Jozani Forest, Spice Farm and Stone Town Full-Day Tour

Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park

The day begins in Jozani, Zanzibar's only national park, a protected belt of groundwater forest, coral-rag thicket and mangroves in the south-east of the island, about forty-five minutes from Stone Town on the road to Paje. It is the best place in the world to see the Zanzibar red colobus, a monkey with a rust-red coat and a tuft of white hair that exists only on this island and has become its emblem.

A park ranger leads a walk of around an hour along the trails, where troops of colobus feed in the low branches and Sykes monkeys chatter overhead; the guide also points out medicinal plants and the park's giant trees. Keep a few metres from the monkeys and never feed them. Sightings are very likely but never guaranteed. The entry fee and the guided walk are included, as is the mangrove boardwalk a few minutes away by road.

The mangrove boardwalk

A raised wooden walkway runs through the mangroves on the edge of Chwaka Bay. The walk is flat and takes about twenty minutes, and it is where the guide explains how mangroves survive salt water with stilt roots and breathing roots, and why they matter for fish, crabs and the coastline. At low tide you look down on fiddler crabs and mudskippers; at high tide the water laps right under the boards.

The boardwalk is shaded and cooler than the open road, and it is a good place for photographs before the drive inland. From here the vehicle heads to the spice farms in the centre of the island, around forty minutes away, passing villages, rice fields and coconut groves on the way.

An organic spice farm

Zanzibar's reputation as the Spice Island comes from the clove plantations planted under the Omani sultans in the nineteenth century, and the farms around Kizimbani and Dole still grow cloves alongside cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, cardamom, turmeric, black pepper, lemongrass and ylang-ylang. On this Zanzibar spice tour a farm guide leads you between the plants, cutting leaves and bark for you to smell and guess.

The visit ends with fresh fruit cut open for you to try, often jackfruit, mango, pineapple and coconut depending on the season, and a chance to buy spices, oils and soaps directly from the farm. Plan on about an hour and a half here. Lunch is not included, but there are simple local restaurants near the farm and in Stone Town where the guide can stop if you wish.

Stone Town, the old city of Zanzibar

Stone Town is the historic core of Zanzibar City and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a maze of coral-stone houses, balconies and carved wooden doors built mostly in the nineteenth century when the island was the seat of the Omani sultanate. With your guide you see the Old Fort, the Forodhani seafront, the façade of the House of Wonders, the former sultan's palace and Darajani Market, and learn how Arab, Persian, Indian and Swahili cultures mixed here.

The former slave market site, with its memorial and the cathedral built over it, can be entered for a ticket paid on the spot. Allow around two hours on foot in the late afternoon, when the alleys are cooler, with time to shop for fabrics, carvings and spices before our driver takes you back to your hotel. Is Stone Town worth visiting? It is the one place in Zanzibar where the island's whole history is written in the streets.