Zanzibar: An affordable destination for a holiday in the Indian Ocean
A surprisingly affordable destination (Photo: Breezes Zanzibar)
James Rampton1 weekMonday February 12th 2018
Once a centre of the spice and slave trades, Zanzibar is steeped in history – and surprisingly affordable for an Indian Ocean getaway, writes James Rampton
In the gloom of winter, it’s easy to find yourself daydreaming about Indian Ocean islands. However, it’s a craving that might just as easily be cut short by anxieties about taking out a second mortgage. Yet such sun-drenched idylls as Mauritius and the Seychelles, which fleck this aquamarine ocean, aren’t all prohibitively expensive.
Off the Tanzanian coastline, the archipelago of Zanzibar is eminently affordable. At Breezes Beach Club & Spa on the as-yet undeveloped south-eastern coast of Unguja (the main island, more commonly referred to as Zanzibar), a night’s half-board starts at £75 per person, which should leave enough money for several of its speciality “Zanzi-politano” cocktails.
One of four appealing neighbouring five-star properties in the Zanzibar Collection (the others are The Palms, Baraza and Zawadi), Breezes overlooks Bwejuu–Paje Beach, a five-mile strip of largely deserted white sand. The gardens are a riot of colour, with bougainvillea, hibiscus and frangipani jostling for space.
I take lunch at The Breakers Grill. The seafood is wonderfully fresh. The barbecued slipper lobster and crispy red snapper fillets are particularly good. If you ask, the chef might show you how to make a Swahili chicken coconut curry.
A woman read a newspaper in a shop in Stone Town in Zanzibar (Photo: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)
Outside influences
Spices are testament to the colonisation of Tanzania and Zanzibar by nations including Portugal, Persia and Oman; as such, the island is freighted with history.
On the island’s opposite coast, Stone Town, the old part of the capital, Zanzibar City, tells this history through its architecture and swirl of cultures that hail from Africa, the Arab region, India and Europe. It is redolent of faded glory, but reflects the historic significance of this former coastal trading town.
I have great fun weaving my way through the higgledy-piggledy warren of back streets, lined with intricately carved mangrove wood doorways, elegant verandas and Indian shopfronts. Among the 18th- and 19th-century buildings there are churches, mosques, sea-facing mansions, Persian baths, shops selling brightly coloured fabrics, and a shrine to Freddie Mercury (who was born on Zanzibar).
My guide shares many fascinating stories. I hear that in 1896, Sayyid Khalid, a pretender to the throne who was the brother of the sitting sultan, tried to seize the crown. Believing that he did not have a legitimate claim, the British bombarded him in the sultan’s palace on the waterfront in Stone Town and swiftly destroyed it. Sayyid waved the white flag, bringing an end to what is now known as the shortest war in history. It lasted 45 minutes.
Less glorious is the fact that Stone Town’s wealth was built largely on slavery, but it does not gloss over this chapter in its history. A museum stands near the site of the old market where traders sold 20,000 men, women and children into slavery every year.
Zanzibar red colobus monkey in Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park (Photo: Breezes Beach Club)
I defy anyone to remain unmoved as they sit ruminatively beside rusty sets of manacles still fixed to the floor in the cramped, sweaty, 3m x 10m underground “slave chamber”. Here, the slavers kept up to 75 men, women and children before transporting them to the Middle East. The captives would be held in the dungeon without sanitation for three days. Many of them did not make it out.
In the dungeon, I ask my courteous guide Charles how he feels about being down here. “It’s certainly torture,” he replies. “But I thank God that things have developed and that in this country we don’t have slavery any more.”
An Anglican cathedral has been built over the former slave market. A white circle in the marble on the altar floor marks the site of the market’s old whipping post, where the fitness of the slaves was tested in the most brutal manner.
Outside the cathedral stands a powerful monument created by the Swedish sculptor Clara Sornas in 1997. It features the figures of four slaves chained to each other by the neck. They are sunk half-underground, symbolising that they were held in dungeons and seen as sub-human.
Nature’s remedy
As we cross the island back to Breezes, we stop at Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park. I am dwarfed by 25m red mahogany trees, which are prized in traditional medicine for treating asthma, sepsis and stomach complaints. The silence is interrupted only by the sound of cicadas.
The park is a sanctuary for a once-endangered species native to the island: the very lively Zanzibar red colobus monkey. To judge by its exuberant behaviour, the monkey very much celebrates the fact that, thanks to the park’s successful conservation programme, the danger of its extinction is receding. There are also bush babies, butterflies, birds and nocturnal tree hyrax – a rodent-like distant relation to elephants and sea cows – if you have the time and patience to seek them out.
Like Zanzibar itself, the park is bewitchingly tranquil. Islanders often use the Swahili phrase “poli poli” (slowly, slowly). As I had been dashing from one site to another down the hot, busy streets of Stone Town, a man on a step in the shade called out to me, “there’s no need to rush!” He was quite right, of course.
HASSAN
Tour guide
“I recommend the Zanzibar Spice Tour at the Spice Farm near Stone Town. You can see how cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, turmeric and the highly prized vanilla are all grown. You can also smell the ylang ylang flowers that are used in the production of Chanel No 5. And at the end of the tour, you are presented with your very own crown of flowers.”
When to go
Because of its proximity to the Equator, Zanzibar is warm all year round. The dry months of July to September are the most popular period to visit.
How to get there
Kenya Airways (020 8283 1818,
kenya-airways.com) operates daily flights from Heathrow to Nairobi, with daily connections to Zanzibar. Return fares from £421 per person. Oman Air, Etihad, Ethiopian and Turkish Airlines also offer connecting flights from the UK.
Where to stay
The Zanzibar Collection (
thezanzibarcollection.com) has four hotels on Bwejuu Beach. Breezes Beach Club & Spa has doubles from £75 per person per night. Baraza Resort & Spa has two-bedroom villas from £526 per night. Zawadi Hotel has one-bedroom villas from £482 per night. The Palms has one-bedroom villas from £615 per night.
Where to eat
The Africa House Hotel (
africahousehotel.com) in Stone Town, 400m from the Old Fort of Zanzibar, has a restaurant with a huge terrace overlooking the ocean. A great spot to have a cocktail while watching the sun set.
House of Spices (
houseofspiceszanzibar.com) in Stone Town serves an excellent melange of Italian and Swahili cuisines in a buzzing atmosphere.
What to see
Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park, the only national park in Zanzibar, is a wonderful place to see the extremely lively red colobus monkey, native to the island, leaping from tree to tree.
The Slave Market Museum in Stone Town is a profoundly moving exhibition about the Zanzibar slave trade.
More information
For more local attractions:
tanzaniatouristboard.go.tz.
https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/travel/zanzibar-affordable-destination-holiday-indian-ocean/
ippmedia.com/en/news/germany-rehabilitate-architectural-sites-country