East Coast Zanzibar Beaches
Kitesurfing flats, seaweed farms and turquoise shallows that shift dramatically with the tide.
Michamvi Beach
The east coast beach where the sun sets over the water
Michamvi sits on the peninsula that curls around Chwaka Bay, so its western side — Michamvi Kae — is the only place on the east coast where you watch the sun set over the sea. The water here is deep and calm, protected from the open-ocean swell, and the beaches are almost private.
Read guideDongwe Beach
A quiet luxury pocket between Bwejuu and Michamvi
Dongwe is a short, calm stretch of coast with a small number of upmarket hotels and very little else. The reef sits close to shore, so the lagoon is glassy, and the beach is one of the least developed on the east coast.
Read guideBwejuu Beach
Casuarina trees, empty sand and village life
Bwejuu is a long, shady, palm-and-casuarina-lined beach just north of Paje with a fraction of the crowd. The village is friendly and low-key and the sand runs for kilometres, making it the best walking beach on the coast.
Read guidePaje Beach
Zanzibar's kitesurfing capital
Paje is the busiest, youngest beach on the island — a flat, shallow, turquoise lagoon that becomes a kitesurfing arena when the trade winds blow, backed by beach bars, coffee shops, yoga decks and co-working cafés. It is also the launch point for The Rock restaurant and the Blue Lagoon.
Read guideJambiani Beach
Seven kilometres of village, seaweed farms and pastel water
Jambiani is a string of fishing hamlets along one of the longest beaches in Zanzibar. It is slower and more traditional than Paje just up the coast, with women farming seaweed in the lagoon, dhows drying on the sand, and small owner-run guesthouses instead of resorts.
Read guideMakunduchi Beach
The southeast corner — remote, wild and rarely visited
Makunduchi sits at the southeastern tip where the east coast turns west. It is a large village best known for Mwaka Kogwa, the Shirazi new-year festival held every July, when the community stages a mock stick fight and burns a ritual hut. The beach is wide, wild and almost empty.
Read guide