Zanzibar? Yes or No
 

After a year off, planning our next African trip. Going to Tanzania and have 12 days. Trying to figure out whether we should plan a few days in Zanzibar at the end or just keep doing the parks. It is certainly romantic to say you've been there and we enjoy food, so the spice part is interesting and who can argue with the ocean and palm trees. However, you can always get to a beach/island but doing game drives/lodges are special. Just looking for input and/or ideas. Thank you.

We spent about 5 weeks in Tanzania some years back including maybe 5 nights on Zanzibar, split between a beach resort and a couple Stonetown nights. We had fun in Stonetown but the beach and resort didn't do much for us. We generally love tropical beaches and islands, but as you note there are other places for that, and the safari lodges are really special. We did go on a spice tour and that was good, and had some great meals in town. But given you only have 12 days I'd probably pass and spend more time at the game parks.

With only 12 days - spend them all in the game parks or if you must, do 10 days in the game parks and 2 days in Stonetown - it is fascinating - the beaches not so much.

Yes, we were leaning to bypass Zanzibar. When we were in Kenya we ended a few days in Mombasa, though nice we could,'ve easily stayed in the bush. Tsavo was quite interesting. We'll leave the beaches for a trip to Madagascar. Thanks all, stay well.

Hi rhbphoto - I would say it depends on the safari itinerary that you have planned so far and to some extent your budget (nights in Zanzibar are generally going to cost less than extra nights on safari). For example if you are travelling in July - Sept and are spending time in central Serengeti then I would definitely use extra nights to add northern Serengeti for the migration. Personally I would always choose safari nights over Zanzibar nights - I love Zanzibar (spent a year living there) but there's nothing compares to safari unless you are a big beach or dive enthusiast.

we had 3 weeks in kenya on our last safari so we went to the beach at malindi for the last 6 days. we really enjoyed it but would pick safari any day of the week.

Zanzibar YES if you have extra 2-3 days. Safari can be very tiring you might need a day or two to relax before flying back home. Apart from the beaches you can see the Nature of the island, swim with turtles/dolphins, spice farms, watch sunsets, see the rare colobus monkey at Jozani forests, horse back ride at the beach, so many things to do. GO ENJOY

Try to get arrange it like below:
- 2 days/nights in Tarangire national park.
- 1 day/night at Ngorongoro crater floor.
- 2 to 3 days/nights in the Serengeti national park. make sure you fly from Serengeti on the last day.
- 4 nights in Zanzibar are nice. Visit the old stone town and drive to the beach to spend your 4 nights there.

This will depend on when you need to travel. If it is between mid-July to October, I would suggest you consider a visit to northern Serengeti for wildebeest migration at the mara river. You can at least spend 1 night in central Serengeti and 2 nights in north Serengeti park. If traveling around June you can include the western corridor area of Serengeti national park. And if you expect to visit from October to December you can consider spending your 2-3 nights in the central Serengeti park area.

Otherwise, you can also spend all your nights in central Serengeti too. It has a lot to offer apart from wildebeest migration.

Karibu Tanzania,

LOL - What terrible advice!