Who goes where
The right coast depends on how you want to spend the days
Which sounds obvious and is routinely skipped, because hotels are chosen from photographs that all look the same.
| If you are | Go | Because |
|---|---|---|
| On honeymoon, and want to swim whenever | North — Nungwi or Kendwa | Least tidal, swimmable all day, and the sunsets are on your side of the island |
| On honeymoon, and want quiet | North-east — Matemwe and around | Quieter and prettier, with the reef close; plan swimming around the tide |
| A family with young children | North, or anywhere with a good pool | Tide matters most when somebody wants to be in water at four in the afternoon |
| A diver or snorkeller | North-east | Mnemba and the northern reefs are on the doorstep |
| A kitesurfer | South-east — Paje, Jambiani | The lagoon and the wind, in the windier monsoon |
| Here for the town and the history | Stone Town, plus any coast | Give the town two nights rather than treating it as an airport transfer |
| On a tight budget | South-east | The best value on the island, and a genuinely nice stretch of coast |
The variable that decides it
The tide, more than anything else, and it is the one nobody raises.
On much of the east coast the sea retreats several hundred metres at low water, leaving a shallow reef flat. It is genuinely interesting to walk out across; it is not swimming, and for six hours of the day the sea is somewhere else.
The north coast is barely affected. If somebody in the party wants to swim in the sea whenever they feel like it — which is most honeymooners and nearly all children — that fact chooses your coast on its own.
The second variable: what the pool is for
On the north coast a pool is a nice extra. On the east coast it is the thing that makes the middle of the day work.
So the same hotel feature is worth very different amounts depending on which side of the island it is on, which is not something a booking site will tell you.
Seaweed, fairly
The east and south-east coasts have seaweed farming in the shallows and seasonal natural weed washing onto the sand.
It is a significant local livelihood, largely run by women, and it is not a maintenance failure or a sign of a poor hotel. Some stretches are clearer than others and it varies by season.
People who arrive expecting a swept Caribbean beach are sometimes disappointed. People who are told beforehand generally find it interesting, and several of them end up buying soap made from it.
Mixed parties
One diver and one person who wants a sunlounger is easy — the north-east handles both.
One kitesurfer and one non-swimmer is harder, because the wind that makes the south-east good is the wind that makes it less pleasant to lie in. A week split between two coasts solves it and costs a half-day transfer.
What we will ask you
Not which hotel you liked the look of, but whether somebody wants to swim in the sea at four in the afternoon. That single answer narrows the island faster than anything else.
Ready to turn this into a real itinerary?
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