Published on Nov, 2024
We very much enjoyed our private day tour to Mnemba Island, Jozani forest, Tangawizi Spice Farm and Stonetown.
We were picked up from our hotel on time with a comfortable air-conditioned vehicle. Bottled water was provided.
After driving to a beach we took a small motorboat to open sea close to Mnemba Island. There we had the chance to swim with a group of dolphins including young ones. After that we did some snorkeling at open sea before returning to shore.
Our driver picked us up and we were on our way to Jozani forest.
We told our guide we were hungry and asked if she knew a place we could eat and she took us to the Jozani Biosphere Village restaurant. This was not part of the tour but we were very happy we got to eat at this nice and simple, open (as in no windows) restaurant surrounded by nature. We had the Bi Khole’s Special: Mama Jozani’s Senti (Mom’s Platter). It was a collection of Swahili dishes including beef paka (stew), octopus masala, a whole fried fish, prawns, crispy fried chicken, sausages, grilled calamari, spinach, ugali, white rice and fries. It was delicious and only $ 22 (or 45.000 Tanzanian Shilling) for 2 people.
In Jozani forest we saw 2 different types of Monkeys including the Zanzibar Red Colobus, a species that only lives in Zanzibar. There was a whole group of them sitting in low branches next to the path and our guide took us into the bushes to see them up close.
A little further down the road was the entrance to the mangrove forest. There is a nice wooden walking bridge through these beautiful trees with their impressive roots. Our guide pointed out some tiny crabs which we fed shredded leaves to.
After the mangrove forest there was a group of local people making music and dancing.
Then we drove for about an hour to Tangawizi Spice Farm. A guide from the farm showed us around all the different plants and trees letting us smell and taste some straight of the plant (such as nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, coffee, lemongrass) The big banana, durian and jackfruit trees were nice to see. We drank from a fresh coconut and got to see Butterfly Man climb a very tall palm tree.
Our last stop was Stone Town, the main city of Zanzibar. We arrived at the harbour where there is a small open air food market. You can make a nice video with the young men that jump of the cliff.
We went inside the old fort where we bought something from the souvenirshops. We walked around the Stonetown streets and passed some historic buildings like the Sultans Palace, a Mosk, Catholic Church and a Hindu temple close to each other. We also passed the Freddy Mercury museum but didn’t go inside.
We were supposed to go to the Slave trade exhibit but because some other things (like our lunch) took a bit long it was already closed when we got there and we decided to come another day.
It really was a great full day program. We were picked up at 07:00 (7 am) and returned back to our hotel around 19:00 (7 pm).
We had a lot of fun with our guide Amina, she is very friendly and has great vibes. She also took some nice pictures of us. We enjoyed her company and that of our skilled driver Simba. Lots of laughter and good music.
In fact, we enjoyed it so much we decided to book with them again. We had a phone call with the boss and explained which other places we wanted to visit and discussed a good price and pick up time for our next tour.
(The next day we went to Baraka Natural Aquarium (swimming with turtles was amazing!), Kuza cave, had lunch at Rainbow Paje restaurant, went to Pingwe beach where we saw the Rock restaurant sitting on a rock in the sea and went on a boat trip to go snorkeling in 2 different places where we saw lots of beautiful fish and starfish.
We booked a third tour with them and went to Nakupenda Island and Prison Island. This time Amina was not there unfortunately but we got Abas as our guide. Thank you to Abas for making our special video. At Nakupenda Island we had a seafood barbecue and went swimming. The boat came to pick us up and we went to Prison Island where we saw huge tortoises.)
Since we did not get to see the Slave trade exhibit in Stonetown during our first day tour we asked to go there this time before returning to our hotel. We saw a church, the slave chambers, and the slave monument.
Thank you to our guide Amina and driver Simba for showing us so much of the Island and sharing good vibes. We had a great time!
