Visiting Stone Town, Tanzania

Stone town, the name sounded rather exciting to me so of curiosity I planned my first day at Zanzibar, Tanzania in the city. A city full with stone houses how exciting can it be? To be on the safe side since I had read that the beach was not recommended for swimming I booked a hotel with a pool to not bore out if the city would disappoint me.

Colonial hotel

The first thing I did was to fall in love with the hotel. Tembo – meaning elephant in Swahili was a gem. Located right in the city at the beach the colonial building took my heart. I literary loved the building that made me feel like I came from Oman at a colonial expedition. When not exploring the city I enjoyed the pool.

Exploring Stone Town

I had read a guide book (Do people actually do that still?) about Zanzibar so I was well prepared to walk the city and knew which sites I wanted to explore. The alleys and the park. The fortress and the church. I walked pretty slowly and also checked out some tourist shops so it took me 2,5 hours to go through the city. An enjoyable walk and I also talked to some locals that was very kind. One man told me how much they appreciated Sweden at Zanzibar because they had helped to invest in restoration and infrastructure and another man I talked to told me that he had shaken hands with the Swedish ambassador at Zanzibar. That Swedes have a good repetition abroad makes me very happy.

The church was unfortunately not open so visiting it from an inside-out perspective wasn’t possible. But honestly, I have been into more churches then I can count.

This is the palace museum. I never walked inside for a visit. I am more into looking at buildings from the outside.

African art. There was of course tourist shops in some of the alleys and I actually bought one piece of art that I really liked. But some things they said was local art but guess what? I saw the exactly same stuff in South Africa. Local for Africa? It wouldn’t surprise me if it all was made by kids in China.

I really enjoyed my walking tour in the alleys of Stone town. As I traveled alone on this trip and are not experienced with Africa I thought it would be a challenge as a blonde single girl to walk around but it wasn’t that bad. Of course a lot of guys came and wanted to talk to me but that is nothing I mind as long as people are not following me. I will share the story as female solo traveler at Zanzibar another day.

Is Stone Town worth a visit?

Definitely. It is a very cozy place and spending one day there is a must if you are going to Zanzibar. I could actually think of just being in Stone Town and doing day trips out of there since there is not too much to do at other places during the evenings except eating. Questions on that?

/ Pernilla that had an enjoyable stay in Stone Town