.
Updated 10 September 2026
The temptation on a week's holiday is to book something every day. Resist it. The driving here is slower than the map suggests, most trips take a full day once transfers are counted, and this island rewards doing three things well far more than six things at speed.
Book the two things that sell out
Almost everything here can be arranged from your hotel the evening before. The exceptions are the boat trips that leave on the tide and fill up in high season, and The Rock, which seats very few people. Book those two ahead and improvise the rest.
The most booked days out
Prices, ratings and review counts as the partner lists them. Check the group size on any boat trip before booking, because it is what separates a good day from a crowded one.
Stone Town, spice tour and Prison Island with lunch
The most booked combined day on the island.
From$55per person
Check availability
Safari Blue: lagoon, snorkelling and a barbecue lunch
The classic dhow day out in Menai Bay, full day.
Prison Island and Nakupenda sandbank with barbecue
Century old giant tortoises, then lunch with your feet in the water.
From$29per person
Check availability
Dolphins and snorkelling around Mnemba
Early start, mask and snorkel provided.
From$20per person
Check availabilityPrices, ratings and review counts read from GetYourGuide on 10 September 2026, and indicative. These are partner links: the price is the same for you.
Do these
Worth a morning
If it is your thing
What each one costs and how long it takes
The whole list in one place, so a week can be built without opening eleven pages. Prices are per adult and exclude getting to the start point, which on this island is never nothing.
| What | Cost | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Mnemba snorkelling | $35 to $70, plus a $10 fee | Half a day, from 7am |
| Safari Blue | $45 to $82 | A full day, tide dependent |
| Stone Town | Free to walk, $20 to $30 with a guide | A full day |
| Sunset dhow | $25 to $45 | Two hours, at the end of a day |
| Jozani forest | About $10 at the gate | Two hours, plus the drive |
| Spice tour | $10 to $20, around $35 with lunch | A morning |
| Prison Island | $30 to $70 with the sandbank | Half to a full day |
| The Rock | $60 to $90 a head with drinks | A long lunch |
| Kitesurfing | $350 to $500 for a course | Three days |
| Diving | $50 to $75 a dive | A morning, or four days to certify |
| Dolphins at Kizimkazi | $25 to $150 | Half a day, from 6am |
How many days you need
- Four or five days. One coast, one boat trip, one morning inland. Anything more ambitious and the holiday happens in a car.
- Seven days. The right answer for most people. Five on a beach, two doing things, and enough slack for a day when the wind is wrong.
- Ten days. Two nights in Stone Town at the start, then the coast, with time to split between north and east.
- Two weeks or more. Add the mainland. A safari before the beach is the trip almost everybody wishes they had booked.
Free things to do in Zanzibar
More than the tour desks suggest, and several of them better than the paid alternatives.
- Walking Stone Town. The doors, the lanes, Jaws Corner and the seafront wall cost nothing, and they are most of what the town is.
- Darajani market before ten in the morning, which is the most alive place on the island.
- Every beach. None of them are private in law, including the sand in front of the largest resorts. Walk Paje to Jambiani at low tide.
- The tide going out. On the east coast the sea retreats hundreds of metres and the whole lagoon becomes walkable. It is the strangest free thing here. See how the tide works.
- Sunset, anywhere on the west coast. Nungwi and Kendwa charge for the boat, never for the view from the sand.
Zanzibar at night, and with children
This is a conservative Muslim island and the nightlife is confined to a few resort beaches, which surprises people who booked expecting otherwise. Forodhani night market in Stone Town is the genuine evening: grills from about six, five dollars a head, and the town rather than the visitors. The rooftop bars above the merchant houses are the other one. Kendwa runs a full moon party once a month and it is exactly what it sounds like.
With children the shortlist is different. The sunset dhow at two hours, the tortoises at Prison Island, the butterfly centre at Jozani, and a spice tour where somebody paints their hand red. Where to base a family is in where to stay with children.
Which of these earn a full day
Safari Blue and the mainland day safari are genuinely all day, seven hours and fourteen respectively.
Stone Town deserves one and gets half from most people, which is the most common regret reported afterwards.
Everything else is a morning: Mnemba, Jozani, the spice tour, Prison Island on its own. Two combine into a day if they sit on the same road, and Jozani with the spice tour is the pairing that works.
Questions people ask
What is the best thing to do in Zanzibar?
Mnemba if you want to be in the water, Safari Blue if you want a full day on a boat, Stone Town if you want to understand where you are. Those three between them cover most of what this island offers that a beach does not, and the sunset dhow is the one nobody regrets.
How many days are ideal for Zanzibar?
Seven works. Five days on a beach and two spent doing things is the shape most people settle into, and it keeps the driving manageable. Ten days lets you split between two coasts or add two nights in Stone Town, which is the version worth planning if you have it. Under five days and a meaningful fraction of the trip happens in a car.
What not to miss in Zanzibar?
The former slave market site in Stone Town, which is the one thing here that changes how you understand everything else on the island. The reef at Mnemba. A dhow at sunset. Everything after those three is preference rather than obligation.
Is Zanzibar very expensive?
The activities are not. Most of what is on this page costs between ten and eighty dollars, and the two best things cost ten and thirty. Accommodation and flights are where the money goes, and taxis are dearer than people expect because the distances are real. A week on the island, flights excluded, runs from about $700 backpacking to $2,500 in comfort.
What is there to do in Zanzibar at night?
Forodhani night market in Stone Town, which is the best evening on the island and costs about five dollars. Rooftop bars above the merchant houses. The full moon party at Kendwa, monthly, and exactly what it sounds like. Beyond that this is a conservative Muslim island and nightlife is confined to a handful of resort beaches.
What are the free things to do in Zanzibar?
Walking Stone Town, which is most of the point of it. Darajani market. Forodhani gardens at dusk if you do not eat. The carved doors, the seafront wall where the boys dive off at high tide, and every beach on the island, since none of them are private in law. Sunset costs nothing anywhere on the west coast.
How much should I book before arriving?
Two things and no more. The sunset dhow, because the boats are small and it sells out days ahead in high season, and The Rock, which seats about thirty people and needs a week over Christmas. Everything else can be arranged from your hotel the evening before, at roughly twenty per cent above shop price and with none of the effort.