Zanzibar’s one of those places where you could feasibly spend a week doing absolutely nothing but lying on a beach, or pack two weeks solid with activities and still feel like you’ve barely scratched the surface.
So how long do you actually need? Depends entirely on what you’re after, honestly. But let’s break down what different timeframes give you.
The Long Weekend (3-4 Days)
Can you do Zanzibar in a long weekend? Sure. Should you? Only if that’s genuinely all the time you’ve got.
Three to four days gives you enough time to recover from the journey, see Stone Town properly, pick one beach area to relax in, and maybe do one activity like a spice tour or snorkelling trip. It’s the absolute minimum for getting a feel for the island without spending your entire time rushing around.
You’ll spend day one getting oriented and probably exploring Stone Town – the winding streets, historic buildings, markets, and waterfront. Day two could be a half-day spice tour followed by transferring to your beach location. Days three and four are for actual beach time, maybe one water activity, then you’re heading home.
It works as a quick add-on to a safari or if you’re just after a brief tropical escape. But you’ll definitely leave wishing you’d had more time.
The Sweet Spot (5-7 Days)
A week in Zanzibar feels about right for most people. It’s enough time to properly relax without feeling like you’re wasting days, and you can mix beach lounging with actual exploration.
With five to seven days, you can spend two nights in Stone Town really exploring the old town properly – the museums, the Palace Museum, the Old Fort, the evening food market at Forodhani Gardens. You’ve got time for a proper spice tour where you’re not watching the clock, maybe visit Prison Island to see the giant tortoises.
Then you head to the beach for the remaining days. You can pick one area and properly settle in, or split your time between two different beaches if you want variety – maybe the east coast for wide sandy beaches and water sports, then the north for sunset views and a different vibe.
You’ve got time for multiple activities: snorkelling or diving trips, a dhow cruise, visiting Jozani Forest to see the red colobus monkeys, trying different restaurants, maybe a sunset kayak or stand-up paddleboarding session.
Seven days means you can have a couple of complete do-nothing days without feeling guilty, which is often exactly what people need after an intense safari or busy work period back home.
The Longer Stay (10-14 Days)
Two weeks in Zanzibar is pretty luxurious, but if you’ve got the time, it’s brilliant. You can properly slow down, island-hop, and dig into the culture beyond the standard tourist circuit.
With this much time, you might spend three nights in Stone Town, really getting to know the place beyond the main tourist areas. You can take cooking classes, visit local markets without rushing, explore the less-visited parts of town, actually read a book in a cafe without feeling like you should be sightseeing.
Beach time becomes genuinely restorative rather than just ticking a box. You can stay in multiple locations – maybe start on the quieter southeast coast around Paje or Jambiani, then move to the north around Nungwi or Kendwa, possibly even squeeze in a night or two on Pemba or Mafia Island if you’re keen on diving.
There’s time for the full range of activities: multiple diving trips if you’re into that, a multi-day kite surfing course, deeper cultural experiences like visiting fishing villages, attending a taarab music performance, exploring spice farms more thoroughly.
You can afford to have rainy days or off days where you don’t do anything touristy and it doesn’t feel like a wasted holiday. You might even fall into a routine – morning swim, breakfast at your favourite local spot, afternoon nap, sunset drinks – which is oddly satisfying.
Considering The Season
The best time to travel to Zanzibar affects how long you should stay. During the dry seasons (June-October and December-February), you can pack more into your days because the weather’s reliable. Beach time, boat trips, and outdoor activities all work smoothly.
If you’re visiting during the rainy periods – particularly the long rains in April and May – you might want a few extra days to account for weather disruptions. Activities get cancelled, beach days aren’t as appealing when it’s overcast and drizzly, and you’ll probably spend more time indoors.
That said, the shoulder months (March, November) can be brilliant if you don’t mind occasional showers. Fewer tourists, better prices, and you still get plenty of sunshine between the rain.
What About Combining With A Safari?
Most people visit Zanzibar as part of a longer Tanzania trip, usually after a safari. If that’s your plan, factor in that you’ll probably arrive fairly exhausted from early morning game drives and bumpy roads.
After a 5-7 day safari, even three days in Zanzibar feels restorative. But 5-6 days is better – enough time to properly decompress and shift into beach mode rather than just collapsing for a couple of nights before flying home.
If you’ve done a longer safari (10+ days), you might actually want shorter beach time because you’ve been away from home for a while already and are ready to get back. Or you lean into it completely and take a proper two-week beach holiday because you’ve come all this way already.
Activities Affect Your Timeline
The more you want to actually do, the more time you need. If your idea of a perfect Zanzibar holiday is reading novels under a palm tree with occasional swims, you could do that for weeks without getting bored (and would probably want to).
But if you want diving certification, multiple snorkel trips, kite surfing lessons, cultural tours, spice farm visits, and island hopping, you need time to fit it all in without exhausting yourself. Each activity typically takes half a day minimum, often a full day once you factor in travel time.
Budget Considerations
Longer stays obviously cost more in accommodation and food. But per-day costs can actually drop if you’re staying put in one place rather than constantly moving around. Many hotels offer better rates for week-long stays.
If budget’s tight, a shorter, higher-quality stay often beats a longer period in mediocre accommodation. Five days somewhere lovely that you genuinely enjoy might be more valuable than ten days somewhere you chose purely because it was cheap.
The Honest Answer
For most people coming to Zanzibar either as a standalone holiday or post-safari, 5-7 days hits the right balance. It’s enough time to feel like you’ve actually been on holiday, short enough that you’re not desperate to leave, and allows for both relaxation and exploration.
Three to four days works if that’s truly all you can manage, but it’ll feel rushed. Ten to fourteen days is brilliant if you’ve got the time and budget – you’ll return properly relaxed rather than just slightly less stressed.
Whatever you choose, pick your beach location carefully. The island’s bigger than it looks, and transfers between areas eat into your time more than you’d expect. If you’ve only got a few days, staying in one spot makes more sense than trying to see everything.
And honestly? However long you stay, you’ll probably wish you’d stayed a bit longer. That’s just Zanzibar. The place has a way of slowing you down and making you question why you ever thought you needed to rush back to real life.Book your relaxing getaway surrounded by nature and commit to whatever time you can manage. Because even three days of Zanzibar beats three days of not-Zanzibar.