Zanzibar tour operators

MrsHto be booked her wedding etc through a company so she might be a good person to ask. I can let you have local info if you want. Let me know which hotels/areas you're looking at and can let you know more. Can also pass you on the details of the taxi driver we use who is willing to offer 'mates rates'.

I would suggest looking for somewhere that offers you a couple of nights on Stone Town as well as the beach (and really - if you want to swim you're best off on the North Coast as the tide goes out for miles on the East.

Hello

Yes, we used Imagine Africa to sort out our trip. We're spending 3 nights near Stonetown, 3 nights at a luxury resort in the North-East, then going to Tanzania for a 4 night safari, and finally one night in Dar because we have an early flight home. Imagine Africa are sorting flights and all accom except Stonetown since we're booking that with the wedding planners.

We looked at a couple of other tour operators who could put together similar packages, but while our trip is expensive, alternatives were eye wateringly so! (I think ours, including flights and all the 8 nights accom booked with IA plus private safari guide is just under £9k, we were quoted about £13k by one company for the same sort of trip!)

Yeah, we're planning on spending a couple of nights in Stone Town and a couple on Chumbe Island, then finding a nice quiet beachy place for a bit longer. We're not really keen on just lying on the beach though, so we're looking for somewhere that has a decent range of activities. The guidebooks I have read are generally a bit scathing of the north coast and say it has been over-touristed and has loads of budget/chain hotels around, which put us off a bit. There are a few places that caught our eye, just waiting to hear back from a couple of companies about quotes etc...

Haven't been to Chumbe so can't comment. The north is more touristy but does have a lot of posher hotels. As far as activities go..............think there is kite surfing somewhere and there are lots of tours round the island - though touristy the spice tour is pretty good and there's also a 'safari blue' - basically heading off to a sandbank for the day. Apart from that....... there are things like the slave caves and Mtoni Palace ruins. Of course there is also lots of snorkelling and diving.

Depending on where you're flying into - direct to Zanzibar (Oman Air, and Qatar soon I think) or to Dar you could also fit a safari in. Yes they are expensive - even without a 'normal' package you still have to think of the cost of the car and driver/guide, park fees, accomodation, fuel etc but when in Africa..........

A 5 day safari with nice accomodation fully inclusive of meals etc will cost around $**** (for 2 people).

Yeah, we looked at Safari etc, but it would just stretch our budget too much. I've already done one a few years ago when I was in Swaziland on my elective (though I know that the Tanzanian parks are much bigger and more varied), and OH isn't massively keen, so we figured we'd just make the most of Zanzibar itself. Not sure who we'll be flying with yet.