Questions about where to stay

Because we do not own any and a ranked list of other people’s would tell you about our supplier relationships rather than about the island.

What we will do is describe the five categories honestly, tell you which suits how you want to spend the days, and name specific properties in a reply to your enquiry where we can explain why each one.

Not always. Mains supply is interrupted from time to time and good hotels run generators, which you may hear. This is normal and it is not a sign of a poor property.

For a villa specifically, ask about generator cover before booking — a house without one is a house without a fan at three in the morning in the hot season.

It is a malarial region and you should take proper medical advice from your own doctor or a travel clinic well before you go. We are not qualified to give it and will not pretend otherwise.

Hotels provide nets and usually repellent. That is the extent of what a property can do.

About an hour to the north coast, and up to an hour and a half to parts of the east, depending on exactly where. The airport is near Stone Town in the south-west.

On a short stay that is a real slice of the holiday, so it is worth asking for the honest figure rather than the optimistic one — and worth knowing whether it is included.

Often not. The merchant houses are old buildings, lifts are rare and staircases are steep and numerous, and the charm and the stairs are the same feature.

Say so at the enquiry stage and there are places that work — some have ground-floor rooms, and there are modern properties on the edge of the old town.

The tide, which on the east coast takes the sea several hundred metres away for hours. The seaweed, which is farmed in the shallows and is somebody’s livelihood. The power, which is intermittent. And the mosquitoes.

We publish that list because a guest who blames a hotel for the tide had a planning problem rather than a hotel problem — and because the properties that mention these things on their own websites tend to be straight about everything else too.

A Zanzibar safari is usually quoted fully inclusive: accommodation, all meals, park and conservancy fees, your guide and vehicle, and transport between parks. Most camps include soft drinks, house wine, beer and laundry.

Not included: international flights, visas or travel authorisation, travel insurance, tips, premium drinks, and extras like balloon flights and spa treatments.

For July to October — the migration months in the Masai Mara — six to twelve months is normal, and the best small camps sell out first. Christmas and New Year book up just as early.

For the shoulder months, three to four months is usually comfortable. Inside eight weeks we can still put a very good trip together, but you are choosing from what is left rather than from everything.

This site is a planning guide. When you send an enquiry it goes to Nomad Africa, our partner travel agency in Kenya, who prepare your itinerary and quote and handle the booking, the payments and you on the ground.

You deal with one team from the first email to the airport transfer home.

No. Sending your dates, getting an itinerary and getting a costed quote is free and carries no obligation. Money only changes hands when you decide to hold space at a camp.

The safari areas themselves are well run, and camps take guest safety seriously. The practical risks are ordinary travel risks: road transfers, sun, stomach upsets and not listening to your guide around animals.

Check your own government’s current travel advice for Zanzibar before you book and again before you fly, and take out insurance that covers medical evacuation. We will not tell you an area is fine if the advice says otherwise.