Zanzibar

The air changes when the aircraft door opens. It is warm and salty, with a trace of cloves in it. In Stone Town the wooden doors are carved, and at dusk the call to prayer drifts over the coral-stone rooftops. Later you eat pilau and taste three continents. Then you walk down to the beach, and the water goes from turquoise to deep cobalt where the reef falls away.

Past Stone Town the east and north coasts open onto powdered white sand. The water goes from turquoise to deep cobalt where the reef falls away. Underwater you can see 20 to 30 metres, past walls of coral, lionfish, moray eels and clouds of parrotfish. In season, whale sharks and manta rays pass through.

Zanzibar rewards you for going slowly. Lose a morning in the alleyways of Stone Town, then spend the afternoon on a spice farm. Watch the sun drop into the ocean from a dhow while the sky turns amber and rose. Eat grilled lobster at the night food market on the waterfront. The island asks very little of you, except that you stay a while.

At a Glance

Zanzibar