The tiny island of Zanzibar, locally known as Unguja, sits 15 miles off the coast of Tanzania, near Dar-Es-Salaam. A semi-autonomous region, it’s renowned for pristine beaches and rich history. Douglas Cruickshank offers this insider’s profile.
, ex-Peace Corps volunteer, and citizen activist.
When you sail in to Zanzibar Island you’re immediately convinced you’ve arrived in a radically Photoshopped photograph. The Indian Ocean is impossibly blue, cerulean, or maybe just turquoise, and everything else is mind-blowingly vivid, clear. Giant aquatic creatures swim around psychedelic beds of coral. And you soon learn you have arrived in one of the world’s most historically rich destinations.
Zanzibar is the evocative, exotic land you always dreamed of, but with all the modern amenities, great food, rhythmic music, and friendly, sociable people. Yet visitors mostly mention diving, snorkelling, and yachting. Which is only part of it.