Zanzibar - Spice and Paradise

After a week on safari, some relaxation time is a must. Like many others we chose to head to Zanzibar, possibly THE most exotic sounding place in the world.

A day in Stone Town, the ancient part of the capital is highly recommended, an almost cliched step back in time to the era when traders from around the globe made Zanzibar famous as the 'Spice Island'. If you are heading for some relaxation on the beach, this will be one last hit of hustle and bustle in proper African style.

So the beach where, if you are lucky (and almost everyone is) you will find paradise. We chose to eschew the international resorts that cater for the seasoned traveller, there are still jewels to be discovered amongst the smaller independent hotels.

We chose Pongwe Beach and were overjoyed that we did. Beautifully prepared, delicious food, and exemplary service typified our stay. The Pure white beaches, cleaned at sunrise each day, crystal clear blue ocean that has plenty for the part time snorkeler and teeming coral reefs for the more serious sub-mariner.

There may be other island paradises that are the equal of Zanzibar but there can't be many better that don't require a millionaire's bank balance.

Quick Tips:

Best Way To Get Around:

Frankly, taxi. They cost a surprising amount (not by Western standards but relative to the cost of other things) but the main alternative is the dalla-dalla.

These are small open backed vans and, unless you have either a) not much luggage or b) lots of time on your hands, they aren't that practical an option.

Next time I go back, I'll make the effort to take at least one trip on them. They look a blast.

This award-winning hotel is totally affordable, but you feel like you are in the lap of African luxury from the moment you walk into the shady reception area. It lacks true mod-cons such as elevators but is all the more authentic colonial Africa for all that.

This is no identikit international hotel. It is a beautiful and sympathetically converted old trading house. Its history dates back to the end of the slave trade and was the place where local owners came to collect the government payoffs for giving up their entitlement to own their slaves.

Each room is determinedly individual, when we arrived we were given the choice of all the available rooms and we had a good look around them all.

Each room seemed to have a beautiful stone bath, and the choice of air conditioning (of sorts) or being open to the elements.

We chose the West Room on the Third Floor, up a vertiginous staircase climb (no elevators remember - though porters will take your bags). The room is all open to the air with the exception of the bed area itself. We enjoyed a 'bath a deux' under the stars in the cool of the Zanzibari evening.

There is a Tower Top restaurant at the very top of the hotel which has a very good reputation, unfortunately, such is its limited capacity and popularity, we were unable to secure a booking for the night we were there. We contented ourselves with Sundowners looking out across the harbour as the sun sank inexorably into the Indian Ocean beyond.

We ate at the attached and insanely cheap Kidude Cafe Restaurant, where we paid something like $7- $10 per head for a good meal with beers and wine.

The hotel cost itself was around $150 for the night, pricey in African terms perhaps but well worth the expense in terms of a unique and beautiful experience.

Waking early in the morning in the warm open air in an authentically appointed four poster bed by the voices of several muezzin issuing the call to prayer from the minarets of the numerous surrounding mosques is a wonderful way to be roused. In a trip of many memories that will stay with me for a lifetime, this is one of the very best.

OK. So you want paradise? Does this fit the bill?

White sandy beaches? Check
Crystal clear blue green ocean? Check
Teeming coral reefs? Check
Exemplary service? Check
Exquisite food? Check
Blistering heat, yet dappled shade? Check

If this isn't your idea of paradise, then whatever yours is, it'll probably suit you just as well.

Pongwe is not cheap. It cost us $70 per day per person at the end of the rainy season. However for this (and we got no rain to speak of by the way) you really do get the top rank of luxurious relaxation.

When you arrive you are greeted at the gates by a Masai, one of the security staff. The gated system makes some feel uncomfortable, as you can feel dislocated from the locality, but it does engender a sense of well being and adds to the relaxation.

After a short time at the hotel you will be reassured that the management are at great pains to fully integrate the hotel into the community at large, and while the gates and fences contradict this to a slight degree, they do enable a strong sense of security that can only benefit the hotel, its guests and thereby, eventually, the local economy.

We had a beach hut (one of only 12 on the entire site) on a small (8ft) coral clifftop which at high tide was surrounded on three sides by the Indian Ocean. The room wasn't massive, but doesn't need to be - you are there for sleeping only, there are day beds to relax on outside in the shade. The bathroom was as big at least as the bedroom and living space and had a bath, basin and free standing local style shower.

The water however is brackish, and you never quite feel totally clean, but that is a small price to pay for leaving as small a footprint as possible on the local ecology.

It is difficult to pinpoint the best aspect of the hotel. Is it the staff who are attentive to the nth degree, and are friendly and professional? Is it the large yet not at all impersonal dining and bar area where all guests gather each night for dinner? Is it the food itself, prepared fresh from locally procured ingredients by superbly trained chefs (a consultant chef from a top London restaurant attends regularly to provide ongoing training)? Is it the bliss of total relaxation at an affordable resort that takes every pain to make your stay as easy as possible?

I don't know, but it was as damn near as perfect as we wanted after a tiring week on safari.

I do acknowledge there could be drawbacks, if you don't like seafood for instance (though the seafood here is probably unlike anything you've had before - the squid melted in my mouth - no chewing required), there are jellyfish (though harmless) and the sea goes out 150 yards (and they are building a pool).

Apart from that, it's paradise.

OK - top tip time.

You want to go shopping in the streets of Stone Town? Of course you do. But do this; get a guide. If you're in a hotel, they'll be able to recommend one for for you.

Don't think that a guide book will do, it's not that sort of guide. Stone Town is fairly logical to find your way around - even though the maze of streets can resemble a souk - but having an official, government licensed guide will stop you from being approached by any number of unofficial guides on the street.

These guys are VERY persistent, but not unpleasant, at least to me, but then I am a 6ft plus male.

Anyway, that bit clear the shopping itself is a treat - all sorts of tourist trap tat, with the occasional gem if you look hard enough.

And barter. Barter hard. It's expected.

It can be a bit odd arguing over the equivalent of 25p for a bit of carved wood that will end up dusty at the back of a shelf within a year. Especially when you think that that 25p is going to be just over one hundredth of one percent of the total cost of your trip, yet it may be the price of a day's food for the vendor.

But don't rationalise it, throw yourself in. Enjoy it.