Zanzibar, Tanzania: A Beautiful African Island

27 Apr Zanzibar, Tanzania: A Beautiful African Island

Different from our usual just-the-two-of-us trips, we recently took a Topdeck Travel tour, for a group-travel experience of a lifetime. 21 days, 4 countries, 14 sleeping destinations, and a collection of 14 strangers who have proven that the best part of travel is the people you meet along the way.

The next stop on our East African Explorer tour was the beautiful island of Zanzibar.

If you wanted to explore a place that offered you white sand beaches, turquoise waters, exotic food (mostly vegan, so double yay from me), and a city full of history and culture, then you are reading the perfect blog post.

The island of Zanzibar is, quite honestly, one of the most unique places we’ve ever visited. With its Arab and East African influences, you’ll walk down one of the many colorful bunting-draped streets to find yourself questioning which continent you’re on. You’ll be greeted by the local fishermen, grocers, wooden craftsmen and spice masters with a friendly “Jambo!” (meaning ‘hello’ in the local Swahili language) leaving you smiling and screaming “Jambo!” right back.

We were lucky enough to spend 4 nights on the island, exploring the historic slave-trade area of Stone Town on the first day, bargaining for good deals at the spice market and enjoying local delicacies like coconut bread, spiced potatoes, grilled cassava, and fried banana at the famous Forodhani night market, which, I must add, is open everyday and really can’t be missed. For ladies planning on visiting – you’ll need to keep your shoulders and knees covered (and of course everything in between) for respectful religious purposes FYI.

But we didn’t come all the way to Zanzibar not to experience the island beach life, and our resort on Kendwa Beach blew our minds. A bar on the beach (with a four-hour-long daily happy hour for cocktails), palm forest draped with hammocks, and crystal blue waters perfect for snorkeling, made our time on the island unforgettable. Oh, and we also got to feed, cuddle and swim with tons of green sea turtles at the nearby natural aquarium (highlight from our Topdeck tour so far).

Zanzibar, although you were a slightly-more-than-we-would-have-preferred humid experience, you are gorgeous and will definitely see us again.

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