Is Zanzibar Worth Visiting? Maybe Not for the Reasons You Think

After spending almost two weeks there and even extending my stay, you probably expect me to immediately say yes.

But my honest answer is: it depends on why you want to go.

If you are travelling all the way to Zanzibar only for white-sand beaches, turquoise water, jet skis and kitesurfing, I am not sure I would tell you that you absolutely need to go.

Of course, distance matters.

If Zanzibar is only a three-to-five-hour flight from where you live, it makes perfect sense to choose it for a beach holiday. It is beautiful, relatively close to you and offers everything you might want from a tropical escape.

But if reaching Zanzibar requires an eight- or ten-hour journey or even longer, you may already have equally beautiful beaches and similar activities much closer to home.

I come from Guadeloupe, a small French Caribbean island, and I can find beaches there that are just as capable of making me say “wow.” Someone travelling from Europe can find beautiful alternatives around the Mediterranean or in Egypt, while someone coming from the United States has the Caribbean and Mexico much closer.

That does not mean Zanzibar’s beaches are not worth seeing. They absolutely are.

I simply believe that if you are travelling such a long distance, Zanzibar has something far more interesting to offer than white sand and water sports.

The question is: will you take the time to discover it?

“But You Didn’t Do That Much…”

Whenever I told people about my trip, I sometimes received the same reaction:

“But you didn’t do that many activities!”

And honestly, they were not completely wrong.

I didn’t go jet skiing. I didn’t take kitesurfing lessons. I didn’t spend every day moving from one excursion to another.

Even some tour guides and taxi drivers seemed confused by me.

“Do you want to go to Nakupenda Sandbank?”

“No.”

“Jet ski?”

“No.”

“Kitesurfing?”

“Not really.”

Sometimes, the expression on their faces seemed to say:

Then why exactly did you come to Zanzibar?

And their reaction made me wonder whether I had somehow missed the point of the island.

Did I miss Zanzibar because I didn’t do enough?

Or did I simply experience a different version of it?

Maybe I Missed the Zanzibar Sold to Tourists

Perhaps I did miss one version of Zanzibar.

I missed the Zanzibar of packed itineraries, famous excursions and daily water activities. The version where every day includes a sandbank, a boat trip, a quad-bike tour or something else that will look impressive in an Instagram Reel.

That version is probably a lot of fun.

I am not judging anyone who comes here for it. We don’t all travel for the same reasons, and I am sure I would have enjoyed some of those activities too. Sometimes I want to focus on culture, sometimes gastronomy and other time nothing.

Travelling can feel like completing a checklist. We search for the “top ten things to do,” rush from one activity to another and return home with enough pictures to prove that we made the most of the trip.

And if we don’t complete the list, we wonder whether we wasted our time.

This trip reminded me that doing more does not necessarily mean experiencing more.

For me, Zanzibar became special during the moments that would never appear on a list of must-do activities.

The Zanzibar I Found Through People

What I will remember most about Zanzibar is the people I met and the conversations we had.

At some point, some people even started calling me “Ghana” because I kept telling everyone that I lived there.

“Hey, Ghana!”

That became my unofficial name on the island. I mean the customized one as the generic one was « Cappucino ».

And because I stayed for almost two weeks and moved between different places, I sometimes met the same people again. Someone I had seen in Stone Town would suddenly appear in Nungwi. Someone I knew from Nungwi would later see me in Paje and stop to say hello.

Zanzibar began to feel smaller.

I was no longer only moving through a series of tourist destinations. I was starting to recognize faces, and some people were beginning to recognize mine.

Of course, Zanzibar men also made sure I never walked down the street unnoticed. Should I do an article about it ? I heard so many stories

Sometimes, you only had to walk for a few minutes before receiving a new compliment or an invitation to continue a conversation you never actually started.

It could be persistent, but it could also be genuinely funny at first. After some time, you start recognizing the lines and wondering whether there is a secret Zanzibar handbook that everyone has read.

But beyond those funny exchanges, I had real conversations with people : their dreams, their challenges, their perceptions…

So, Did I Visit the Real Zanzibar?

Honestly, I don’t know if there is such a thing as one “real” Zanzibar.

The Zanzibar experienced by someone staying in an all-inclusive resort will not be the same one experienced by someone living in Stone Town. A person visiting for four days will see something different from someone working here for several years. Even Zanzibaris will experience their own island differently depending on where and how they live.

Perhaps we never discover the complete truth of a place.

We only experience fragments.

I didn’t visit every village. I didn’t understand every tradition. I didn’t see every part of the island, and almost two weeks could never be enough for that.

But I walked. I observed. I listened. I stayed long enough to recognize people and be recognized. I heard stories that made me laugh, surprised me and helped me understand the island differently.

At the end of the day, your experience of Zanzibar will depend partly on you.

You can come, complete every famous activity and leave with incredible pictures. Or you can leave some space in your itinerary for random conversations, unexpected encounters and moments that cannot be booked online.

Ideally, you can do both.

Is Zanzibar Worth Visiting?

Yes, I believe Zanzibar is worth visiting.

But maybe not for the reasons you think.

Its beaches are beautiful, but they are not the only reason to travel here. What made the island worthwhile for me was everything surrounding them: its history, cultural mix, people, food, conversations and the everyday realities hidden behind the image of a tropical paradise.

And if, like me, you are taking a longer trip through Tanzania, I would definitely add Zanzibar to your itinerary.

Zanzibar is not simply a beach extension at the end of a Tanzanian holiday. It is part of Tanzania, part of its history and part of understanding the country as a whole.

The island has its own identity, culture and rhythm, but the stories of the people I met also connected it to the mainland from the photographer living in Arusha to the workers who came from Lushoto and other parts of Tanzania looking for opportunities.

Visiting both will give you a more complete and much more interesting picture of the country.

So, if you thought Zanzibar was only about beaches, I hope this article has made you curious to discover what exists beyond them. And if you were already dreaming of the white sand, water sports and turquoise sea, come and enjoy all of it.

I simply hope you will also take the time to speak to people, listen to their stories and look beyond the tourist checklist.

Because Zanzibar’s beaches may be what first catches your attention.

But its people and everything they teach you about the island may be what makes the journey truly worth it.

Talla