April 2024 - Wanderwiles

Stone Town and the Park Hyatt Zanzibar

I booked our last two nights in Zanzibar at the Park Hyatt Zanzibar, a beautiful and historic former mansion set on the water and in the middle of Stone Town (also known as “Mji Mkongwe” which means “old town” in Swahili). Stone Town is the old part of Zanzibar City, the main city of Zanzibar, which sits on the west coast of the island facing the direction of mainland Tanzania.

The architecture and layout of Stone Town reflects the island’s historic ties to Oman as well as a complex fusion of the many cultures that have influenced it over the centuries. Stone Town was the seat of the Sultans of Oman and Zanzibar. Zanzibar became a part of the holdings of the Sultan of Oman in 1698. Around 1840, a later sultan moved his capital from Muscat to Stone Town. In 1856, a struggle over succession divided territories into the Sultanate of Oman and Muscat and a separate Sultanate of Zanzibar which existed until 1964 when the sultan was overthrown in the Zanzibar Revolution.

Throughout its early history, Zanzibar was influenced by the slave trade and the spice trade. Europeans from the United Kingdom and Germany, in particular, as well as Arabs and East Africans from the mainland and South Asian traders left their mark on the island. These influences can be found in the island’s food and language as well as architecture.

As our Zanzitaxi driver navigated the winding streets of Stone Town, we admired the buildings and made note of places to visit. The Freddie Mercury Museum and his adjacent former home (now a hotel) caught our eye and we made sure to walk the three minutes back from the Park Hyatt to check it out.

The Park Hyatt Zanzibar itself is a building to explore and enjoy. It’s lovely but un-air-conditioned lobby reminded me of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. This old part of the hotel is beautiful and still houses some of the hotel’s best suites (all air-conditioned unlike the common areas), but we were staying in the newer adjoining air-conditioned building.

Older portions of the Park Hyatt Zanzibar

The new building apparently caused some concern, pre-construction, that it would risk Stone Town’s status as a UNESCO Heritage Site. Happily, the architecture blends wonderfully with its surroundings and any controversy seems to have disappeared. My Hyatt points put us in a large street-facing king room. The room was large and stylish, but when I mentioned a relatively minor issue with the room to Reception and asked for it to be dealt with, we were quickly moved to a waterfront room with balcony. Later, the manager sought us out in the dining room to apologize and to make sure we were happy. We were!

Our upgraded waterfront king room with balcony in the Park Hyatt Zanzibar
[Our original city-view room actually had a larger seating area, but the balcony
and waterfront view made the new room truly special.]

Staying at the Park Hyatt Zanzibar allowed us to experience Stone Town in a unique and immersive way. Located in the heart of Stone Town, we were an easy walk away from major sights, a short walk to: the Old Fort (free, but not a lot to see), Forodhani Gardens, the House of Wonders (closed and under repair after a major collapse in December 2020), the Freddie Mercury house and museum, and more.

Around Stone Town (from top left, row by row): Forodhani Gardens, Old Fort walls and passage into old town, “Painters’ Coridoor,” old town street with Freddie Mercury House and Museum to the left, the Old Dispensary, Cape Town Fish Market

We enjoyed a brief, lazy time in and near the Park Hyatt and I don’t claim to be an authority on Stone Town. I did my research, but had no real must-sees there. Boat rides out to Prison Island did not appeal. We’d seen tortoises in the Galápagos, prison ruins didn’t intrigue me, and I really didn’t want to find myself stuck on a small touristy island in the heat and at the mercy of someone else (and marine conditions) to get back to the main island and away from omnipresent beach vendors. With our time in Stone Town limited, I preferred to take advantage of the Park Hyatt, explore the old town surrounding the hotel, and relax. Given the high heat and humidity, we limited our walks around Stone Town in both time and time of day, saw all we cared to, and enjoyed ourselves.

But just exploring the Park Hyatt Zanzibar offered a glimpse of old and new Stone Town. Aside from the lovely building and its courtyards (including one with an artist working on the latest in a collection of canvases near a towering 200-year-old Muyuni mango tree), the Park Hyatt Zanzibar sits on a strip of beach frequented by locals and overlooking clusters of tour boats and the passing of ferries between Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania. We found people- and boat-watching from the hotel terrace and balconies or its pretty little zero-horizon pool endlessly entertaining.

Practical info:

I deliberately chose to end our stay in Zanzibar in Stone Town so that we would be near the airport. I read too many stories of random traffic problems causing hours-long delays when people drove to the airport from other parts of the island. I can’t verify that and we had no issues the day we drove from Nungwi to Stone Town, but I was happy not to have that worry nagging in the back of my mind.

We used Hyatt credit card annual free night certificates plus a point top-up to book a king bed room at the Park Hyatt Zanzibar. This included an impressive breakfast buffet that featured sparkling wine on our last morning (due perhaps to a temporary move that morning due to renovations from the usual dining area).

A short walk from the Park Hyatt, we enjoyed a casual sunset dinner one night at 6° South Zanzibar Grill & Wine Bar.

Nungwi, Zanzibar: resort time on a prime beach

Nungwi Beach on the northern coast of Zanzibar ranks among the prettiest on the island and is home to many popular resorts, hotels and restaurants. I definitely wanted to spend some of our time in Zanzibar there. Scanning our available hotel points and certificates and local resorts I was happy to find very reasonable award availability at Marriott’s Nungwi Beach Resort by Turaco. Reviews sounded good, the location was great, so I quickly locked in four nights.

Although roads are generally good in Zanzibar, the last half mile or so through the town of Nungwi approaching the resort is a narrow dirt road. Our SUV slowed to a crawl as our Zanzibar driver, Ally, dodged impressive potholes and wove among small shops. We stopped in front of tall gates, checking in with a security guard before proceeding to a large open-air lobby.

Reception provided us with two welcome drinks apiece, a tasty something in a glass and fresh coconuts with straws. There was no way to finish both (and we’d just come from Jambo Spice Farm where we’d eaten plenty and drunk our fill of coconut water) before the bellman was ready to escort us to our room. My award points got us a third floor standard king room with a balcony overlooking the pool and a view of the beach and ocean to our right. The room was spacious and housekeeping had covered not just the bed with hibiscus flowers and leaves, but also the bathroom counter and a low shelving unit under the flat screen tv (a charming process repeated all but one of our four days).

We loved the room and soon decided the location was ideal as well. Although we faced the pool with its swim-up bar and party music, the pool and bar closed at 7pm, leaving our room blessedly quiet and with a nice view over the lush resort grounds and the ocean. On the other hand, rooms facing the beach are close to dining and entertainment and subject to noise much later than we’d be happy with.

The beach set-up is interesting. Without the natural rise atop which our Uroa hotel sat, this Marriott resort relied on a high retaining wall to protect it from the big tides of Zanzibar. (Get a glimpse of it in the video below.) This set-up meant we spent our beach time in loungers on the sandy “beach” on the resort side of the wall so that when sitting we saw just the heads of passers-by below on the public beach. The wall also provides a security barrier and there was always a guard walking the top of the wall. He wasn’t armed, but he would occasionally intervene to tell vendors peering over the wall to move on which they did without argument.

To get to the warm ocean water, we descended stone steps to the lower beach. A group of young Masai men waited there most hours of the day, offering tours, promoting shops, posing for photos and just visiting. Despite reviews I read complaining about these “beach boys,” we found them to be friendly and not overly persistent. We couldn’t blame them at all for trying to earn a living, especially with the slow rainy season soon approaching. They took “no” for an answer–sometimes after a few attempts at altering their pitch–then were often happy to visit, asking us where we were from, where we’d been in Zanzibar and elsewhere in Africa and what we thought of their homeland. They entertained themselves and us with jumping contests and an occasional song. Accepting tips from passers by, but not asking for anything that I saw. A few local women also offered massages or tours, but again, they accepted a “no” and moved on.

Masai on Nungwi Beach and the retaining wall of the Marriott resort

The big tides I’d been expecting didn’t materialize until our third day in Nungwi. That day the tide was so far out that many boats were left high and dry. Groups of locals harvested the pale green seaweed exposed by the receding water. We were told the seaweed is dried, powdered and used as a seasoning. We walked far out among the tidal pools finding many small crabs and fish and beautiful African red knob sea stars. I love this kind of tidal pool ecosystem and had been looking forward to it. It reminded me of the wonderful tidal pools in Nusa Dua, Bali… but minus the deadly sea critters. [Note: As with most beaches in Zanzibar, water shoes are a good idea. Spiny sea urchins are common, although they weren’t as plentiful in Nungwi as the were in Uroa.]

African red knob sea star in Nungwi shallows

Looking back at Nungwi Beach Resort by Turaco with the tide going out

I couldn’t pass up the chance to see more of the local sea life and arranged a day of scuba diving before we arrived in Nungwi with Dive Point Zanzibar which was recommended by the resort and charged identical prices to every other Zanzibar dive outfit I researched. Dive Point Zanzibar has a small office on the premises of Nungwi Beach Resort by Turaco, but their equipment is at another location nearby in Nungwi. They also have a main office in Matemwe, closer to popular diving and snorkeling off Mnemba Island. Dive Point Zanzibar offered dives at either Mnemba Island (known for larger fish and diving with dolphins, but reported to have mostly dead coral) and off Tumbatu Island (known for its colorful coral and tropical fish). I was inclined to Tumbatu from the start, but learning that it was nearly an hour drive to Matemwe (and an extra $30pp for that drive) to dive Mnemba cemented my thoughts. Being among a flock of boats chasing dolphins in Lovina, Bali, made me leery of seemingly similar descriptions of the diving and snorkeling crowds off Mnemba. And I love a good coral reef!

A driver with a van arrived promptly to pick us up from the lobby of our Marriott resort for the 5-minute ride to the Dive Point Zanzibar Nungwi office. After selecting fins and donning shortie wetsuits, our dive master led us on foot to the beach where our dive boat (a wooden motorized dhow) awaited us. We were joined by two other couples, a young Norwegian couple and a middle-aged Russian couple. We had our dive master to ourselves, though, as the others were either learning to dive or just snorkeling. [Note: Kudos to Dive Point Zanzibar for really nice equipment. New wetsuits (front zipping, too; not the all-too-common boarding shorties with the back zips not meant for divers wearing tanks) and BCD’s, quality masks and well-maintained regs were a pleasure to use.]

It was a 45+-minute ride to the first dive site off of Tumbatu island. Waters in the area can be rough during some periods, but we had the benefit of smooth seas and a gentle breeze. The dive was fairly shallow, around 40 feet. Almost immediately upon descending, we came across two octopuses in full view before darting to hide beneath a coral stand. The rest of the dive treated us to pretty coral and swarms of smaller tropical fish as well as some colorful nudibranches and another octopus, nothing remarkably different from a lot of other dives but enjoyable as diving always is. Visibility was only average, with a lot of bio material suspended in the water. After a snack break provided by Dive Point Zanzibar, we moved to our second dive off the little island just north of Tumbatu. This island is called Mwana Wa Mwana, which means “son of son” (or as our dive master translated it “baby of baby”). Our dive master explained that Tumbatu is known as the child of Zanzibar and this little island is the baby of that bigger island baby. The second dive was similar to the first and ended with enormous schools of colorful fish circling large stands of coral. The diving wasn’t exceptional, but it was good and a great way to spend the day.

Fishing ladies on Nungwi Beach near where we boarded our diving dhow

Prior to booking our trip to Zanzibar, I did a little research–as I always do before our trips–on safety which includes both potential health and crime issues. I’d read that crime, including violent crime, could be a problem in Zanzibar as in much of Africa. It was one of the reasons I opted for drivers rather than renting a car. Although the roads were good, I was particularly happy with this choice after we twice had drivers stopped by police requesting a bribe. Our drivers told us this was normal saying with a laugh that “This is Africa!”, but it could have been intimidating if we’d been on our own and dealing with language issues. I read particular warnings about crime along the beaches stretching from Nungwi to Kendwa stating that there had been violent muggings there. Warnings said not to walk the beach at night. Despite this, we saw quite a few tourists walking along the beach to the many restaurants and hotels near Nungwi Beach Resort by Turaco. We walked along the beach a fair ways ourselves during the day and I don’t think I’d have too many concerns about it in the early evening when lots of people are out. That said, we ended up being lazy and eating at our hotel as we’d done in Uroa. The food was good and the beachfront location of the Fisherman’s Grill restaurant was beautiful and especially spectacular at sunset. We learned to come early to grab one of those waterfront tables. Our room included a large buffet breakfast (even though when I booked with Marriott points the site said breakfast wasn’t included) and we opted to just pay à la carte for lunches and dinners. We just don’t eat or drink enough to justify the all-inclusive price and we found our total bill for lunches and dinners to be reasonably priced.

Sunset view from Fisherman’s Grill with one of the nightly soccer games that spring up along Zanzibar beaches as the sun and temperature drop.

The only issue we had during our stay at Marriott’s Nungwi Beach Resort by Turaco was an air conditioner that dripped water onto the floor between our entry area and the bedroom. Maintenance took a day to get it fixed, but it wasn’t a big deal. Nevertheless, the receptionist when we checked out apologized profusely and offered to buy us drinks to make up for it. We’d just had drinks and a light lunch at the bar and our Zanzitaxi ride was arriving so I half-jokingly suggested she could comp the drinks we’d just had. She jumped on the idea and comped us not only the drinks, but also our lunch then took off a discount from one of our earlier meals. More than generous. We left the Nungwi Beach Resort by Marriott extremely happy customers!

A Zanzibar Spice Farm en route from Uroa to Nungwi

After four nights at a boutique hotel on Uroa Beach on the east coast of Zanzibar, it was time to move to a resort hotel on Zanzibar’s popular north coast. The drive looked to be over an hour, but that still left us with some time to kill between check-out in Uroa and check-in in Nungwi. I knew I wanted to visit a Zanzibar spice farm and lots of spice farm tours are offered out of Stone Town, but with only two nights planned in Stone Town, I didn’t want to spend our one full day there on a tour. This moving day between two hotels seemed like the perfect opportunity to fit in a spice farm tour and lunch en route. When I asked Zanzitaxi to add the stop to our transfer, they suggested Jambo Spice Farm and we made plans. (“Jambo jambo!” is a familiar greeting in Swahili meaning hello.)

Most spice farms in Zanzibar are north of Stone Town which sits on the west coast of the main island of Zanzibar. This meant a detour from the most direct route between Uroa and Nungwi, but that was no big deal. F-Zeen Boutique Hotel offered us a late check-out (11am instead of 10am) so we arrived at Jambo Spice Farm right around noon.

Our guide introduced himself as “Mohammed or Mr. Schneider.” When I asked him which he preferred, he said “Mr. Schneider.” He introduced his young assistant as “Mr. Capuccino.” Well, OK. Swahili names can be tricky for foreigners so I guess this was their solution and we went with it. Mr. Schneider turned out to be very knowledgeable having focused on Chemistry, Physics and Biology at university. His English was very functional, but he said he was even more fluent in German, a language he loved and a country to which he had once traveled.

Jambo “Spice Farm,” apparently like the other spice farms offering tours in Zanzibar, is really more of a place to view lots of spices in an easily walkable, relatively compact area. I knew this going in and wasn’t surprised that we weren’t walking through cultivated fields or orchards. I didn’t realize, however, how the tour area was located in the middle of a village residential area and it was fun to see groups of uniformed school children cutting through the “spice farm” paths, apparently walking home for lunch.

Lots of the spices on display are not native to Zanzibar, but are grown there. Spices are one of the three main industries in Zanzibar along with raffia and tourism. Mr. Schneider recited the culinary and medicinal uses of the plants as young Mr. Capuccino cut pods or roots, peeled bark and the like. We strolled beneath trees, seeking shade in the heat, from spice plant to spice plant. We saw and tasted cardamom, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg (with its red ribbons of mace) and more. We tasted parts of the plants we hadn’t before, sometimes surprised by the unexpected flavors or smells. For example, the root of the cinnamon tree smells like Vicks VapoRub(!) and is used similarly. The tour was interesting and fun.

Mr. Capuccino wove palm and flower adornments for us as we walked: a bracelet, a necklace, a ring, two crowns. A vendor offered soaps and perfumes from a small table, but we declined. A man climbed a palm tree singing as we drank coconut water from a freshly cut coconut and ate slabs of gelatinous fresh coconut meat. Lunch was generous and cooked in front of us: rice, chicken, plantains, delicious local stewed greens. We were offered samples of something like 7 or 8 different fresh fruits: pineapple, papaya, passion fruit, orange, watermelon, guava, canteloupe… Finally, Mr. Schneider led us to a very basic outdoor “spice shop” where we bought packets of spices at reasonable prices. I’d read some complaints about tipping, but we went prepared with small bills and, honestly, the tips were nothing to us and meant a lot to the people we tipped. We tipped Mr. Schneider and gave small tips to Mr. Capuccino, the guy who climbed the palm tree, and the fruit man. Everyone seemed happy.

The whole visit to Jambo Spice Farm including lunch took about an hour and a half. Ally, the friendly owner of Zanzitaxi and our driver for the day waited nearby while we toured with a blessedly air-conditioned van. Jambo Spice Farm was a fun stop and the perfect way to break up and draw out our transfer from Uroa to Nungwi. Note: It was hot even in the shade so dress accordingly. Also, while we saw no mosquitoes, I understand they can be an issue after the rainy season, so insect repellent may be essential depending on the season, especially considering the potential malaria risk.

Uroa, Zanzibar

After some weeks of gray and cold Paris, I was ready for sunshine and warmth. Unfortunately, the Mediterranean is still too cold for me this time of year so I started looking further afield. I eyed Cape Verde (Cap Vert) but found flights less-than-convient. A couple of stunning photos of Zanzibar beaches caught my eye, further research piqued my easily-piqued curiosity, and when I discovered I could book us reasonably-priced award flights in Qatar Airways business class with an overnight layover in Doha, I was all in.

Zanzibar is the name for both a multi-island “state” of Tanzania and a name for the main island of that state. Stone Town, Zanzibar, is about an hour ferry ride to Dar es Salaam on the mainland of Tanzania. Although Tanzania is primarily Christian, Zanzibar is Muslim and was the former home of the Sultans of Oman and Zanzibar. The Omani influence on architecture can be seen throughout historic Stone Town. Zanzibar is known for spices and was a former hub of the slave trade. Its Swahili culture reflects the influences of Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Swahili is the main language, but at least some English is widely spoken.

After reading that driving across Zanzibar is subject to the vagaries of weather and traffic, I decided to break up a 10-night stay into 4 nights on the east coast (beautiful beaches and smaller hotels), 4 nights on the north coast (more beautiful beaches and bigger resorts) and 2 nights in Stone Town (historic and closest to the airport).

A quick search through our available points and free-night certificates yielded happy results: in addition to flying on miles and using a free night certificate at the Intercontinental West Bay in Doha, we could book a well-rated Marriott resort in northern Nungwi with points and two nights at the premier and historic Park Hyatt Zanzibar with certificates and points. This left us with only the 4 nights on the east coast to pay for in cash. This trip was clearly meant to happen!

I settled on the F-Zeen Boutique Hotel (formerly Tamarind Beach Hotel) in Uroa for our first four nights on the east coast of the main island of Zanzibar. F-Zeen consists of a number of oceanfront traditional-style, thatched-roofed, air-conditioned cottages (both one-story duplexes and two story quads) and a number of un-air-conditioned (but still pretty) cottages further back from the water behind a swimming pool. Air-conditioning is essential for us and I chose one of their best waterfront cottages.

Our Zanzitaxi driver was waiting as promised at the airport near Stone Town. When he started driving south instead of straight east towards Uroa (per Google Maps on my phone), he explained that the usual route was blocked due to the funeral procession of a former president of Tanzania who’d been a native of Zanzibar. Fortunately, the detour took us along nice roads and we arrived at F-Zeen Boutique Hotel after about an hour.

Side view from our porch of F-Zeen pool, grounds, and beach

We were greeted by a friendly hostess, a welcome drink, and two sleeping cats on the small sofas in an outdoor area that serves as a small lobby. We were led to the cottage the farthest to our left along the oceanfront. Although pretty enough, I wasn’t thrilled with the location just beside a neighboring small bar where dogs barked and music played. Happily, our hostess found us a short time later on the beach, to offer us a choice between two other rooms and we quickly settled on an upstairs unit (Room 22) with big windows on two sides and a large porch facing the beach a few steps away. The bedroom was lovely and spacious, only lacking much in the way of storage space. Mosquito netting could close off the sleeping area from the front door and a small vanity area and bathroom although we saw no mosquitoes while there.* The bathroom was basic with a curved rebar creating a shower curtain. We lost power a few times, but never for more than ten minutes. It is Africa and Zanzibar is a poor island, so this wasn’t unexpected and not a problem.

Our four nights at F-Zeen passed quickly although we spent most of our time lounging on the beach, swimming in the wonderfully warm water of the ocean and the pool, and walking along the beach. I’d chosen Uroa Beach after reading that it was more laid back than Nungwi and that we wouldn’t be plagued by beach peddlers. This turned out to be accurate, although occasional Masai passed by offering sandals for sale and a few women offered massages. They did not press when we declined and left us in peace. More often, we saw locals going about their business, women passing with bundles of sticks on their heads, children playing, men wade fishing with seine nets.

We brought masks and snorkels, but there wasn’t much to see near the shore and the water is very shallow. Fine sand makes the beach a pleasure despite scattered seaweed, but there are spiny urchins further out and we were glad we brought water shoes. Zanzibar is known for big tides and the water recedes a fair amount for periods of the day. F-Zeen Boutique Hotel sits atop a sandy rise that forms a natural barrier to the sea although the water never came all the way to this slope while we were there. It made for a nicer beach than some of the hotels we walked to that either sat much further back from the ocean, narrow strips of beach or had rocky barriers between them and the water.

Our room included breakfast which was served buffet-style in an open-air dining room. We absolutely loved the selection of fresh tropical fruits, and I became a passion fruit junkie. We planned to try some of the little independent and hotel restaurants we saw on our beach walks, but ended up taking all our meals at F-Zeen. The food was good local fare if not gourmet and it was just too easy to walk the short distance to the dining room. Friendly and cheerful staff sealed the deal.

We wanted to visit Jozani Forest before we moved to our second hotel on the north shore, much farther away from the forest. F-Zeen was happy to arrange a driver and guide. The drive was just under an hour and well worth our time. We loved wandering under the trees as Zanzibar red colobos monkeys (only native to Zanzibar) and blue (Sykes’) monkeys moved in the trees above us, groomed babies, fed on ripe guava that littered the forest floor, and generally went about their lives totally unconcerned about the humans among them.

https://youtube.com/shorts/1SFb2JZk-GI?feature=share

All-in-all, we really enjoyed our laid-back start to Zanzibar at Uroa Beach and F-Zeen Boutique Hotel.

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*Although we saw no mosquitoes, Zanzibar is still a known malaria zone so we got prescriptions pre-travel and were taking anti-malarial medicine before, during and for a week after our trip. We probably saw no mosquitoes because we were in Zanzibar just before the main rainy season (which usually begins late March). However, many people mentioned how bad the mosquitoes can get after the rainy season and anyone planning to travel there should educate themselves and take appropriate precautions.