Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs R - Cardiff

100 hours in Zanzibar

On this trip, I visited Zanzibar between 30-Aug-2009 and 4-Sep-2009 and I travelled with 1 other person.

The balance between resting and activities, the Indian Ocean coast and Stone Town produced a great 4 days in Zanzibar and we managed to fit in all we had wanted and more.

Fisherman Tours the Expert Africa representatives were really helpful and helped to arrange a Spice Tour (good idea to do on the trip between the east coast and Stone Town) and also a walking tour of Stone Town. It might have been a good idea to have had a list of possible activities that they coudl arrange before leaving home as quite a lot of information was given to you on the trip from the airport to hotel.

Good idea to get a Zantel SIM and 10,000Zsh credit before leaving Stone Town area - we made loads of calls to mobiles and UK and still didn't run out of credit by end of week.

Safari Blue (www.safariblue.net) was a brilliant decision to take up - we read about it at Shooting Star and as total novices had been a bit nervous about doing a day trip with dhow sailing and snorkelling but this was a really well organised but friendly and informal activity and excellent value for money at $55 per preson for an all inclusive whole day of dolphin watching, dhow sailing, coral snorkelling, great food, chilled drinks, a trip in a traditional fishing katamaran, flooded mangrove swimming all in a friendly and helpful atmosphere. Good also to see the company using some of the profits to reinvest in local communities - definitely to be recommended.

Taking a walking tour on first afternoon in Stone Town was a good idea as it meant we enjoyed the subsequent time more as we felt confident about where things were and more happy to venture off the main routes and see more than we would have done if not.

I stayed at and have reviewed:

Place	Overall rating
Shooting Star Lodge, Zanzibar 31-Aug-2009 review: Shooting Star Lodge review	Excellent
Dhow Palace Hotel, Zanzibar 2-Sep-2009 review: Dhow Palace Hotel review	Good