Zanzibar: Stone Town Secrets, Prison Island Turtles & Nakupenda Sandbank Paradise

Stone Town wraps you in its spell immediately. Narrow streets smell of cloves and old wood. You sip thick Swahili coffee in a 200-year-old courtyard, run your fingers over carved doors that cost more than cars, stand exactly where Freddie Mercury took his first breath. Two hours feel like stepping into a different century.

Then the speedboat. Wind, salt spray, 15 minutes of pure joy.

Prison Island. Giant tortoises older than anyone you know waddle over like wise old men. You feed them from your hand, they blink slowly, and you laugh like a little kid. You jump into the water – it’s bath-warm, fish in every color swirl around you like confetti.

But the real magic is still coming.

Ten minutes later the ocean opens wide and there it is – Nakupenda. A perfect white sandbank floating in the middle of endless turquoise. You step off the boat into knee-deep water that looks fake it’s so beautiful. The crew has already set up paradise: white linen on the sand, cold drinks in ice buckets, the grill smoking with fresh lobster, giant prawns, octopus, red snapper. You eat barefoot while tiny waves tickle your toes. Mango juice runs down your wrist. Everything tastes better here.

After lunch you have almost two hours that belong only to you – float, swim circles around the sandbank, lie on a mat and stare at the sky, take the photos your friends back home won’t believe are real.

When the sun starts to melt into the horizon, the boat glides back slowly. You sit on the bow, hair stiff with salt, heart completely full. You already know this will be the day you talk about for years.