The tide decides your holiday. Pick the coast first and the hotel second.
People choose a Zanzibar hotel from photographs and then discover the tide. Choose the coast first; it changes the holiday far more than the property does.
The north — Nungwi and Kendwa
The only part of the island where you can swim at any state of the tide. The water is deep close in, the beaches are wide, and there is the most going on — bars, boats, dive centres, sunset crowds.
Choose it if you want to get in the sea whenever you feel like it, and you like some life around you.
Avoid it if you want silence.
The east — Paje, Jambiani, Bwejuu
Spectacular and tidal. The range here is dramatic: twice a day the sea withdraws several hundred metres and exposes sand flats where women farm seaweed. At low tide swimming means a long walk. At high tide it is glorious.
It is also the kitesurfing coast — Paje is one of the better spots in the Indian Ocean, and there is a young, active scene around it.
Choose it if you kitesurf, or you find the tidal landscape beautiful rather than inconvenient.
Avoid it if you had a picture in your head of walking straight into the sea from your room.
The north-east — Matemwe and Kiwengwa
The compromise, and where we place most guests. Still tidal but less extreme, considerably quieter than the north, and directly opposite Mnemba atoll — the best snorkelling and diving on the island, twenty minutes by boat.
The south-east and south
Quietest of all. Fewer properties, less to do, and that is the entire point. Good for a honeymoon second week when you have already seen things.
Stone Town is not a beach and should not be skipped
Two nights, at the beginning rather than the end. The old Omani and Swahili trading port is well worth seeing, and it is hard to engage with after five days of doing nothing.
Get a proper guide. The carved doors, the market, the old fort — and the site of the former slave market, which is a difficult and necessary hour and which too many itineraries quietly leave out.
The month matters
June to October and December to February are the reliable windows. April is genuinely poor: the long rains are heaviest, diving visibility collapses and many properties close. If April is your only option we would suggest the mainland instead.
