Oct 5, 2024
5-hour snorkeling, swimming with dolphins and sea turtles aquarium - We had an amazing experience on the 5-hour tour! Swimming with dolphins was such a fun highlight, and snorkeling around Mnemba Beach was absolutely breathtaking. Feeding the hawksbill and olive ridley turtles was an unforgettable moment.
Our tour guides were incredibly friendly and helpful, ensuring we had all the necessary protective gear, which made us feel safe throughout the entire experience.
Overall, this tour was definitely worth it! Highly recommend for anyone looking to explore the beauty of the ocean.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Oct 4, 2024
Dream Excursion - Don’t think twice, book this tour immediately! Suleiman’s tour guides were the highlight of the entire trip to Zanzibar! They picked us up from the beach at our resort and we ended up being the only 2 to go, so it was basically a private tour. They first took us to Mnemba atoll for some snorkeling and then we left for the sandbank stop. The sandbank was SURREAL! I have never seen water that clear and beautiful. Our guides (Joumo and Karabu ?) were great and cut us up some fresh pineapple, mango, and bananas while there. It was literal perfection. We then left to find dolphins which was exciting and funny, literally jumping off moving boats into the water to see dolphins underneath us lol. Then we left there to go see starfish and a ton of sea urchins. After this stop, our last stop was at the turtle conservatory to feed and swim with turtles before heading home. So much was done in 5 hours and like I said, it was the highlight of our trip! Thank you all for this tour! Book it immediately!!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 23, 2024
Excellent tour very well organized logistically - The tour was very good and everything went as planned.
The staff picked us up on time at the hotel's beach in Kendwa.
We started the boat tour in search of the dolphins and after a few minutes we managed to find a group. We swam near them for a few minutes and then we go for snorkling. We had a meal with very tasty fruits and saw various types of fish, sea stars and others. We went to Nungwi Marine Turtles Mnarani, to feed and nothing with the turtles. At the end, a taxi was already waiting for us to take you back to the hotel. All very well organized logistically.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Aug 30, 2024
Amazing trip! - Amazing experience! The guides know what they’re doing to help you spot the dolphins/find star fish! The dolphin spotting was good but seemed quite stressful with a lot of boats looking for one lot of dolphins. Defo recommend this excursion as you get to see so much in only 5 hours!
Review provided by Viator
Oct 4, 2024
Great experience- just manage your expectations - Overall, I had a great time and I would recommend. I had read plenty of reviews before this, so was well equipped for the things that other people are complaining about (constantly chasing dolphins the main thing). We also lucked out with fantastic weather. The experience with dolphins is great, but you have to be a pretty good swimmer to get close to them. If you’re after an authentic experience with wild dolphins, you’ll love it. If you just want an up close and personal experience with dolphins - go to a zoo. The only thing I would say the operator can improve upon is the start, we weren’t really given any form of a briefing or what would happen or any safety considerations (the boat was equipped with life jackets though and you can wear them at your discretion). The turtles were cool as well and a must I’d say. Given how long you’re out at sea, make sure to go the bathroom right before you leave!
Review provided by Viator
Sep 14, 2024
Sea turtles are a must - The snorkelling was good and it was fun to visit the sandbank. Unfortunately the weather was not great which made it quite cold on the boat (but not that the organisers could do anything about this). Lovely fresh fruit as a snack. The weather also meant we couldn't swim with the dolphins as too choppy and we only saw them briefly. By far the best bit of the trip was the sea turtles aquarium. Getting so close and feeding the turtles and learning about the conservation was the best part of my whole time in Zanzibar.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Oct 11, 2024
Far too many boats, hunting dolphins, everything else great! - The boat trip itself was great, the two guides, the stop at the sandbar and the fresh fruit + enough water on the boat too, as well as the visit to the sea turtles.
The hunting of the many boats for the dolphins was not a nice experience. And on the snorkeling trip we were almost rammed by the other boats.
The number of boats would absolutely have to be limited.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Oct 7, 2024
Must do but be aware... - Actually it was really awesome to see dolphins, exotic fish and turtles so close. But, the amount of ships and visitors was really annoying. To many people that were also diving deep were distributing the fish. Also, it looked like the dolphins were disturbed by all the boats and swimmers and were fleeing from the crowd and bad exhausts from the boats.
Also be aware that the turtles bite!
The time for snorkeling was to less (20 min). The most of the time you are on the boat driving from one place to the other.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 21, 2024
Sketchy. - The pick up by boat at our hotel beach was nice and snorkeling was very good with abundant fish. However, do not expect to actually swim with dolphins. Our boat and 20 others chased a group of dolphins in the open ocean. A few people got in the water but roaring boats made that dangerous. The turtle rescue sanctuary was very good. As we left the turtles, a guide said that according to our contract, pickup at the hotel was included but return was not. He tried to swindle us. We had papers showing our drop off was at the meeting point - our hotel. We then got the taxi ride back.
Review provided by Viator
Sep 25, 2024
Put us in danger- would not recommend. - Positive:
- Turtle aquarium was good, transfers were included.
- Didn't get to see dolphins but saw a Marlin
Negative:
- A warning for anyone who may get motion sickness- the ride is very very bumpy.
- They first drove us into very choppy waters before pointing for us to put on the flippers and snorkels and to get in the water. The guide did not speak English as advertised and basically just pointed to the water.
- My husband had never snorkelled before and although I am an ex competitive swimmer and an experienced snorkeler I felt apprehensive looking at the current of the water we were in. We had to ask several times for a life jacket for my husband and eventually along with the two other women with us found them ourselves on the boat for him and one of the women.
- My husband got in and started to be swept under the boat and asked for help, the guy on the boat did not understand and just said "hakuna matata". My husband got back into the boat as he was scared. I stayed close to the boat attempting to snorkel with the other two women but the current was strong and pulling us along quite quickly and far.
- When my husband got back on the boat, without ANYA communication, the boat DROVE OFF leaving myself and the other 2 women in the water on our own with only one of us wearing a jacket! They left for 5 minutes, we were waving to other boats for help and I was starting to feel really tired from treading water so after 3 minutes (I've got it recorded on my GoPro which was attached to me) two of us ended up having to hold onto the woman with the life jacket.
- We quickly got back on and my husband said the guy rode off to talk to someone else on another boat. The man loosely asked if we wanted to snorkel more and we said no because he left us alone and we could have been in danger and he did not seem to care and just drove to look for dolphins
- We did not see any dolphins and after looking for 30min on choppy water and rough driving we asked if we could stop looking for them, he did not understand the request so continued to roughly drive for another 30min at which point all 4 of us said we felt sick.
- Did not stop at any sandbank for a picnic. They just cut some fruit to give us in a very bumpy boat ride
- As we approached the beach near the title sanctuary, the second guy jumped off the boat and just threw 4 starfish onto the boat for us to look at, there was no snorkeling in this part.
Overall, I would not recommend this as I had found another tour guide on here for another tour the day before and found him way more informative, a trained guide and he really cared about our experience. We then cancelled any tours booked on viator and went exclusively with him because this one broke our trust and we did not feel safe with them at all.
Suleiman the owner did check in with us at the turtle sanctuary to see if we were OK and we said it had been OK but not good. But then we left in the cab to go home.
The two stars they got on here were purely for the fact that we had a good taxi driver and the guys at the turtle aquarium (not from this company) were amazing and made it worthwhile. I'd recommend finding a local guide/cab company yourself to communicate with and book.
Review provided by Viator