# Zanzibar: map, what to do and when to go

Zanzibar is Stone Town, a maze of coral-stone houses and carved doors on Unguja island, ringed by warm-water beaches. It was capital of the Omani sultanate in the 19th century and is today the center of a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania.

Canonical: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/zanzibar/
Language: en. Extended author commentary and itinerary notes may remain in Portuguese. Dates below belong to individual sources; this is not live availability.

## Direct answer
- **Zanzibar: Can you swim at any hour on the east coast?** No: on the east coast the sea pulls back hundreds of meters over the reef twice a day, and swimming depends on the tide's timing.
- **Zanzibar: How do you get to Prison Island (Changuu)?** Prison Island (Changuu) is 5 km off the coast, 25 to 30 minutes by boat from Forodhani.
- **Zanzibar: Which currency to bring, dollars or shillings?** The currency is the Tanzanian shilling (TZS), at about 2,600 to 2,700 per dollar in 2026, and you'll need both currencies at once: hotels, dives, tours, and park entries are usually quoted in dollars; food, daladala, and market shopping, in shillings.

## Stone Town on foot, from market to sea
Start at 7am at Darajani Market, before the heat: the fish aisle, the spice aisle and a mandazi with chai at the corner stall.
- House of Wonders (Beit-al-Ajaib)
- Christ Church Anglican Cathedral
- Forodhani Gardens
- Darajani Market
- Palace Museum (Beit el-Sahel)
- Old Dispensary (Ithnashiri)
- Freddie Mercury's House

## Spices, forest and the southeast coast
Leave at 8:30am for a spice farm in Kizimbani or Kidichi (30–40 min), where you'll identify clove, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla on the plant.
- Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park

## Old Fort (Ngome Kongwe)
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/zanzibar/#g-lugar-forte-velho
Cidade de Pedra de Zanzibar · Up to half an hour
Omani fortress built between 1698 and 1701 over the remains of a Portuguese chapel, with coral-stone walls and round towers. Today it holds an open-air amphitheater, craft stalls and a café, and it's the main stage for the Sauti za Busara and ZIFF festivals.
Check access

## House of Wonders (Beit-al-Ajaib)
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/zanzibar/#g-lugar-casa-das-maravilhas
Cidade de Pedra de Zanzibar · Up to half an hour
Sultan Barghash's ceremonial palace, from 1883, East Africa's first building with electricity and an elevator: hence the name. On December 25, 2020, much of the facade, including the clock tower, collapsed during restoration work, and the building remained closed and covered in scaffolding in 2026. Even so, it's still the visual landmark of Stone Town's waterfront.
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## Christ Church Anglican Cathedral
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/zanzibar/#g-lugar-catedral-anglicana-de-christ
Zanzibar
Built from 1873 on the site of the slave market closed that same year, in the Mkunazini neighborhood. The main altar marks the spot of the whipping post, the basement holds holding chambers, and the courtyard has the 1998 stone memorial by Clara Sörnäs, with original chains.
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## Forodhani Gardens
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/zanzibar/#g-lugar-jardins-de-forodhani
Zanzibar
A strip of garden on the waterfront, opened in 1936 and renovated in 2009 with support from the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. From 6pm it turns into an open-air food market, with dozens of stalls selling skewers, grilled octopus and Zanzibar pizza.
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## Darajani Market
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/zanzibar/#g-lugar-mercado-de-darajani
The 1904 central market on Creek Road, with sheds for fish, meat and fruit and the spice aisle: clove, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper. Runs from before dawn to early afternoon.
Check access

## Palace Museum (Beit el-Sahel)
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/zanzibar/#g-lugar-museu-do-palacio
Mjini District · Up to half an hour
The sultans' 19th-century residence, on the waterfront next to the House of Wonders, with original furniture, Princess Salme's bedroom and Seyyid Said's tomb in the garden. It explains, in an hour, the Omani genealogy that organized the city.
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## Old Dispensary (Ithnashiri)
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/zanzibar/#g-lugar-antigo-dispensario
Cidade de Pedra de Zanzibar · Up to half an hour
A building from 1887–1894 commissioned by merchant Tharia Topan as a charity hospital, with carved wooden balconies, stained glass and stucco: the island's most complete example of Indo-Swahili architecture. Restored in the 1990s by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, today it has free entry on the ground floor.
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## The carved doors
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/zanzibar/#g-lugar-as-portas-esculpidas
Unguja Ocidental · Up to half an hour
Over five hundred historic doors are catalogued in Stone Town, in two types: the Omani-Swahili, rectangular, with a carved lintel and Quranic verses, and the Indian, with a rounded arch and brass spikes. The brass spikes copy an Indian device against elephants, an animal that never lived on the island.
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## Freddie Mercury's House
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/zanzibar/#g-lugar-casa-de-freddie-mercury
Farrokh Bulsara was born in Stone Town on September 5, 1946, to a Parsi family working for the British administration. The house in Shangani has run as a museum since 2019 and documents the island's Parsi community as much as the musician.
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## Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/zanzibar/#g-lugar-parque-nacional-de-jozani
35 km from the city, this is Unguja's last large remaining forest, protected as a national park since 2004. It's home to the Zanzibar red colobus (Piliocolobus kirkii), endemic and with an estimated population of a few thousand, and a wooden boardwalk over the Pete mangrove.
Check access

**Zanzibar: Can you swim at any hour on the east coast?**
No: on the east coast the sea pulls back hundreds of meters over the reef twice a day, and swimming depends on the tide's timing.

**Zanzibar: How do you get to Prison Island (Changuu)?**
Prison Island (Changuu) is 5 km off the coast, 25 to 30 minutes by boat from Forodhani.

**Zanzibar: Which currency to bring, dollars or shillings?**
The currency is the Tanzanian shilling (TZS), at about 2,600 to 2,700 per dollar in 2026, and you'll need both currencies at once: hotels, dives, tours, and park entries are usually quoted in dollars; food, daladala, and market shopping, in shillings.

**Zanzibar: What's the climate like throughout the year?**
The climate is equatorial and hot all year round, between 25°C and 33°C, with high humidity, but the seasons are defined by two monsoons.

**Zanzibar: What are the safety risks for visitors?**
Violent crime against visitors is rare in Zanzibar, and the real problem is opportunistic theft: a bag snatched in a poorly lit Stone Town lane after 10pm, a phone grabbed by a pair on a motorbike on Creek Road, a backpack left on the sand.


## In the Nilo app
- Plan these 4 days on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/guide/zanzibar/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-itinerary
- Mark your hotel on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/map/zanzibar/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-stay

## Full editorial guide (Portuguese)
https://nilopelomundo.com/llm/zanzibar.md