Nature of Zanzibar – 4 days, 3 nights
Price: $425 p.p. (based on 2 pers sharing)
More Africa
During this short trip you will stay at More Africa Guesthouse. From here you will experience all excursions.
More Africa Guesthouse is located on the East-Coast of Zanzibar, in the beautiful fishing village of Paje. More Africa Guesthouse is part of More Africa NGO, a special school for disabled children. The guesthouse is non-profit, which means you donate directly to our NGO while staying with us. A once in a lifetime experience!
More Africa Guesthouse has a bar and a restaurant with cold drinks and lovely food!
You will stay in a double room with private en-suite bathroom based on bed and breakfast.
Nature of Zanzibar
Zanzibar has a lot to offer when it comes to nature. Tourism has it’s positive and negative sides. For example many people visit the dolphin tours, but it looks more as a hunt than that it actually has something to do with nature or sustainability. That is why we don’t want to promote these kind of tours. If you want, we can book them for you, but please think twice.
Day 1: Prison Island & Sandbank
Enjoy a full day at sea with this combination tour where you visit Prison Island & the sandbank.
About 20 minutes with the boat from Stone Town, you will find Prison Island. This island is surrounded by a beautiful beach.
Prison Island is named after the prison which was built on the island, but that is never used. Nowadays, you can admire the huge tortoises that are imported from the Seychelles on Prison Island. We are very curious if you can find the oldest tortoise between all those huge animals!
Besides a visit to the turtles, you can also visit the old prison. This is still intact and is used as a restaurant for the visitors who stay at Prison Island. In the toilets, you can still find the chains that were used for chaining the slaves.
After we have visited Prison Island, we get back on the boat and continue our way to the sandbank.
Nakupenda means ‘I love you’ in Swahili. This sandbank got this name because of its enormous beauty and the fact that many couples who are in love, like to make this tour. With a traditional boat you go from Stone Town to the sandbank. The departure time can be different every day because of the tide. The water is crystal clear and the view on Stone Town is phenomenal. It is possible to snorkle here.
On the sandbank a seafood lunch is prepared for you. . It’s guaranteed that you will enjoy!
Day 2: Jozani Forest & Butterfly Centre
On this second day you go to Jozani Forest & Buterfly Centre. Jozani Forest is on the way from Stone Town to the east coast of the island. It is the only National Park on Zanzibar and is approximately 50km2 in size.
Jozani Forest is a tourist attraction for nature lovers. It has a large variety of trees and species. During your trip through the woods, under the guidance of a special guide, you will learn about the different trees, such as the mahogany trees.
Also, your guide will take you to the “red colobus monkey”, a monkey species found on Zanzibar only. If you are lucky you can get very close. In addition, you can see 50 different types of butterflies, 40 different types of birds, and sometimes bush babies, chameleons or small antelopes. Leopards could also be seen, which according to a Zanzibari legend have a mythical status. Locals would believe that wizards keep this animal as a pet and scare people by telling stories that they reveal themselves as spirits and then disappear again in nothing. However, since 2003, this species is no longer seen in the park.
After visiting the park, you will go to a nearby mangrove by car. The walk through the mangrove takes you over a beautifully landscaped riser where you can see crabs, depending on the tide. The mangrove is an important breeding ground for many animals such as birds, but also fish. It is currently being investigated whether Jozani Forest and the mangrove can be placed on the World Heritage List.
At 1 km from Jozani you will find the Zanzibar Butterfly Center (ZBC), a netted tropical garden with usually hundreds of butterflies, all of which are native species to Zanzibar. The enclosure is one of Africa’s largest butterfly exhibits and provides residents and tourists of Zanzibar with an interactive and visual environment to learn about butterflies.
At ZBC it is possible to experience butterflies feeding and flying very close at hand and to witness the complete life cycle of many species. The butterflies (in pupae form) are farmed sustainably by people from the villages around Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park. The friendly and knowledgeable guides will greet you on your arrival and during the tour will explain the background to the project and about butterfly lifecycle and ecology.
Day 3: Spice Tour
On this thirth day we will go to the Spice Tour. A visit to one of the many spice plantations that Zanzibar knows cannot be missed when you are here. You can find the plantations at a 30 minute ride from the centre of Stone Town.
Zanzibar is still known as the ‘spices island’. Many different things grow and flourish here: vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, coffee, pepper and so on.
Nowadays the spices are no longer the most important source of income, but in the past all spices were exported. The spices came originally from Asia and South-America, but they thrived also good in the tropical climate of Zanzibar.
Some special plantations are made currently to show the tourists what kind of spices and other things grow on Zanzibar. Let yourself immerse in this delicious blend of flavour and taste!
Together with the guide you walk through the plantation. Try to guess what spice the guide is showing you. Your guide will tell you where the spices come from, how it grows and what the effect of the product is. You will be surprised by the medical effects of many of these spices.
A visit to this ‘spicefarm’ offers you the possibility to buy some spices. You can also buy perfume and balm, which are all made with the spices and support the local community.
You will end the tour with a delicious fruit tasting. After that you can enjoy a delicious local lunch, that is prepared by the women from the community.
Day 4: Stand up peddling (SUP)
On the last day we will visit the mangroves. We will go stand up peddling! Discover one of the most beautiful, unknown and highly endangered environments of Zanzibar’s South-East coast, which is only accessible by SUP.
In the mangroves area you will find a wide variety of animals, such as specific fish and crab. Our guide will show you the most beautiful areas and explain the different types of mangrove trees during our mangrove sup tour. After the tour you can share your experiences with each other while enjoying free drinks and fruit. Take the perfect pictures from our roof-top terrace overlooking the mangrove forest and lagoon.
By exploring Zanzibar during our mangrove sup tour, you will have a full body workout, probably without even noticing it!
Included
– Transport to and from airport/ferry
– 3 nights accommodation Zanzibar, based on a double room with private bathroom (breakfast included)
– Prison Island and sandbank
– Jozani Forest &Butterfly Center
– Spice Tour
– SUP tour
Excluded
– International flight
– Touristvisa ($50 per person)
– Infrastructure tax Zanzibar ($1 pppn)
– Lunch, Dinner and drinks
– Other extra expenses
