Things to Do in Zanzibar: The 10 Best Activities and Their Costs

There are far more things to do in Zanzibar than lie on a beach, and the island rewards anyone who gets up off the sun lounger. You can snorkel a coral atoll in the morning, walk a two-hundred-year-old clove plantation after lunch, and eat dinner on a rock in the sea. This guide ranks the ten activities worth your time, tells you what each one actually costs, and helps you decide how many days you need.

The best things to do in Zanzibar fall into three groups. The ocean gives you snorkelling at Mnemba Atoll, the Safari Blue dhow trip, and dolphins off Kizimkazi. The culture is Stone Town, the spice farms, and the sites of the old slave trade. The wildlife is Jozani's red colobus monkeys, found nowhere else on earth, and the giant tortoises on Prison Island. Almost every one of them is a half-day or full-day trip from wherever you are staying, and most cost between $20 and $100 per person.

Key Takeaways

• The big three: Safari Blue, Jozani Forest, and Prison Island.
• Don't skip Stone Town, even on a pure beach holiday.
• Typical cost: most half-day tours are $20 to $40 per person, while a full day on Safari Blue runs $65 to $100 all in.
• Book The Rock well ahead.
• North coast to swim, Paje to kitesurf.
• Three to four days is enough to pair the headline activities with real time on the sand.
• Use ethical operators for the dolphin and turtle trips, the kind that keep their distance and never chase the animals.

1. Wander Stone Town

Stone Town is the historic heart of Zanzibar and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. It is a maze of coral-stone alleys and carved wooden doors, built on the spice and slave trades. A morning on foot covers most of it: the Old Fort, the Anglican Cathedral raised over the site of the old slave market, and Freddie Mercury's birthplace. The House of Wonders, the landmark on the seafront, has been closed since part of it collapsed in December 2020 and is still under restoration, so you can photograph it but not go inside.

Come back at sunset for the Forodhani night market, where the day's catch is grilled on the seafront. A guided walking tour costs around $20 to $30 and is worth it for the history you would otherwise walk straight past. It pairs naturally with a Zanzibar beach holiday.

2. Take a spice tour

Zanzibar was not called the Spice Island for nothing. Cloves arrived around 1812, and after Sultan Seyyid Said moved his capital from Muscat to Zanzibar in 1832 he had the island planted with them. By the end of that century Zanzibar and Pemba grew most of the world's cloves. A spice farm tour walks you through the groves, and the guide cracks each pod open so you can smell and taste it. The tour is hands-on. It ends with a tasting of tropical fruit, and it shows you why empires once fought over this island.

A half-day spice tour costs around $20 to $35 per person, often combined with Stone Town or Jozani. It is one of the best-value things to do in Zanzibar.

3. Meet the red colobus monkeys in Jozani Forest

Jozani is the stronghold of the Zanzibar red colobus, a russet-coated, endangered monkey found nowhere else on earth. A Wildlife Conservation Society census put the island population at 5,862, and roughly half of those live in and around Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park. They are relaxed enough that you watch them from a few metres away. The visit also includes a raised mangrove boardwalk.

Entrance to the reserve is about $10, while a guided half-day tour with hotel transfers runs roughly $50 to $90. Bring a camera and keep your distance from the animals.

4. Visit Prison Island's giant tortoises

A short boat ride from Stone Town, Prison Island (officially Changuu) is home to a colony of Aldabra giant tortoises, some over 150 years old and weighing more than 200 kilograms. The first four were a gift from the Seychelles in 1919. The island was also built as a quarantine station and never actually held prisoners for long.

You can feed the tortoises, tour the old buildings, and snorkel the surrounding reef. A half-day trip costs around $30 to $40, including the boat and the sanctuary entrance.

5. Spend a day on Safari Blue

Safari Blue is the island's signature day at sea, and it earns the hype. You sail Menai Bay on a traditional wooden dhow and snorkel over coral reefs. You swim off a sandbank and often spot dolphins. Lunch is grilled seafood on a deserted beach.

It is a full day and costs from around $65 to $100 per person all-inclusive. If you only do one boat trip in Zanzibar, make it this one. A simpler version is a trip to the Nakupenda sandbank, a strip of white sand that appears at low tide, for around $35 to $60.

6. Snorkel or dive Mnemba Atoll

Mnemba Atoll, off the northeast coast near Matemwe, has the best snorkelling and diving in Zanzibar. The coral is healthy, the water is clear, and you share it with turtles, reef fish, and the occasional pod of dolphins. You cannot land on the private island itself, but the reef around it is open to everyone.

A half-day snorkelling trip runs about $40 to $70. Divers will find several operators along the northeast coast.

7. Swim with dolphins at Kizimkazi (ethically)

The village of Kizimkazi in the south is the launch point for dolphin tours, where bottlenose and humpback dolphins are often seen close to shore. The experience can be magical, but it has an ethics problem: some boats chase and crowd the pods.

Choose an operator that keeps a respectful distance and does not let people grab at the animals. A trip costs around $25 to $40. The same principle applies to Zanzibar's sea turtles, which you can meet ethically at the Nungwi sanctuaries.

8. Eat at The Rock

The Rock is the restaurant you have seen in photos, a small dining room perched on a tidal rock off Michamvi Pingwe on the southeast coast. At low tide you walk out to it, and at high tide a boat ferries you across. The seafood is good rather than legendary, but the setting is unforgettable.

Expect to pay $30 to $60 per person for a meal without drinks. It is small and books out, so reserve online in advance and be ready to leave a $10 per person deposit.

9. Pick your beach: Nungwi, Kendwa, Paje

Zanzibar's beaches are not interchangeable, and which one suits you depends on what you want to do. The north coast (Nungwi and Kendwa) has the least tidal change, so you can swim at any hour, and it has the liveliest scene. The east coast (Paje, Jambiani) has big tides but is the home of kitesurfing, with schools lining the beach at Paje.

Our guide to the best beaches in Zanzibar breaks down the coasts in detail, and the resorts guide sorts properties by who they suit.

10. Sail a sunset dhow cruise

A sunset dhow cruise is the classic way to end a day in Zanzibar. You drift along the coast on a traditional sailing boat as the sky turns, usually with drinks and snacks included. It is gentle, romantic, and a favourite with honeymooners.

Most cruises run from Stone Town or the northern beaches and cost around $25 to $40 per person. It is the easiest of all the things to do in Zanzibar to book through your hotel.

What to see in Zanzibar, as opposed to what to do

What there is to see in Zanzibar, as opposed to do, is mostly Stone Town's landmarks and a few places out on the coast. None of these need a booking, a guide, or a deposit, and most of them are free.

• The Old Fort (Ngome Kongwe), Stone Town. The oldest building in the town, put up by the Omanis at the end of the 17th century after they pushed the Portuguese out. You walk straight in; there are craft stalls and an open-air amphitheatre inside.
• The Anglican Cathedral and the slave market memorial, Stone Town. Built on the site of the old slave market, with holding cells preserved underneath. It is the most sobering hour on the island and the one most visitors skip.
• Darajani Market, Stone Town. The working produce and fish market. Loud, crowded, entirely unstaged, and best early in the morning before the heat.
• The Mangapwani slave chambers, north of Stone Town. A coral cave and a walled pit on the coast, used to hide slaves after the trade was outlawed.
• Michamvi Pingwe, east coast. The one stretch of the east coast that faces west, which makes it the island's sunset spot and the reason people drive over for a sundowner.

The Stone Town sites sit within about fifteen minutes' walk of each other, so one morning covers the fort, the cathedral, and the market. For what to see on the coast itself, our guide to the best beaches in Zanzibar goes coast by coast.

How much do activities in Zanzibar cost? (2026 prices)

Most half-day activities in Zanzibar cost $20 to $40 per person, and full-day trips run $65 to $100. These are typical per-person prices for the 2026 season. They vary by operator and season, and private tours cost more than shared ones, so confirm when you book.

How many days do you need in Zanzibar?

Three to four days is enough to mix the headline activities with real beach time. A practical split is one day for Stone Town and a spice tour, one day on Safari Blue or at Mnemba, one day for Jozani and Prison Island, and the rest doing nothing on the sand.

If Zanzibar is the beach half of a longer trip, this is plenty. Many travellers pair it with a mainland safari, and our Tanzania safari and Zanzibar guide shows how the two halves fit together.

How to plan your Zanzibar activities

The trick with Zanzibar is not finding things to do, it is choosing well and booking the good operators rather than the cheap ones, especially for anything involving wildlife or boats. That is where it helps to have someone who knows which is which.

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Tell us where you are staying and what you are into, and we will line up the right mix. You can also browse our Zanzibar and safari trips to combine the island with the mainland.

Frequently asked questions

Zanzibar gets sold as a beach, and the beaches are wonderful, but that is the smallest part of what the island is. It is a spice port, a Swahili stone city, a coral reef, and a refuge for animals you cannot see anywhere else on earth. Do two or three of these things and you stop being someone who went to a beach in Africa, and start being someone who went to Zanzibar.