Menai Bay and Mnemba, ZanzibarBest Oct to Mar (visibility), Jun to Sep (calm and cool)

Snorkelling by dhow

A day on a wooden dhow: the reef, a seafood lunch on a sandbank, the mangrove lagoon, and the sail home at sunset.

How we do it

Planned around the moment, not the brochure

No certificate, no experience and no equipment of your own: we bring masks, snorkels and life jackets, and the crew swim with you. The classic day leaves from the south west coast into Menai Bay, a marine conservation area, and the reef off the sandbank is shallow enough that first timers see as much as anyone. For the clearest water on the island we run the same day to Mnemba atoll from the north east. Either one slots into any beach stay, and it is the day guests write to us about afterwards.

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Best monthsOct to Mar (visibility), Jun to Sep (calm and cool)Outside these months it is still possible. Ask and we'll tell you honestly what changes.

How the day runs

From the beach and back by dark

Step 1
Out on the dhow
Pickup from your hotel, then on board a traditional wooden sailing dhow. Half an hour under sail to the reef, with the island behind you and a life jacket for anyone who wants one.
Step 2
The reef
An hour or more in the water over hard coral in a metre or two of depth. Sergeant majors, parrotfish, starfish, the odd pufferfish, and a guide in the water who points out what you would miss.
Step 3
Lunch on the sandbank
The crew put up a shade on a white sandbank and grill the lunch: fish, lobster in season, rice, fruit. Cushions and kangas, and a floating deck off the sand for the ones who would rather sit than swim.
Step 4
The mangrove lagoon
After lunch the dhow moves to a lagoon inside the mangroves, warm and still, where you swim or drift in a kayak between the roots.
Step 5
Home at sunset
The sail back is timed for the last light, with a cold drink on deck. Back at your hotel after dark.

Worth knowing: The sandbank and the lagoon are tidal, so the order of the day moves with the tide table for your date. Snorkelling is in open sea, so we skip it in rough weather and run it another day where we can.

Our own photographs