The Experience
Zanzibar. Its perfumed air caresses travellers with scents of the spices that have grown in abundance throughout the island since time began. Exotic and enchanting, this Indian Ocean isle allures travellers with a personality and pace all its own just a short hop from mainland Tanzania, but a world away. Check out this amazing Zanzibar safari tour:
Nairobi – Zanzibar
We board a flight in Nairobi and we,™re off to paradise, with accommodations that immerse the traveller in the romantic atmosphere of this enchanting island.
Old Town and Spice Plantations
The day begins with breakfast and a serene view over the Indian Ocean to the endless horizon. A walking tour is the best way to experience the town, which exists today much as it did in the days when the Isle of Spices, was a great trading centre known the world over for spices, timber and slaves. The marketplace is alive with vendors who hawk their exotic wares in a multitude of languages, as many as the intense palette of colours in their fabrics and trinkets for sale.
As we move away from the raucous market, the winding streets grow serene and mysterious with whitewashed houses, ornately carved wooden doors and balconies studded with brass. We visit the Zanzibar Museum and the Old Fort. We lunch relaxed and oh-so-luscious followed by an afternoon of touring the plantations where cinnamon, cardamom and strong, flavourful Arabic coffees are grown. And, of course, we see the cloves the gold of Zanzibar the world,™s finest and most desired spice.
Jozani Forest
There are few places in the world where the red Colobus monkey can be found, and this morning we travel across the island through quaint villages and lush vegetation to just such a place the enchanting Jozani Forest. These Old World monkeys leap acrobatically throughout the arboreal canopy in troops of up to a hundred creatures. With extinction a distinct possibility, they are a privilege to behold.
Zanzibar ,“ Nairobi
Today brings a farewell to the island. Depending upon flight times which can be sometimes early or sometimes late (being in a splendidly far-flung outpost of civilization after all!), we may have time for one last trip to the marketplace for that fantastically carved teakwood chest or supply of intensely scented pomanders as a heady reminder of our sojourn in this ageless Swahili paradise.