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Stone Town, Spice Tours, Beaches & Excursions

Zanzibar

Tony Clemens
2005-08-31 21:53:07

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streets lined with whitewashed houses many with overhanging wooden balconies. Its atmosphere is also more relaxed than the medinas of old Arab towns in the Middle East or North Africa which at times can be a bit intimating . Along the waterfront are located several Sultan palaces built by the Oman sultans and an Arab fort that was built by the Portuguese. Within Stone Town there are probably over a 100 mosques and two Christian churches, including the Anglican cathedral which stands on the site of the old slave market. Although there are maps of Stone Town available, its best just to wander about and notice the many courtyards, mosques, and bazaars. You will never really get lost since eventually you will end up at the waterfront or on the main street along Stone Town east side. As you wander in Stone Town you will see plenty of decaying buildings along with some restoration work being done on some of the more important buildings. Now that the area has been declared a World Heritage area maybe needed funds can be put toward ending the decay.

Until recently, tourism was not encouraged in Tanzania and as a result accommodations usually consist of high end hotels for business or foreign aid agency travelers and small cheap hotels for locals. The accommodations situation is not as bad on Zanzibar which has always encouraged some tourism and thus has a wide range of accommodations. Although there are rooms outside the historic town, they are often characterless, stay in Stone Town. The more expensive hotels seem to cater toward package tourists, it appears mainly Italian. Many of the hotels are converted mansions with inner courtyards and are worth the extra money. On Zanzibar, all hotel bills have to be paid in foreign currency, preferably US dollars. The exit tax off the island, either by water or air also has to be paid by US dollars. Although the many forex bureaus will exchange most foreign paper currency, including Kenya shillings, they will ...