African Trails Limited :: Beach Holidays

Beach Holidays

Zanzibar is unspoiled beauty island, the romantic paradice island full of mystique, where merchants, traders, missionaries and explores from distant land visited. Where spices and ivory, princes and slaves were strangely intertwined and where there was a center of commerce, international diplomacy, a seat of learning and a gate to Africa. Today the romance, splendor and legend of Zanzibar are vibrantly alive, traditional old sailing dhows, carved wooded doors, the scent of cloves and the smile of the hospitable Zanzibaris welcomed you to the ~ Spice Island.

Historical Town Tours
Fragrant Spice Tours
Tour to Jozani Forest
Tours to the Islets (Prison, Grave, Chumbe)
Tours to North, South and East Coast

SPICE TOUR
Zanzibar is also known as "The Island of Spices", whose name evokes a romantic past embalmed in the aroma of cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and lemon grass. This tour starts with a drive through a profusion of greenery in the countryside seeing, smelling and tasting a variety of mouth-watering tropical seasonal fruits, some examples are: jack fruit, pineapple, banana, green coconut (madafu), dourian, love apple (matufaa), litche (shoki-shoki), soursop (mabungo) and starfruit (carambola). Spices are cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, turmeric and nutmeg - are as exotic as the flavour. A full tour involves much more than spices and you will also have a chance to see the iodine plant, heena bush, ylang-ylang, the lipstick tree, cocoa and coffee trees. The tour also includes a visit to the Kidichi Persian Baths built in 1850 by Seyyid Said bin Sultan for his Persian wife Princess Sheherezade granddaughter of the Shah of Persia, you will also visit the Maruhubi Palace Ruins built by the third Sultan of Zanzibar Seyyid Barghash for his 99 concubines.

HISTORICAL TOWN TOUR

This tour start at the main city market which was opened in 1904, where tropical fruits. Vegetables, spices and fresh fish from the island are sold. Our next stop will be at the Anglican Church of Christ which was built by Bishop Steere in 1873 on the site of the old slave market. Next to the church you will visit the slave chambers, tiny rooms in which the slaves were kept before being auctioned. From here we continue to the Sultan's Palace museum, House of Wonders (Beit - el - Ajaib built in 1883 and bombarded by the british fleet in 1896), the Old Fort (built in 1700). Then we drive you to the Africa House formerly an English club and come to Tippu Tip House (a notorious slave trader), museum of Natural History and Peace Memorial Museum. We round up our tour by walking through the narrow streets where you will find exotic bazaars, curio and antique shops which offer novelty gifts and attractive batik materials. Here one gets a comprehensive view of the Stone houses, which have Arab/ Indian carved doors and the architecture which helps to make Zanzibar famous.

ISLETS

The perfect way to punctuate an E. African safari is by spending your holiday on one of these fabulous islands.

GRAVE ISLAND
The name derives from the graves on the island which were built for the soldiers and people who lost their lives in different events. Here you will also get a chance to see the graves of British sailors who fought for the cessation of slavery during 1888. Along is a smallest separate plot where in lies those sailors killed in action when the cruiser H.M.S. Pegasus was destroyed at the harbor by the German warship S.M.S KONIGSBERG.

CHUMBE ISLAND
Chumbe Island with its prominent light-house is the first Marine and Coral Reserve Park in Tanzania. On this uninhabited island you can snorkel through one of the most spectacular Coral gardens to be found anywhere in the world. Beside the pristine Coral - rag the island is also offering accommodation in one of their unique eco - bungalows for spending your holiday by enjoying the most breathtaking view of the vegetation surrounded by the ocean around and learning more about Zanzibari natural heritage.

PRISON ISLAND
Prison Island or Changuu Island is the middle island of the three visible from the Stone Town, it takes approximately 30 minutes to get there by boat. The prison on this island was built in 1893, which was later used as a quarantine Hospital, it has a frangipani lined path around the island where the former patients took their evening walks. Apart from the Prison ruins you can also see the beautiful peacocks and the enormous giant tortoises some of which are over a 100 years old. These tortoises were brought here from Seychelles by Sultan Said in the 1820's. Efforts are being made to protect the eggs of the tortoise. The island is a superb scenario for the photographer. A self-walking safari covers the island in 15minutes. On this little paradise one can also swim, snorkel, sunbathe or just relax and enjoy the peacefulness that this beautiful island has to offer.

TOUR TO THE NORTH (NUNGWI)
This trip leads you through the Mangapwani cave which is a 30minute drive from Zanzibar town. Up to 1911 the cave was a secret hideout from which the slaves were illegally led out to the sea through a secret passage and then transported by dhow after the official closure of the Slave Market in June 1873.

We then proceed to Nungwi in the North of Zanzibar which is an hour's drive from the cave. Nungwi has crystal clear waters an excellent place for diving, snorkelling, swimming and sunbathing. As Zanzibar is a turtle conservation area you will be able to see the natural turtle aquarium here. In this tour we also take you to a site where local villagers build dhows and boats to-date using traditional tools.

TOUR TO THE SOUTH (KIZIMKAZI)
The trip from town takes 11/2 hours. On your way you might get a chance to see the Red Colobus Monkey of the Jozani Forest. Kizimkazi fishing village is the home of several schools of the bottle-nosed dolphins. Here you are taken by boat out the sea to view the dolphins and if lucky, will be able to swim quite close to them as they are very friendly and playful. Kizimkazi is also the site of 12th Century Mosque, the earliest evidence of Islam in East Africa.

EAST COAST TOUR
This trip takes approximately 45 minutes from town, the unspoilt East coast has kilometres and kilometres of soft white sandy beaches and surrounded by hundred of palm trees, which has beautiful fringing coral reefs at a small distance from the beach. You can spend a lot of time swimming, snorkeling, diving or windsurfing in these tranquil waters. You can also spend your holiday in one of the hotels of the East coast and enjoy the golden sunrise from the beautiful ocean.

TOUR TO THE JOZANI FOREST RESERVE
Jozani Forest lies 35kms South-East of Zanzibar Town with an area of about 1,000 hectares. It is a natural forest where long ago you could find leopards and antelopes. At present it is the habitat for the Red Colobus Monkeys (Colobus badius kirkii) and the Blue Sykes Monkey. The Red Colobus monkey is one of the most endangered and rarest species in the world, they are very friendly creatures and love to be photographed and can be viewed at close quarters by the help of your guide.
You may also get a glimpse of various butterflies, birds and snakes. Other interesting features suitable for tourist in this forest include the coastal evergreen bushland, mangroove forest, saline grassland and ground water forest, though these may require longer walks to reach
Jozan forest is a reserve area where you can find nurseries which help to preserve the trees in the forest.

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