Zanzibar nightlife: where to go out, from Kendwa's full moon party to Stone Town rooftops

Zanzibar nightlife by coast: where there is something to do after dark

Zanzibar nightlife sits almost entirely on the north tip. If evenings out matter to you, that decides where you stay more than the beach itself does. Choose the east coast and your nights end at the hotel bar, whatever the brochure says about “vibrant” villages.

The trade-off between the two coasts, tide and swimming included, is laid out on the north or east coast page. For nightlife the short version is simple: north for going out, east for sleeping.

Nungwi nightlife: the one beach strip that stays up

Nungwi is the only place on the island where you can walk out of your hotel after dinner, without a plan, and find a bar with music and people in it. The bars line the sand on the west side of the cape, where the tide barely moves and the sun goes down over the water. Evenings start at sunset, with a drink on the sand, and carry on from there.

The names that come up most, year after year, are Cholo's, a bar built partly from old boat hulls with hammocks on the sand and a dance floor late on, and quieter places such as Coccobellofor a cocktail at the water's edge. Beach bars here open, close and change owners often, so treat any list, this one included, as a starting point and ask at reception which bar has the party that night. Most nights one of them does.

Expect a mixed crowd of backpackers, couples from the big hotels and groups of friends, with reggae, Afrobeats and house more often than anything else. Bring cash: several beach bars still do not take cards. And keep to the lit stretch of beach between bars: the dark stretches are where phones go missing, as the safety page explains.

Kendwa Rocks full moon party: dates, price and what it is really like

Kendwa is the quietest beach in the north for most of the month. Then, once a month, Kendwa Rocks throws the party it has been running since 1996, and a few thousand people turn up on the sand. It is the biggest regular night out in Zanzibar and the only one people plan a trip around.

When is the Kendwa full moon party?

Once a month, on a Saturday close to the full moon. Kendwa Rocks sets the date itself and publishes it on its full moon party page, and the Saturday does not always fall the same way round the full moon, so check the date there rather than working it out from a lunar calendar. In high season, rooms at Kendwa go first that weekend, then Nungwi.

Kendwa full moon party tickets and price

Entry has been quoted at around 35,000 Tanzanian shillings, about fourteen dollars, at the door. Tickets can also be bought ahead on the party's booking page. Guests of Kendwa Rocks have generally got in free with their hotel wristband, which is worth checking when you book a room.

Inside, the bars do not take cash. You load a prepaid card at a top-up point and pay for drinks and food with it. Load what you expect to spend and top up later rather than leaving credit on the card at dawn.

What the Kendwa Rocks full moon party is actually like

Doors open in the evening, with a buffet that mixes Swahili coast cooking with burgers and pizza. The music starts on a stage on the sand, with fire dancers and acrobats between DJ sets, and the crowd thickens after eleven. Around four the beach stage winds down and the night carries on in the resort's club until dawn.

It is a big, friendly beach party rather than a rave. The crowd is mostly visitors in their twenties and thirties, with volunteers and expats down from Stone Town. If you have done the full moon party on Koh Phangan, expect something much smaller and calmer. People who came to Kendwa for silence find it loud until morning, so if that is you, check the date before you book a room anywhere near it.

Getting back from Kendwa after the full moon party

Sort the ride home before you leave, not at three in the morning. From Nungwi, ask your hotel to book a driver for a fixed pick-up time, or agree the return fare with the taxi that drops you off. From Stone Town or the east coast the drive is over an hour each way, which is why most people who come for the party sleep in Kendwa or Nungwi that night. Do not walk back along the beach to Nungwi in the dark: the path crosses unlit, empty stretches.

Stone Town rooftop bars for sunset

Stone Town's evening is short and very good. The sun sets over the sea in front of the old town, a little after six in October and November and closer to twenty to seven in February, and the town's rooftops and seafront terraces are the place to watch it. Go up an hour before, because the best tables go first.

• Africa House Sunset Bar.The terrace of an old merchant's house on the Shangani seafront, looking straight out at the dhows. The classic first evening in Stone Town, and busy for that reason.
• Emerson Spice Rooftop Tea House. High above the lanes, with a view over the roofs and minarets to the sea and a set dinner served after sunset. Many stairs, and a table to book ahead.
• 6 Degrees South. A rooftop bar and grill near the Shangani waterfront with an early evening happy hour and live music at weekends. More of a bar than a viewpoint.
• Mercury's. A seafront bar and restaurant on Mizingani Road, named after the singer born a few streets away, with sundowners on the terrace and live music some nights. The Freddie Mercury house is a short walk.

The other way to watch sunset from Stone Town is from the water. A sunset dhow cruise leaves from the beach in front of the old town in the late afternoon, usually with drinks on board, and is back as the lights come on along the seafront.

Forodhani night market after dark

Once the sun is down, everyone in Stone Town drifts to Forodhani Gardens, where food stalls set up along the seafront every evening: grilled seafood and skewers, sugarcane juice and Zanzibar pizza. It is the town's real night out, alcohol free, and full of families. Agree prices before the cook starts on your plate. The Zanzibar food guide tells you which stalls are worth the queue.

Nightclubs in Stone Town: what is left

Very little. Older guides still list a Stone Town nightclub or two, and some of them have closed. A late night here means a bar with a band, on the seafront or in a hotel, rather than a club. If dancing until three is the point, Stone Town is the wrong base. If an evening of rooftops, dinner and a walk home through the lanes appeals, it is the best on the island, and the Stone Town hotels page tells you which ones are within walking distance of all of it.

Paje nightlife: kite bars and a weekly beach party

Pajeis the exception on the east coast. Kitesurf instructors, long-stay visitors and people working remotely keep a handful of bars busy, and evenings there are social in a way the rest of the coast is not. The kite schools' bars on the beach fill up as the wind drops at the end of the afternoon.

The fixed point of the week is Paje by Night, a hotel and bar that runs themed nights with live music, and a larger beach party on Fridays that starts around seven. Other nights are quieter: dinner, a few drinks, a fire on the sand. The beach after dark is where the occasional bag snatch happens in Paje, so walk between bars in company or take a taxi, even for a short distance.

Matemwe, Kiwengwa and the rest of the east coast at night

North of Paje, the east coast is resorts, villages and long empty beach. In Matemwe, Kiwengwa, Pongwe and Michamvi, nights mean dinner at your hotel, a drink at its bar and bed. There is no strip to walk to, the beach between hotels is unlit, and the villages behind it are Muslim communities with no bars at all. That is exactly why couples and families choose these beaches, and exactly why people who want a night out should not.

From any of them, a night in Nungwi or Stone Town means a taxi of forty-five minutes to well over an hour each way. Book the return with your hotel before you go, or plan one night in the north around the full moon party and move coast the next day.

Sauti za Busara, the Zanzibar music festival

One week a year, Stone Town has proper nightlife. Sauti za Busara, “sounds of wisdom”, is a festival of African music held in the Old Fort, with bands from across the continent playing into the night. The 2026 edition brought more than four hundred musicians. It usually falls in February, but the 2027 edition, the twenty fourth, runs from 19 to 21 March 2027, moved later so as not to clash with Ramadan and Eid.

Stone Town hotels fill up for it. If your dates match, book the room before the festival ticket.

Alcohol in Zanzibar: where drinking is normal and where it is not

Zanzibar is almost entirely Muslim, and most of the island does not drink. Alcohol is sold in hotels, resorts, tourist restaurants and licensed bars, which in practice is everywhere visitors eat and sleep. Nobody in Nungwi or a resort will raise an eyebrow at a beer.

Where it goes wrong is outside those places. Drinking in the street, walking through Stone Town or a village with a can in your hand, or drinking on a beach in front of a village rather than a hotel is out of line with the island and will be taken as disrespect. Drink in the bar, not on the way to it.

Drinking during Ramadan in Zanzibar

During Ramadan, the sale of alcohol is restricted to hotels and establishments that serve foreign visitors, and local bars outside tourist areas close or stop serving. Resorts carry on as normal. Beyond alcohol, the UK Foreign Office asks visitors to avoid eating or drinking in public during Ramadan outside hotels and restaurants.

Ramadan 2027 is expected to start around 8 February 2027 and end around 9 March with Eid, the exact days depending on the sighting of the moon. Evenings in Stone Town are lively during Ramadan, with families out after the fast is broken, but they are not boozy. On the beaches in the north, a visitor will notice little difference.

Beer in Zanzibar and the 2024 shortage

No beer is brewed on Zanzibar: everything comes from the mainland or further away, through a small number of licensed importers. When the island's liquor board declined to renew three importers' licences in January 2024, bars in Nungwi, Kendwa and Paje ran short and beer prices roughly doubled for a while. Licences were restored and new importers approved since then.

The episode explains a price gap you will notice anyway. A local beer costs a few times more at a resort bar than in a village bar, and imported spirits cost more than they would at home. Local beers to ask for are Kilimanjaro, Safari and Serengeti.

Is Zanzibar safe at night? Taxis, unlit beaches and drinks

Violent crime against visitors is rare. What does happen after dark is opportunistic theft of phones and bags from people walking alone, on unlit stretches of beach and in the back lanes of Stone Town. The UK Foreign Office says the same thing in plain words: avoid walking at night or alone, and be particularly careful at night, when crime is higher.

• Take a taxi, even for a short hop.The Foreign Office advises booking through your hotel or a travel operator and asking to see the driver's ID. Agree the fare before the car moves.
• Stay off unlit beaches. The beach between hotels is fine by day and empty at night. It is the single place most thefts happen.
• Watch your drink. Do not leave it unattended, especially at large parties. Sexual assaults have been reported, including in resorts.
• Carry the night's cash only. Leave cards and passport in the hotel safe and take what the evening needs.

Questions people ask about Zanzibar nightlife