Zanzibar — Spice Island of the Swahili Coast 🌺
Tanzania's tropical archipelago: powder-white beaches, turquoise water, and the labyrinthine alleys of a UNESCO-listed trading port steeped in Swahili, Arab, Persian and Indian history. Hand-picked stays and a must-see icon — every link takes you straight to Trip.com to check live prices and book.
🏨 Where to Stay
- Meliá Zanzibar ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — family-friendly, all-inclusive — a sprawling all-inclusive resort on Kiwengwa Beach's endless white sand, with private-garden villas featuring their own infinity pools, seven restaurants and bars, and an adults-only "The Level" wing for couples wanting extra seclusion.
- Park Hyatt Zanzibar — smart pick, historic Stone Town — part-housed in a restored 19th-century Zanzibari mansion on the Stone Town seafront, with an 18-metre oceanfront infinity pool and views over the dhow harbour.
- Dhow Palace Hotel — attainable pick — genuinely good value inside a 1559 Stone Town building, with Zanzibari antique furnishings, a rooftop terrace and a pool, five minutes from the House of Wonders.
- Kilindi Zanzibar — iconic, adults-only — a rare collection of white-domed pavilion suites set across 50 acres of tropical garden on the northwest coast, each with a private plunge pool and open-air living space, plus a complimentary Swahili cooking class and beachfront candlelit dinners.
- Zuri Zanzibar — hidden gem, design-forward — the island's #2-rated luxury hotel, a Design Hotels member on Kendwa Beach where the tide barely varies, meaning guests can swim any time of day. Family-friendly with a strong sustainability ethos and 55 bungalows, suites and villas tucked into tropical gardens.
✈️ Flights
- Flights to Zanzibar (ZNZ) — no direct route from Manchester; fly one-stop with KLM via Amsterdam (around 12 hours), or Turkish Airlines via Istanbul and Ethiopian Airlines via Addis Ababa.
🎟️ Experiences
- Stone Town — a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Zanzibar's historic trading capital, where narrow coral-stone alleys wind past ornately carved wooden doors, Persian bathhouses, Arab palaces and the House of Wonders, telling the story of centuries of Swahili, Arab, Indian and European exchange.
🚗 Car Hire & Transfers