Awesome Zanzibar travel tours with Warere Beach? Dating from 1883, when construction was ordered by Sayyid Sir Barghash bin Said Al-Busaid, the second Sultan of Zanzibar, the Palace Museum is a stunning confection of coral stone, silver fittings and acres of marble underfoot. If it looks like a mansion, that’s because the sultan commissioned it as a residence, in classic Omani style – Zanzibar was under Omani imperial rule for about 200 years from 1698. A museum since the mid-1990s, it sets out, over three floors, a wealth of fascinating royal relics, including furniture, clothing and sheets of writing. See many more info on Warere Beach.
Top Tanzania travel tours from Warere Beach: Shopping in Stone Town is great, like a tiny version of Marrakech. I love all those little curio shops selling trinkets and Stone Town has plenty. You can buy paintings, jewellery, material, wooden carvings, Maasai bracelets, Zanzibar chests, and tasty spices. A lot of these shops sell the same mass-produced stuff you find all over Africa, but you’ll find the odd unique item and it’s cool to say ‘I bought this in Zanzibar’. MY TIP: Don’t forget to barter. Start low and then meet in the middle – it’s pretty fun when you get the hang of it! But just know that you can only barter in the markets and smaller shops, don’t try it in the bigger, fancier shops.
Top Tanzania travel tours from Warere Beach: The Rock restaurant is pretty synonymous with Zanzibar and is usually mentioned in every best Zanzibar restaurants guide. The restaurant is located in Pongwe (the southeast part of the island) and is accessible by motorbike or taxi cab from Paje. We made the memorable trip out to The Rock to get some lovely photos of the iconic spot. If you visit during high tide, a free boat taxi will deliver you to the rock (unless you feel like swimming). We wanted to get food and drinks, but be warned that the prices are sky-high for Zanzibar. I suppose it’s the price you pay to have dinner on the Indian Ocean. We didn’t have reservations and weren’t given excellent service because of this, so I would highly suggest calling ahead if you plan to go. Even if you don’t have a meal here, just coming to see the unique building is one of the best things to do in Zanzibar.
High quality Tanzania travel tours with Warere Beach: As I mentioned before, the island has a dark past. This market was the last functioning slave market in the world and it only closed in 1873. Although this might seem like a bit of a downer, it’s an important part of the history of the region. Thousands of Africans were brought to the island as slaves to work on plantations. Slave traders also used the island as a base camp before sending slaves on the long journey to the East to be sold in Persia, Arabia, the Ottoman Empire, and Egypt. At the Slave Museum, you can tour chambers where they kept slaves before they were sold. We went down to see the “rooms” where slaves were kept – a 12 by 12 foot basement with one tiny window near the ceiling. They kept over 30 people in these types of rooms. Although this happened hundreds of years ago it still gave me shivers as I stood there!
Best rated Tanzania travel tours with Warere Beach: If there is a backpacker spot on Zanzibar, it’s Paje beach. The beach has hip cafes, burger joints, kite surfing companies, bars, and hostels, making it one of the great places to visit in Zanzibar. We spent a few days relaxing in the inviting turquoise waters, which is the perfect thing to do for those looking for free things to do in Zanzibar. For those looking to have an active holiday in Zanzibar, the most popular thing to do in Paje is kite surf. There are an endless amount of schools and rental shops all dying to take you out on the water and show you the ropes of kitesurfing. If you’re not a beginner, Paje has just the right amount of wind to spend the entire Zanzibar holiday improving your kitesurfing skills. It’s often considered one of the best places in the world to go kite surfing, and it’s easy to understand why when you feel the wind and see the gorgeous water.