Zanzibar Exploration: Discover Prison Island, Vanishing Island & Uncover Stone Town's History

Embark on an exciting Zanzibar exploration and uncover the history of Stone Town. Visit Prison Island, home to giant turtles, and relax on the stunning beaches. Don’t miss the unique experience of Vanishing Island and indulge in a delicious lunch.

Duration: 10 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Zanzibar Island - PRISON ISLAND\nThe tour starts from the port of Stone Town (to which we will take you by comfortable transport directly from the hotel), from where you will go on one of the boats to the prison island.\nVANISHING ISLAND\nNakupenda is a small stretch of fine white sand that disappears at high tide. At low tide, the island is about…
What's Included
  • Mineral water and spiced African coffee
  • Complimentary hotel pick-up and drop-off in an air-conditioned vehicle
  • Tour of the historic old prison and quarantine zone
  • Snorkeling gear and life jackets provided, with a professional guide
  • Interact with giant turtles, includes feeding and photo opportunities
  • Gourmet seafood lunch featuring lobster,…
What's Not Included
  • Supplement Transfer for hotels outside city center to be charged upon agreement
Additional Information

Embark on the journey to the well-known penitentiary island, also known by various other names where you can get your picture taken with oversized tortoises. Explore the historical prison site and past isolation area, Unwind at the stunning shoreline while basking in the transparent waters. Savor the mouth-watering lunch at Nakuppend Island, often referred to as the ‘Vanishing Island’.

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
3.7
(44 Ratings)
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Einat
Jul 22, 2024
I recommend this trip with this company to everyone - Every thing were great and everyone were very nice and funny Adam the driver and Shalom the guide the trip was not too long or too short We so beautiful place We enjoyed it very much
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sunshine22313999802
Jul 9, 2024
Very good - All the persons were very nice, and let u have the most fun on your time. Thanks to every one on the trip. And i will return with more persons.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jdb59330
Nov 5, 2023
Beautiful day - Beautiful day with our French-speaking guide Killian. A little disappointed with Nakupenda and having so many tourist boats on the islet. Impossible to put on your towel and swim peacefully in view of the traffic. Our guide was great, he then showed us around Stone Town and was very patient while going through the souvenir shops with us.
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Vacation21244794009
Aug 17, 2024
Great experience, bad agency - The experience was actually great thanks to our guides. However, the agency kept changing the dates - the first time beacuse they did not communicate the correct hotel name to the driver so we waited for 30 minutes and no one came to pick us up and the second time without any reasonable justification. I recommend the experience but I advise you to book directly with Paradise Tours and Safaris.
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William_n
Nov 30, 2023
It was OK but needs to improve some parts - We decided to do the 3 activities in one day because were only spending a few days in Zanzibar. The chofer picked us up at 8:00 in our hotel in Nungwi, which was an hour away from the Stone Town port, where the day started. We had to wait for another couple that finally didn’t come so we really started at around 10:30am. They first took us to Prison Island, where we saw the turtles and had a quick walk through the remains of the prison. After that we took the boat to Nakupenda beach. It’s a small piece of land with lovely water. We did some snorkeling but the water was dirty, because they told us to snorkel in the area where the boats were. They cooked lunch for us there and it was delicious. After lunch we headed to Stone Town, the guide walked us through some streets and in the market. It was at about 2:30pm so it was hot to walk but the old part of the city was nice. After around 30 minutes, we had finished and went back to our hotel. The experience was OK, but it felt rushed at some moments. The guide was nice but didn’t explain many things. We would have preferred starting a bit earlier and not rushing so much, and also hearing better explanations from the guide.
Review provided by Viator
Patrycja_j
Nov 6, 2023
Nothing to write home about - Our guide was lovely and the organiser very kindly included a transfer from our hotel outside Stone Town. But the trip itself is just kind of meh. Stone Town and prison island obviously interesting historically but both felt just brushed over. Nakupenda island is dirty and packed with kids with tiny monkeys (tied to them on strings!!) that they offer to tourist for pictures. Animal abuse should not be promoted by any means. If looking for a similar experience, Mnemba is a million times nicer. If we could go back, we would have given this trip a miss.
Review provided by Viator
Courtney
Jan 6, 2024
Do not recommend! - Do not recommend!!! We started our tour on Prison Island with our tour guide. The Island itself was nice and beautiful, our tour guide explained maybe 3 or 4 things about the island. WE DID NOT FEED OR SWIM WITH THE TURTLES. HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT AS THIS IS WHAT INWAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THE MOST. The guide was on the phone the ENTIRE TRIP. He didn’t even offer to take our photo on the island. He would disappear and tell us to meet him when we are finished. Then we went to vanishing island to have lunch and beach time. There is no chairs, towels, or bathrooms. The food was good and people that wanted to do snorkeling could do so. You will be asked by so many people to buy this and that. They never go away. I had on shades and was trying to relaxed and they said hello until I acknowledged them. Then after that we had our tour in Stone Town. This was not the best tour by far. The guide was not knowledgeable and again was on the phone. Over all we would not recommend this tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
703nikir
Aug 16, 2024
Tourist trap, don’t recommend - It was one of the worst tours we had in Zanzibar, and we had many during our 12days stay. Booking through trip advisor the schedule mentioned departure time 07:00. The night before I received a text on my WhatsApp that I will be informed for departure time that night. They informed me that it will be 9:30. Our guide arrived to pick us from our hotel which by the way was right in front of the departure point. However the boat was nowhere to be found and arrived almost 1 hour later, which all this time we were waiting standing up on the beach. When he arrived our guide asked us our shoe sizes so he would go and get some snorkeling equipment for us, but he returned only with masks and no flippers. The boat was one of the slowest ones and we arrived really late at the prison island and it was already very busy. Our tour guide gave us a 2 minutes speech about the prison island and then told us to just walk around while he was constantly on his phone playing some game. When we finally left prison island for the vanishing island we arrived at a very crowded place full of other tour groups. They put up a tent and started cooking and they didn’t take us snorkeling like other tour guides did. The had less chairs than our group so one lady had to take her child on her lap in order to eat. Initially they just placed the food in front of us in a big plate no forks or plates, when we asked for some they were going around other boats to get some so we ended up eating cold food. Last but not least when we arrived at the Stone town tour our guide didn’t care to give us a real tour was on his phone and was just walking through stone town telling us just about the difference between the Arabian and Indian doors and very few information. When we finally arrived at the first food market we decided to leave because it was so obvious our guide had no interest to give us a proper tour from the beginning of the day. The rest of the group felt the same since we discussed his behavior and the absence of organization in general
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Florentina
Aug 13, 2024
Disappointing - Unorganized, unprofessional, very disappointed very expensive my group paid only 30$ locally. Not recommended.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sjælsro
Nov 26, 2023
Not to recommend - A terrible experience. The guide was very business Oriented and not into customer service at all. We waited 2 hours for The food and another 1/2 hour in The Rain for The taxi afterwards. No hello or goodbye, no politeness to find at all. I Will not reccomend this!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
From $90
up to 15 guests
1 Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).