Everyone should go to Zanzibar once in his/her life. We not only remember the beauty of the island, but particularly the emotions that we felt during our stay. We chose Zanzibar because we both wanted to visit Africa, meet the people living there, explore that incredible island and discover what “mal d’Afrique” is. The emotions that we felt have made our holiday unforgettable, and all these emotions were given by the smiles of the local people.

ARRANGEMENTS:

In respect of our philosophy, after some research on the web, we realized that planning a trip to Zanzibar on our own was a little bit complicated, especially for the flights, as we could only find expensive and endless ones. While, for the hotel we found the one that we wanted to book on the internet. So, we contacted our travel agency and we booked our holiday to Zanzibar Kiwengwa from August the 3rd to August the 12th at Blu Marlin Beach Resort at the price of 1’275 Euros per person. Blu Marlin Beach Resort is the perfect accomodation if you are looking for peace and tranquillity. There is no animation, there are only a few customers because the hotel is not very big and during the evening there is not much to do; one of the possibilities is going to Obama beach, a nice bar on the beach with music. Food is excellent and there is a nice stilt right next to the sea, where you can enjoy the wonderful view of the colors of the ocean and the change of the tide.

THE TIDES AND THE SEA:

Tides’ phenomenon is something unique…obviously, this could be a problem if you want to spend the whole day in the water; on the other hand, it is possible to do long walks, seeing a lot of shells, fishes, crabs and taking beautiful pictures. During our holiday, in the morning there was low tide while in the afternoon there was high tide and the landscape completely changed depending on it. Kiwengwa beach is famous for being the most beautiful and spectacular beach in Zanzibar, even if there will surely be different points of view about it. The beach is long with fine and white sand and big palms. Along the beach there are many Masai’s shops where you can buy nice things. Actually, they all sell the same things, but if you want to buy a framework you should absolutely go to a shop located after “Bravo Village”: you recognize it easily because there are many printings on the beach and the works are all  incredible!

 

ZANZIBAR PEOPLE:

We fell in love with Zanzibar also thanks to the beautiful people we met. Particularly, we met two girls: Zwena and Marhyanu. We spent a lot of time with them, they tought us some Swhailii words, they played with us and they walked with us on the beach. They never asked for anything; except once, after a couple of days, they asked us if we had some pens. They used to spend their days looking for us on the beach and when they saw us a big smile covered their faces and they held our hands.  If you are planning a holiday to Zanzibar bring some clothes, pens, pencils and copybooks. Don’t give them sweets, they can’t go to the dentist!!

MASAI:                         

Masai are everywhere! The first day it’s difficult to understand how to behave with them because they may seem invasive, but once you get more acclimated you start knowing them; they are all really nice, friendly and their Italian is really good. Most of them own a shop where you will probably buy something. Be kind to them, obviously they want to sell their objects, but they are also looking for company to improve their italian. Our first night we met Girasole (Jacobo) at the Obama Café and we had a really good time with him. He talked a lot about his life and his family, and he was curious about our culture and our way of living. That first night, we chose the name of his shop “Decathlon”.  We spent a lot of time with him during our holiday and we are still in contact, hoping that one day we will meet him again. When you arrive ask a masai when they do the dance: once a week they perform typical balls from Tanzania. This is wonderful and you absolutely can’t miss it!

BEACH BOYS:

Their work is organizing the excursions and they work in groups. They have some little boats and some buses. The most famous beach boy in Kiwengwa is Remo and the prices of his excursions are lower than the ones that you will be offered by your hotel, while the quality and the organization are the same!

EXCURSIONS:

If you want to enjoy the island as much as possible, excursions are a must. They are all beautiful and we did all of them except the visit to Stone Town and the spices’ tour (these excursions come together and they cover the whole day). When you book an excursion, there are three options: 1 -beach boys, 2 -tour operator , 3 -local people working for the hotel. In our opinion the 2nd is not a good choice because you pay more to have the same service as the other two options that are cheaper. Moreover, choosing the tour operatour means sharing the day with many other people. Zanzibar should be lived at 360°, so planning an excursion with a beach boy or a local man is a great idea. Blu Marlin organizes excursions with Eddie, who lives in the village behind the hotel. This option is not offered by all the hotels but only by the smallest. We think that it is a good idea infact we did a couple of excursions with Eddie who is a really nice guy. He knows everything about Zanzibar and he is happy to share his knowledge with the tourists. As we said before, Remo approaches you to propose his excrusions’ programme, including Prison Island and Nakupenda, Stone Town and spices’tour, Kizimkazi and Jozani forest, Nungwi and Mnemba Atoll.

MNEMBA ATOLL:

This is a half day excursion. We reached Muyuni beach with the bus and then we took the boat: destination paradise! Mnemba is a private island, a little paradise on earth and some say this is one of the most romantic places in the world. If you are not a customer of the exclusive resort on the island you are not allowed to touch the land but you can enjoy the wonderful sandspit, walking on it and swimming into the crystal clear waters. This is a unique experience, an amazing place! Words can’t explain how beautiful this place is, so we let the pictures talk for us.

PRISON ISLAND & NAKUPENDA:

This is a one-day trip. First stop is Changuu that in Swhailii means “turtles’ island”, but is known as Prison Island. The inhabitants of the island are only turtles coming from Seychelles. The oldest one is 193 years. During your visit you can feed the turtles (they eat about 20 kg of food evey day), pet them and talk with the staff that is very kind. 

After the visit we took the boat to reach Nakupenda that in swhailii means “I love you”. Nakupenda is a wonderful strip of sand in the middle of the ocean. The best part of the trip is the lunch with fresh grilled fish, fries and fresh tropical fruit. For us, this has been the best lunch ever…! In the afternoon the tide starts to come in and for that reason some parts of the island are not accessible anymore, but you can enjoy the island as well.

KIZIMKAZI & JOZANI FOREST:

The departure is early in the morning and with the bus we reached Kizimkazi, South of Zanzibar. We took the boat and we went to a strategic point of the ocean where dolphins are used to spend their mornings looking for food. Having the opportunity to see those wonderful animals in their habitat is an incredible experience. We were very excited and when we saw some of them jumping out the water we immediately entered and we were surrounbded by dolphins. We spent more than 2 hours swimming with them. We have been very lucky.

The second part of the trip is the visit to Jozani forest inhabited by red monkeys. As we arrived there, we have been welcomed by a nice monkey and during the walk we saw many of them. Jozani forest is a protected area, in order to save the biodiversity. The most impressive part is the mangrove forest, we had never seen one before… they are an endless weave of woods and shrubs.

NUNGWI:

Nungwi is located North of Zanzibar and is famous for its sunsets. We left our hotel after lunch and we spent the afternoon in Nungwi, which is completely different from Kiwengwa: it’s more chaotic, there are more tourists, the hotels are bigger and the sea is not as spectacular as in Kiwengwa. Obviously, it has beautiful colors as well, but there is not the typical african atmosphere. It surely is worth it, the sunset is really evocative, but we would never book a holiday to Zanzibar in Nungwi.

KIWENGWA’S CORAL REEF:

This is the easiest excursion. If you have some free hours, you can ask a beach boy to accompany you to see the coral reef. We went there twice (it costs 5 Euro pax) and we saw many animals: octopuses, starfish, crabs and sea urchins. It is important to know that starfish can only live outside the water just a couple of minutes. A marine biologist gave us this information, so don’t believe who says that they can survive for ten minutes.

KIWENGWA’S VILLAGE:

Pwani Mchangan is the name of the village behind Blu Marlin resort. Walking in the village is absolutely sure and safe. We brought a lagguage full of clothes and during our walk in the village we gave them to the people in exchange of big smiles. The last day of our holiday, Remo offered to show us the village form a different point of view: we entered some houses and we shared some precious moments with the people and they were incredibly proud of their houses even if they are made just with mud and stones.

Zanzibar has been a wonderful experience. Entering in contact with the local people has been the best part of the holiday, and we have had the proof that we can be truly happy  and be satisfied for what we have. Will be back very soon!

Stay tuned…the best is yet to come!