Stone Town
The town of sultans, slave traders and Freddie Mercury, with carved wooden doors and a maze everyone gets lost in — and an insurance paid before you enter the island
- When to go
- September 26° · 16 rainy days
- Per day
- €€€price 3 of 5
- How many days
- 2days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 7 km Zanzibar · 79 km Dar es Salaam
- Right now
Stone Town is done in two nights before the beach, not after: a coral-stone maze with two hundred carved doors, the spice market, the former slave market and the seafront with food at night. Entering Zanzibar requires, on top of the e-visa, a compulsory insurance paid in advance.
Two papers before travel: the Tanzanian e-visa of €43 through the official portal, and the Zanzibar insurance of €38 per adult, which since October 2024 is paid on visitzanzibar.go.tz and shown on entry — a European policy does not replace it, and you find that out at the airport if not earlier. You arrive by air with a connection in Istanbul or Doha, or from Dar es Salaam on the Azam ferry in two hours for €30 in economy, which is calm in the morning and rolls in the afternoon.
The town is a maze where a map is no use: streets meet at angles without logic, and after two days you recognise them by their doors. The doors are what you look at — two hundred carved ones, with brass spikes against elephants the island never had, because the style came from India. The Anglican cathedral stands on the site of the slave market closed in 1873, with the cellar where they were held; it is the one site in town not to skip, and needs an hour. The House of Wonders, the sultan's palace, partly collapsed in 2020 and remains closed for rebuilding, with no reopening date announced.
In the evening you go to Forodhani, the park by the sea where from sunset the stalls sell grilled fish, Zanzibar pizza and sugar-cane juice; you eat standing, among many people, with the price asked before ordering. The Darajani market in the morning gives spices, fish and fruit you cannot name; a spice plantation tour outside town, half a day, explains where cloves and vanilla come from and ends with lunch. Two days are enough; on the third you go to the beach, north or east, where the rest of Zanzibar happens.
Guides for Stone Town
Shorter, practical pages for one concrete question each — how many days, how much money, where to sleep, where to escape the city.
Stone Town in 2 days
→The maze on day one, spices and Prison Island on day two — two days before the beach, because after a week on the sand…
What to see in Stone Town
The carved doors
Around two hundred 19th-century doors with Arabic inscriptions and Indian brass spikes; the finest are around the House of Wonders and on Hurumzi street. Seen while walking, in the morning before the heat, and it is the best way to learn the town.
The former slave market
The Anglican cathedral of 1873 on the site of the market, with the altar where the whipping post stood and the cellar where seventy people at a time were held. The museum beside it explains the trade that made the island rich. An hour, with a guide.
Forodhani at night
The park by the sea with stalls from sunset: grilled fish and seafood, Zanzibar pizza, cane juice. The price is asked first, the portion chosen by the piece; you sit on the wall by the water with locals.
The Darajani market
The main market with spices, a fish auction at seven in the morning and fruit in season. In the morning, with small shillings; spices are bought here rather than in the tourist shops, at a third of the price.
A spice plantation tour
Half a day out of town through the gardens, with a guide who crushes the leaves for you to smell and taste — cloves, vanilla, cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg. A tourist tour from start to finish, but the meal that comes with it alone justifies leaving town.
Prison Island
Half an hour by boat to an island that held slaves in transit in the 19th century, before the British built a prison on it that never held a prisoner — turned into a quarantine station instead, and today home to tortoises older than a century. Entry is charged apart from the boat crossing; go in the morning, ahead of the cruise-ship groups.
Two things you probably did not know
Zanzibar fought the shortest war in history in 1896, lasting between thirty-eight and forty-five minutes. British ships shelled the palace, the sultan fled, and it was over before noon.
Freddie Mercury was born in Stone Town in 1946 as Farrokh Bulsara. His family left the island in 1964 during the revolution and moved to England.
Ready for Stone Town?
Within reach from here
Places sorted by straight-line distance from Stone Town — day trips or weekends.
Tanzania
→The Serengeti, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar in one country — and three different bills: the safari by the day, the mountain by the night, the island by an insurance paid at the door
Kenya
→A safari charged by the day, not by the trip — a reserve whose gate fee doubles in July, while a whole trip costs only half as much more
Mauritius
→An island where you do not choose a hotel but a coast — west for sunsets and calm sea, north for nightlife, east for wind, south for kitesurfing
South Africa
→A country of long distances and reversed seasons, driven on the left throughout
All 277 places we write about sit on one page — narrow them down by continent, country, price or what you are travelling for.
Within reach from here: Nungwi, Dar es Salaam and Diani Beach
See how much of that actually suits you — or pin Stone Town if you have been.
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