We spent 2 nights in Stonetown. And stayed at the historic Tembo Hotel.
It's a great location right on the beach in old Stonetown, which has UNESCO heritage status.
We spent the afternoon strolling around.
A lot of the buildings are not well maintained and most are just tourist souvenir stores now.
We did find good Tanzanian coffee and a few authentic streets closer to the cathedral.
By sunset we were at Livingstone's Bar, enjoying cocktails and live music.
They serve Italian food which was fine and it's right next door to Tembo which is most convenient.
Zanzibar has become over touristy and crowded. The day trips are formulaic and mass-market but we chose one anyhow. We did get our own boat out to the sandbar for lunch.
Despite the crowds we enjoyed it. The sandbar disappears altogether at high tide, so they have to bring and set up everything everyday. Tables,chairs,shade cloth, charcoal braais and all the food and drinks.
We had delicious grilled seafood, chips and some of the tastiest fruit we've ever eaten.
We enjoyed a swim and by the time we finished lunch the water was already lapping around our ankles. They then pack everything up into the boats before the tide comes in and covers the sand.
We then crossed by boat to Prison Island to see the giant tortoises. A supposed conservation program but it's just a badly maintained zoo extracting dollars from tourists who climb over the barriers to pet the poor tortoises and take selfies.
In the evening we popped in at the Freddie Mercury Museum (housed in his childhood home ) and Larry got to play Freddie's piano!
And we did the evening on repeat at Livingstone's.
