The second week
Four coasts, and the differences are not cosmetic
Tide, seaweed and aspect vary enormously over twenty miles, and none of it is visible in a brochure photograph.
Why it works so well here
Forty minutes by light aircraft from the Serengeti airstrips. No day lost, no routing through a capital, and the second week begins the same afternoon the first one ends.
Bush first and coast second, always — a safari costs you sleep and a reef gives it back, and going the other way round means arriving at the safari rested and flying home wrecked.
The four coasts
| Coast | Character | The caveat |
|---|---|---|
| North — Nungwi, Kendwa | Swimmable at every tide, the best sunsets, the liveliest | The busiest part of the island |
| East — Paje, Jambiani | Long white sand, kitesurfing, a younger feel | Big tidal range: at low tide the sea walks out several hundred metres |
| South-east — Michamvi | Quieter, good villas, calmer water | Very little to eat outside your own hotel |
| West — Stone Town | The old city, dhows, spice markets, history | Not a swimming beach. One or two nights, not a week. |
The two things nobody mentions
Tide. On much of the east coast the difference between high and low is dramatic. At low tide you can walk out hundreds of metres across sand flats, which is beautiful and is not swimming. If getting into the sea whenever you feel like it matters, go north.
Seaweed. Some coasts collect it seasonally, roughly with the monsoon shift. Hotels rake their frontage and it is a non-issue at some and a genuine one at others. It varies by coast and month, and it is a fair question to ask before booking rather than to discover afterwards.
Stone Town
Worth one or two nights, and worth them at the start of the beach week rather than the end — it is a city, and after a safari you will want the beach to be the last thing.
The old town is a genuine place rather than a sight: narrow streets, carved doors, a working port, a night food market. The history includes the slave trade, and the sites that record it are not a light morning; they are worth going to, and worth leaving time afterwards for.
How many nights
Four or five. Three feels like arriving and leaving. More than five wants doing nothing to be genuinely the plan — which, after a fortnight of 5.15 alarms, it sometimes very much is.
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