Eating & Getting Lost In Stone Town Zanzibar

Eating And Getting Lost In Stone Town In Zanzibar

The final stop of my two week trip in Tanzania was Zanzibar, the main island off the coast. I had to take two more prop planes from Mafia Island where I spent a few days scuba diving in order to get to Zanzibar due to a required connection back in the mainland at Dar es Salaam. Zanzibar would be part of the cultural component after the main safari part of my trip.

Most tourists spend the majority of their time on Zanzibar at one of the beach zones which is what this island is really known for along with maybe a short stay in the main cultural hub Stone Town. Since I had only three nights in Zanzibar and the beach areas are actually quite far from Stone Town (plus I’m not really a beach person anyway), I decided to spend my entire time there in Stone Town.

When I arrived at the Zanzibar airport, I got a bit of a surprise when I learned I had to pay a mandatory insurance charged on all foreign visitors which amounted to $63 Cad even though I already have my own travel medical insurance coverage. This mandatory insurance which is suppose to cover liability as well is obviously just a cash grab on tourists — not cool!

At least my pre-arranged pickup from the airport was smooth since it was booked through the Airbnb I was staying with – still the $20 US fare is still high but at least I’m not visiting the beach areas where one way fares were reported to be $50 to $60 US. When we arrived in Stone Town 15 minutes later after I got picked up from the airport, I got introduced to the confusing array of alleyways right away as I followed my driver through a maze of them to get to my accommodations. My room was kind of unique I have to admit as the interior was had an Arab style to it as shown in the video below.

Unlike my trips to Latin America and Asia, I chose not to get an esim for my iPhone this time since I didn’t have to use any Uber as my rides were already taken care of by tour operators nor use Google Translate much since most of Tanzania has enough English for tourists. However, this also means that I don’t have Google Maps activated either without a wifi connection and I soon learned after wandering around these alleyways, I certainly could have used some GPS navigation. I got lost so many times during my first day there even into the next morning until I finally got some bearings but I wasn’t worried since I had three days to wander around.

Darajani Market

I did find the big Darajani market which is the largest one in Stone Town for the locals. All sorts of food products, spices and more were sold there. Much like on the Tanzania mainland, many locals shop for food items daily since they don’t have fridges at home so it was interesting to see the wide variety of fresh food available including the smelly fish market.

I also found Lukmaan restaurant which is a suggested local Swahili restaurant I saw covered in other YouTube videos. The dishes I ordered were really good and the prices were very reasonable.

Everywhere I wandered I saw many beautifully designed Arab style doors. I can now see why Stone Town is a UNESCO heritage site. When I was walking through the alleyways, I often felt I was transported back in time and into a completely different culture. But at no time did I feel unsafe.

Stone Town does have lots of stray cats but many of them both in the alleyways and later on at the waterfront seemed to get enough food scraps as they were not terribly just skin and bones. I only wish that there was a similar program for strays like I saw at Parque Kennedy in Lima Peru.

I do have to admit that one thing that did annoy me a bit about staying right in the middle of Stone Town are the loudspeaker broadcast calls for religious prayers which occur from very early in the morning to late at night. Zanzibar is a Muslim region unlike the Tanzania mainland. Fortunately I was staying here for only three nights.

Forodhani Market & The Waterfront

Each night, I went to the waterfront where Forodhani Market was set up. This is a very popular food market (for eating rather than for grocery shopping in Darajani Market). Both locals and tourists came here each night which was a good sign and I sampled a nice variety of dishes offered.

As a bonus feature of the waterfront, enterprising locals also entertained the crowd by jumping off the pier holding Welcome To Zanzibar signs which I show in the video below.

Much like in the alleyways, I saw stray cats hanging around the waterfront and in even higher numbers. This was not surprising because of the food market there each night. Some even came and sat in front of me while I was eating by the pier.

Since I’m a fan of street food markets, the Forodhani Market was the number one attraction for me in Stone Town as I ate here every night and much like on the Tanzania mainland, the food was beyond my expectations plus I never got sick from eating too. Weather was on my side as there was no rain during my entire stay here. Unlike some food markets in Asia and Latin America, there were no shelters from any rain here. In any case, I ate really well in Stone Town.

One of the attractions in Stone Town is the childhood house of Queen singer Freddie Mercury. But upon watching some videos of it in advance, I decided that the $10 admission price would not be worth it since it’s mainly a small exhibit of photos and paper with lyrics.

Since I was not successful in buying a painting of a safari scene during my cultural tour in Arusha, I spent some time in Stone Town to search for one in the many alleyway shops. I finally came upon two paintings by the same artist that I liked and upon the original price quoted to me for $400 US, I haggled down to $250 US for a good deal on a large 4 x 5 feet original painting of a Serengeti animals scene on my last day in Stone Town.

Overall I enjoyed my stay in Stone Town and it was a good way to end my two week trip to Tanzania. But instead of staying three nights in Stone Town, I think two nights would have been enough. Too bad the taxi fares to the beach areas which are quite far away from Stone Town are so expensive because it would have been nice to spend one or two nights at one of these even though I’m not a beach person. But it would have been nice to not endure three nights of the loudspeaker calls from the local mosques and maybe to get in a morning of scuba diving in Zanzibar just to be in the water. If I ever come to Zanzibar again, I’ll probably opt to stay in one of the beach areas instead of Stone Town but I’ll definitely make sure I visit Forodhani Market again for the food.