Where to stay in Zanzibar with kids

Book a family room

With children, in four lines

• The northern tip, and it is not close. Children do not consult a tide table. Nungwi and Kendwa are the only stretch where the sea is there all day.
• Or a resort with a serious pool. Kiwengwa works for the opposite reason: the hotel is built around the four hours the lagoon is gone.
• Family rooms are rare. Most hotels here sell two doubles rather than a family room, which changes the arithmetic sharply.
• Malaria risk is low but not zero. Talk to a travel clinic about children before you go, not after you have booked.

Which coast works with children

The tide is the whole question. Everything else is a preference.

Where each of those is and how long the transfer takes is in the beaches guide.

Why the north wins for families

Nungwi and Kendwa have a tidal range of about a metre, which means the sea is there at nine in the morning and still there at four in the afternoon. On the east coast it is not.

With small children, the ability to go in the water on impulse is worth more than any other feature of a hotel. It is the whole reason the northern tip charges what it charges.

The trade is crowds and a busier beach. Most families take that deal without much hesitation once they understand the alternative.

When the east coast works anyway

Kiwengwa is the family coast on the east side, and it works because the resorts are built around the problem. A good pool covers the four hours the lagoon is gone, and the kids' clubs are concentrated here.

Check the pool specifically. On this coast it is not a nice extra, it is where your children will swim for part of every day, and a small cold plunge pool is not going to do it.

Practicalities worth knowing

The drive from the airport to the north is ninety minutes, which is a long time with a tired toddler at the end of a long flight. Book the transfer rather than negotiating one.

Under sixes go free on most boat trips including Safari Blue, and the sandbank stop is shallow and safe. Check life jackets in child sizes, which not every boat carries.

Malaria risk is low but not zero. Talk to a travel clinic about children specifically, because the options differ from the adult ones.

Rooms, and the family room problem

Most beach hotels here were built for couples, and genuine family rooms are scarcer than the booking filters suggest. A great deal of what is listed as family accommodation is two rooms with a connecting door, priced as two rooms.

Villas and apartments work better for four or more, and several of the east coast places do them at a rate that undercuts two hotel rooms comfortably.

Confirm the sleeping arrangement in writing. Extra beds and cots are common but not universal, and finding out on arrival is a bad start to a week.

Eating with children

All inclusive solves this entirely and it is the honest reason so many families take it here. Buffets mean fussy eaters find something and nobody has to negotiate a menu twice a day.

Outside the resorts, food is grilled fish, rice, chips and fruit, which most children get on with. Spice levels in tourist restaurants are mild by default.

Tap water is not drinkable, which matters more with children. Bottled water is cheap and every hotel supplies it, and it is worth being strict about ice in places that look improvised.

What to do with a week

Two boat trips at most, and pick the ones where children can stay aboard: Safari Blue, where the sandbank is shallow and safe, and a sunset dhow, which is short.

Jozani forest works well and takes two hours. Children who are bored by a beach are rarely bored by monkeys three metres above their head.

The rest of the week is the beach and the pool, which is what everyone actually came for and what makes this a good family destination in the first place.

What a family actually pays

The awkward fact about Zanzibar with children is that most hotels sell two doubles rather than a family room, which changes the arithmetic sharply.

Add the compulsory costs before comparing anything: $50 a head for the visa, or $100 on a US passport, and $44 a head for the ZIC insurance. Children are not exempt from either. See the visa page.

Flying and arriving with children

The journey is the hard part, not the island.

• Eight to ten hours from Europe with one stop. Eighteen to twenty four from North America, with two. There is no direct flight from either.
• Talk to a travel clinic about malaria. Risk on Zanzibar is low but not zero, and prophylaxis for children is a conversation to have before you book, not after.
• Bring reef shoes in every size. Sea urchins put more visitors in a clinic here than anything else, and children are barefoot by definition.
• The transfer is ninety minutes to the north. After a night flight, with tired children. It is the strongest argument for two nights in Stone Town first, twenty minutes from the airport.
• Nappies and formula are hard to find. Stone Town has them, the beaches largely do not. Bring what you need for the week.

What to do with children, by age

The shortlist is shorter than the island's, and most of it is water.

• Under five. The northern tip, a pool, and not much else. The sunset dhow at two hours is the one outing that works.
• Five to ten. The tortoises at Prison Island, the butterfly centre at Jozani, a spice tour where somebody paints their hand red.
• Ten and over. Snorkelling at Mnemba, and Safari Blue as a full day. Both are genuinely good and neither is a children's version of anything.
• Teenagers. Learning to kitesurf at Paje, which is one of the best places on earth to do it. Nine hours over three days and most people are riding.

Prices and timings for all of those are in things to do in Zanzibar.

Questions people ask