Stone Town / Zanzibar
Stone Town was the seat of the Omani sultans who ruled this coast, and its coral-rag houses carry carved doors, brass studs and shuttered balconies that mix Arab, Indian, Persian and African design in one street. Walk the lanes without a map in the late afternoon, then be at the old fort by six when the food market opens on the seafront and the whole town comes out.
Why go
A Swahili trading city in coral stone — Arab, Indian, Persian and African design in the same street. Carved doors — over five hundred of them, each with brass studs and a family's status in the lintel. The slave market site — the Anglican cathedral stands on it, and the history is confronted directly. Spice farms and the north coast — an hour away, and the reason the island was worth taking.
The character
Zanzibar was the capital of an Omani sultanate that ruled the East African coast, and Stone Town is what that wealth built: a dense grid of coral-rag houses with carved teak doors, Indian merchant balconies, Persian baths and mosques, all in a few hundred metres between the harbour and the market. The economy was cloves and slaves. Between 600,000 and a million people passed through the slave market here in the nineteenth century, and the Anglican cathedral was built on the site in 1873 with the altar where the whipping post stood.
The town also produced an unusual cosmopolitanism — Freddie Mercury was born here in 1946 to Parsi parents from India, which is a fact the town enjoys. Zanzibar united with Tanganyika in 1964 after a revolution, and retains its own government. Stone Town today is crumbling in parts, restored in others, and entirely alive: the lanes are too narrow for cars, the seafront fills every evening for the food market, and the call to prayer overlaps with church bells across the same square.
Places of character
The carved doors — start at the Old Dispensary and simply look up; the styles distinguish Indian from Omani. Anglican Cathedral and slave chambers — the holding cells beneath, and the memorial in the garden. House of Wonders — the sultan's palace of 1883, first building in East Africa with electricity and a lift; under restoration. Forodhani Gardens at dusk — the seafront food market, grilled seafood and sugarcane juice, from six. Darajani Market — spices, fish and everything else; loud and worth an hour. Prison Island — giant tortoises and a snorkelling reef, thirty minutes by boat.
The way to do it
Get lost deliberately in the lanes — a map is useless and everything leads to the sea eventually. Take a guide for the slave market site; the context matters. Eat at Forodhani in the evening with everyone else. And leave the town for a spice farm and the north coast, which is what the island grows and where it swims.
One perfect day
Out early through the lanes before the heat, looking at doors and taking wrong turns. The Anglican cathedral and the slave chambers mid-morning, with a guide, for an hour that is not comfortable. Coffee and a break. Darajani market for the spices and the noise. Lunch of Zanzibari pilau. Afternoon boat to Prison Island for the tortoises and a snorkel over the reef. Back for the ramparts of the seafront at five, and Forodhani Gardens from six — grilled octopus, Zanzibari pizza, sugarcane juice pressed while you wait. Dinner on a rooftop with the call to prayer going up across the town.
Grand hotels
Emerson on Hurumzi — a merchant's house restored floor by floor, with a rooftop restaurant at the top of the town. Park Hyatt Zanzibar — in a restored seafront mansion, the island's most comfortable address.
When to go
Best expression: June to October — dry, breezy and the best time for both town and beaches. Consider: July for the Zanzibar International Film Festival in the old fort. Avoid if possible: the long rains of April and May, when much of the island closes.
The frame
Ideal stay 2 nights in town, plus beach time · Minimum 2 nights · Best arrival ferry from Dar es Salaam, two hours · Airport ZNZ, 6 km · Walkability total; cars cannot enter most lanes · Best without a car yes