Land Excursions

 

 

 

Children Activities

DRUMMING LESSONS FOR CHILDREN

Leave your children under the watchful eye of our diligent and friendly staff as they learn the ancient Zanzibari art of drumming. We even include a savoury snack and mineral water for the kids
You can take a time out for half and hour with a map of Stone Town to help you find your way back.

TINGA TINGA PAINTING LESSONS IN JAFFERJI HOUSE COURTYARD

Jafferji House & Spa delights children and adults with one of a kind painting classes of a style called Tinga Tinga Canvas. Brushes are provided along with an experienced and enthusiastic local artist who will lead you step by step through the process of creating this ethnic Tanzanian style of art. It is easy, fun, and totally stress free.

By the end of the session you will be amazed at the artwork you have created! You will go home with a painting you can call “uniquely yours” and hopefully a new found talent you’ll want to explore

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Freddie Mercury Tour

Walk the streets of Stone Town and follow in the footsteps of Zanzibar’s most famous son, Freddie Mercury. Lead singer of the rock band Queen, a skilled musician, flamboyant showman and also a Zanzibari. Born Farouk Bulsara on 5th September 1946 in Shangani, Freddie Mercury spent his formative years living and playing in Stone Town’s winding alleyways. His parents were Parsi and had emigrated to Zanzibar from India.

His family were practising Zoroastrians, a religion founded more than 3000 years ago and believed to be the world’s oldest religion. After studying at a boarding school in Bombay, Farouk Bulsara returned to Zanzibar leaving with his parents and younger sister at the age of 18 for London where his transformation into Freddie Mercury took place.
Wander through Shangani where Freddie Mercury was born and lived with his family. Your guide will take you to the Zanzibar Gallery shop, once home to Mercury’s family where you’ll receive a Freddie Mercury t-shirt.
From here, you’ll head to the mystical Zoroastrian temple, where Mercury worshipped with his family. You’ll end the day with a seafront lunch at Mercury’s restaurant, a modern day tribute to the man and his music.

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Green Panorama Tour

Take a break from the sun lounges and souvenir stalls, and escape into the island’s green pockets of lush indigenous forest.

First stop is the quiet and exceptional Jozani Forest, home to the island’s most famous and photographed resident, the Red Colobus monkey, Ader’s duiker, Sykes monkey, bush babies, African civet, giant elephant shrews, and chameleons as well as over 83 different species of birds.

Next a wave of colour will be added to your trip as you venture next door to the Zanzibar Butterfly Centre, an interactive butterfly exhibit consisting of a netted tropical garden with hundreds of butterflies, all of which are a native species to Zanzibar. The enclosure is one of Africa’s largest butterfly exhibits and provides residents and tourists of Zanzibar with an interactive and visual environment while learning more about butterflies.
Later, you will visit a community turtle sanctuary built by local villagers to house injured turtles and other marine animals. These precious creatures are nursed back to health before being released into the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. The sanctuary is ideal for families and children, offering a fun and interactive environment.
Our last stop on the tour is ZALA Park – a fascinating menagerie of exotic reptiles and amphibians, as well as duikers, bushbabies and hyrax. Various concrete compounds are dotted about the small parkwherein natural habitats have been created for snakes, monitor lizards, crabs and chameleons, to name just a few. You may even be allowed to crawl into the large cage housing four enormous pythons!

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Jozani Forest Tour

South of the island, Jozani Forest is a wonder and delight, with tales of Zanzibar leopards, medicinal cures and stunning scenery. Currently under consideration to become Zanzibar’s second World Heritage Site, the Jozani-Chkwa Bay area is a hotspot of biodiversity. The forest is home to a number of endemic species, including the Zanzibar Red Colobus Monkey.

Your park ranger will take you on a nature trail, lined with eucalyptus and mahogany trees and explain the medicinal properties of various plants and tell you about the animals, birds and reptiles that call this tropical rainforest their home.

Troops of Zanzibar Red Colobus monkeys can be found scrambling from branch to branch in search of food. The monkeys have become acclimatised to people and allow you to get close enough to capture them in photographs as they eat, play and jump from the treetops. The mangrove boardwalk takes you above the swamp, where depending on the tide, you can see tropical fish flitting between the mangrove roots and crabs scuttling across the mud. Mangroves play an important role in environmental conservation and is a valuable resource for villagers and community life. Your ranger will explain the different species found in the swamp and their uses.

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Made in Zanzibar

Zanzibar is a great place for shopping and bargain hunting.

Zanzibar is a great place for shopping and bargain hunting. You will inevitably come across the odd ashtray carved out of a coconut shell but there are enough locally made art and craft to fill a whole suitcase with tasteful souvenirs! Take the hassle out of the hunt, and join Gallery Tours on a shopping excursion which promotes local handicraft in various shops around Stone Town.

On this half day tour, your guide will accompany you to local shops around town starting at the kanga bazaar where you can read proverbs printed on kanga cloth and also learn to wrap a kanga the traditional way. This will be followed by a visit to the leather sandal making workshop that has been supplying sandals to the island since 1976 after which you will move on to SASIK, one of the most successful women’s cooperatives in Zanzibar, to watch the women workers hand stitch and embroider elaborate cushion covers and wall hangings.
You will have an opportunity to see the making of beautiful hand crafted furniture from coconut wood and the amazing process of making the traditional kikoi at local factories. Watch as local craftsmen create wood carvings from very small and intricate designs to much larger pieces. Visit the workshop where traditional Zanzibar doors are carved and sold. For art lovers watching a Tinga Tinga painting being created is a must and decorating your palms with traditional henna art from the artists at ZAYAA Gallery the perfect gift to yourself. The tour ends with a stop at the Gallery Bookshop and the Zanzibar Gallery Shop.

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Ngonga Cave

Hidden in the middle of Zanzibar is a wholly different way of life to the one found on the beaches.
Here you find the traditions, cultures and practices which have existed for centuries preserved in their entirety. Join Gallery Tours and see a side of the island hidden from tourists for so long.
You will travel deep into heart of the island, to Muyuni village, where you can see how Zanzibaris live outside of Town. Here you will be introduced to the traditional beliefs of Zanzibar by entering the sacred Ngonga cave and watching a Bamba ceremony, in which the doctor allows spirits to take control of him and make a diagnosis of the afflicted.
You can ask questions and see the way in which the villagers incorporate their beliefs into everyday life. Through this experience you can come a little closer to understanding what life is really like in the villages of Zanzibar. This tour is a half day tour which can be combined with a visit to Jozani Forest if desired.

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North Coast Tour

The north coast is the dhow building capital of Zanzibar.
Your drive to Nungwi will take you past the fish markets where you can see freshly caught seafood being auctioned. There’s a stop at the ruins of an old Portuguese settlement where your guide will explain the history of the ruins and the Portuguese conquest of Zanzibar dating back to 1497.
A stop at the blacksmith is also fascinating where tools are still made in the traditional way for constructing dhows. At the construction site, dhows are built in the same way they have for centuries where skilled craftsmen bend the wood to create the dhows. Visitors may be invited to try their hand at this unique craft.
A visit to the Nungwi turtle sanctuary and aquarium follows where ailing turtles are nursed back to health and released into the ocean.
A guided tour of Nungwi village where mamas wrapped in kangas cook over firewood and smiling kids play is a must. Walk down to the beach where you can enjoy an optional lunch at one of Nungwi’s popular restaurants and enjoy some free time sunbathing, swimming and snorkelling. The northern tip of Zanzibar offers some of the most beautiful sunsets in the world. Here the sky turns pink and gold as the sun sinks over the Indian Ocean. Sun downers and a late transfer back to your hotel can be arranged if you wish to stay longer to enjoy the sunset.

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Princess Salme Tour

Princess Salme – Rebel, outcast or revolutionary? Salme sent shockwaves through Zanzibar teaching herself to write, conspiring in a plot to overthrow her brother, becoming pregnant and eloping to Germany with a young merchant, Heinrich Ruete and writing the sensational Memoirs of an Arabian Princess.

This tour takes you to Mtoni Palace, where Salme was born in 1844, the daughter of Sultan Said and one of his secondary wives. She spent her childhood in the palace served by slaves and playing in the gardens.
You’ll then head to Marhubi Palace, built by Sultan Barghash, Salme’s older brother, who she helped escape after a failed attempt to overthrow their brother, Sultan Majid.
From here, you’ll travel to Stone Town, where the princess lived in relative exile, unmarried and shunned by her family for her role in the deceit. The Palace Museum has a room dedicated to Salme’s life and writings. Your guide will take you to her house, where her romance with Heinrich Ruete began across balconies resulting in secret trysts and meetings in the countryside. The tour ends at the Gallery Bookshop, where you can buy Salme’s book, Memoirs of an Arabian Princess, available in many languages.

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Slave Routes of Zanzibar

This excursion begins at the Dhow Harbour in Malindi, where slave ships brought their human cargo from Bagamoyo to Zanzibar, moving to the house of Tippu Tip, the notorious Arab slave trader and then on to the Anglican Church, built on the old slave market. A short drive to Mbweni will bring you the ruins formerly a school for freed slave girls, before heading to Livingstone’s House and Mangapwani slave caves. Walk through the caves, which stored hundreds of slaves, kept waiting for the monsoons and the arrival of the dhows to be exiled away from home.

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Spice Tour with Cooking

In days past, Zanzibar was known as a spice island, exporting cloves, vanilla, nutmeg and cardamom across the world.

In days past, Zanzibar was known as a spice island, exporting cloves, vanilla, nutmeg and cardamom across the world. The spices were brought over from Asia and South America and flourished in the tropical climes. Nowadays, the plantations are a tribute to the island’s past, swapping spices for tourism, combining both in a spice tour, one of the most popular excursions on the island.

Walk through the spice farm with your guide and experience feeling, smelling and tasting different spices and tropical fruit. Try to guess which is which from the crushed leaves, the fruit, shoots, vines and creepers crawling up the trees. Learn about their properties, their origins and their use as medicine and in food and drink. Depending on the season, you can find anything from vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, turmeric, lemon grass, cloves, ylang ylang, cumin, coriander, pepper, tamarind, chili and more! Fruit can include banana, pineapple, jack fruit, custard fruit, oranges, star fruit, tangerine, passion fruit, mango, avocado, pear, papaya, grape fruit and many others.
After your tour of the spice farm, you’ll be whisked away for some spice shopping in the market. From here, you’ll put your purchases to good use with a Swahili cookery lesson from the skilled chefs at the Jafferji House and Spa.
These cooking lessons are designed for those who want to try their hand at creating delicious Swahili meals.

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Stone Town City Tour

Follow the trail of the sultans, slaves and explorers in the winding streets of Stone Town.

Follow the trail of the sultans, slaves and explorers in the winding streets of Stone Town. Your guide will tell you about the events that shaped Zanzibar, leading you through the buildings where it all happened, such as the former Slave Market and Anglican Cathedral, the House of Wonders and the Sultans’ Palace Museum, the Old Arab Fort and Dispensary.

While tracing the steps of the past, the walking tour provides you with a window into modern life in Stone
Town. Explore the markets, seafood and fish piled in the fish market, fresh loaves of bread in wicker baskets and neat stacks of fruit and vegetables as traders sell their wares from their stalls.

Children play in the streets in the residential areas, ‘mamas’ sit outside and gossip while the men play board games. An optional stop at The Zanzibar Coffee House provides a rest from the heat and hustle and bustle. A selection of drinks, local sweets & seasonal fruits act as the perfect pick me up for you to continue on your tour.

The City Tour is very flexible and can be adapted to suit your interests and time frame. If you’re a shopaholic, culture vulture or history buff we have something to suit everyone. If you want to hunt for antiques and souvenir shop follow David Livingstone’s time in Zanzibar and walk the path of the slave trade. Your guide can recommend and customize routes and itineraries that will optimise your time and get the most out of your trip.

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Sultan Panorama Tour

The Sultan Panorama Tours is ideal for visitors with little time who want to experience a bit of everything Zanzibar has to offer.

The Sultan Panorama Tours is ideal for visitors with little time who want to experience a bit from what Zanzibar has to offer. It’s a full day excursion starting in Stone Town and covers the history of the sultans, slave trade and invasions that shaped Zanzibar’s history. Your guide will give you a broad overview of the island’s history and current affairs and you’ll pass by many historic sites and visit the Slave Market. A stop at the vibrant Darajani Market gives you a glimpse of the locals busy life with a lot of hustle and bustle, smells and noise.

You’ll then be driven to a spice farm, and given the opportunity to taste seasonal spices and fruits all the while getting a live and comprehensive description of their properties and uses. Throughout the tour, you can sample local delicacies and local staple food
Your next stop is at a local village for a slice of Zanzibari culture and life. Cooking, weaving, building houses and playing with the children, you’ll have chance to see what life is like for Zanzibaris.
An informative and action packed day, this tour gives you a taste of everything found in our other excursions and is strongly recommended as a first excursion. You’ll finish the excursion with an inside view of Zanzibari life and that will help you plan future excursions based on what you enjoyed the most by choosing the most relevant tour from our standard excursions.

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Swahili Cultural Trips

There are many elements to the Swahili culture – music and dance, visual arts, traditional games, cuisine, and dhow culture to name a few.

There are many elements to Swahili culture; music and dance, visual arts, traditional games, cuisine, and dhow culture to name but a few. A cultural tour is a great way for visitors to immerse themselves into the local culture and see how many Zanzibari’s live on a day to day basis.

On this half day tour, your guide will accompany you to a rural village where you will have the opportunity to see daily activities being undertaken – women weaving baskets, grinding millet, cooking local dishes using traditional methods. Watch as they decorate themselves with the traditional henna body painting and braid their hair. Behold the sight of young boys making ropes and scaling tall palm trees for fresh coconuts which are then peeled and cracked open for a refreshing drink under the midday sun.
Sit with the village men as they weave palm fronds to make thatch roofs for their huts or play a game of Bao, Zanzibar’s favourite pastime. Further afield cassava plantations and bananas with their various products can be visited and tasted like cassava chips, grilled cassava, ripe banana with coconut and grilled banana with local spices.
The Cultural Tour is an ideal excursion for those who want a real insight into the Zanzibari way of life on the Island and is a great way to support sustainable tourism and the people of Zanzibar.

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Taste of Zanzibar

There’s no better way to get to know a culture than learning about and tasting their food.

There is no better way to get to know a culture than by learning about and tasting its food. On this half day tour, you will wander the streets of old Stone Town with your guide and discover an exciting and historic town known for it’s rich culture and culinary diversity. Discover the history and culture by visiting local food stalls and restaurants and tasting local specialties.

The custom of drinking coffee, or ‘kahawa’ in Zanzibar is an age-old ritual with which most Zanzibaris begin their day. Start the morning by hopping onto the kahawa trail to discover the best coffee that Zanzibar has to offer. Traditionally served from conical steel pots into tiny, intricate porcelain cups, the flavour of Zanzibar kahawa reflects the islands spicy reputation: dark roasted coffee beans, fresh ground cinnamon and cardamom blended by scalding hot water and served in small, powerful shots.
The perfect accompaniment to coffee is halwa; a sweet, sticky confection that is traditionally served at weddings and special occasions. Watch as the local men combine the mix of sugar, oil, butter, and cashew and pistachio nuts and spread it out in huge sheets for setting.
Enjoy the unique and very popular dish ‘Rojo’, a soup mixed with ‘kachori’ and potatoes, and sprinkled with cassava. Visit local bread makers and try the many different types of bread on offer. Wash it all down with an ice cold, freshly squeezed sugar cane juice or the refreshing taste of the traditional coconut, ‘madafu’.
The tour ends at Darajani market with local fruit tasting of everything that is in season.

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Zanzibar Coffee Ceremony

Delight in a signature traditional Coffee Ceremony at Jafferji House & Spa.

Tanzania coffee is renowned for its different strengths and styles Indulging in a coffee Ceremony at Jafferji House will delight any coffee lover “The process starts with the beans being roasted in a clay pot over a tiny metal charcoal stove, the pungent smell mingling with the heady scents of lemongrass, cardamom, ginger and mixed spice powders aromatizes the entire surrounding” You are seated on a locally woven mat in one of our spacious courtyards.

It is roasted, ground and brewed in front of you after that the brewed coffee is served to you in small delicate Arabic cups, Enjoy this brewed coffee with fresh spices whilst indulging in local sweet delights traditionally made especially for brewed coffee ceremonies.

The coffee ceremony takes approximately one hour.

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zanzibar Quad Adventure

With this excursion we will share with you the “real Zanzibar”
that lies hidden between the palmtrees and resorts.
With this excursion we will share with you the “real Zanzibar” that lies hidden between the palmtrees and resorts. We offer a unique experience to sample first hand the amazing Zanzibari hospitality and culture in the total safety of a fully insured and registered professional company. All of our tours are always accompanied by expert guides.

Departing in the morning 9 AM or the afternoon 2 PM Guests will self drive their quad bikes for 4 hours, this off road adventure through some remote african villages, farm land, plantations, viewing baobas and spice trees, across the fisherman’s village and as a last stop the Waikiki Resort , where refreshment and cocktails are available in front of the most beautiful sandbanks of Zanzibar island. All our tour you can make some memorable pictures.

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Zanzibar Spice Tour

In days past, Zanzibar was known as a spice island, exporting cloves, vanilla, nutmeg and cardamom to the world. The spices were brought over from Asia and South America and flourished in Zanzibar’s tropical climate.

Nowadays the plantations are a tribute to the island’s past, swapping spices for tourism and combining both in a spice tour, one of the most popular excursions on the island. Walk through the spice farm with your guide; touch, smell and taste different spices and tropical fruits.
Try to guess one spice or fruit from the other, from the crushed leaves, the fruit, shoots,vines and creepers crawling up the trees. Learn about their properties, their origins and their use as medicines and in food and drink.
A visit to a spice farm village gives you an insight into local life and the opportunity to try some Swahili dishes, taste the fruits in season and try some spiced tea.
Depending on the season you are visiting, you can find anything from vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, turmeric, lemon grass, cloves, ylang ylang, cumin, garlic, ginger, coriander, pepper, allspice, tamarind, chilli, oregano and more!
Fruits can include banana, pineapple, jackfruit, custard fruit, oranges, star fruit, tangerine, passion fruit, mango, avocado, pear, papaya, grape fruit and many others.

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Zanzibar Weddings

The people of Zanzibar do not take weddings lightly…
The culture of Zanzibar is filled with graceful and heartily warm harmony. Each wedding is a reason to celebrate, to gather friends, family and enjoy.
Choosing to get married on Zanzibar is the mostromantic way to celebrate Love: Zanzibar Weddings is committed to turning your dream of getting married on Zanzibar into reality. Whether you are planning a destination wedding, require professional advice or simply want the best suppliers for your event, Zanzibar Weddings can help you with all wedding and event details. By offering a full wedding planner service, wewill ensure that your day is as peaceful and joyous as the occasion deserves and demands.

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Zanzibar Yoga

Gallery Tours now offers special packages with a qualified yoga teacher based in Zanzibar.

Marisa van Vuuren is a certified Sivananda Yoga Teacher trained in Vrindavan, India. Marisa teaches a vibrant blend of styles which includes relaxation, pranayama (breathing techniques), sun salutations and a dynamic flowing sequence of asanas (postures) bringing awareness into mind, body  and increasing your energy flow.

Come and experience the tranquility & serenity of Yoga on Zanzibar’s pristine white beaches, turquoise blue water, palm trees and breathtaking sunsets… taking the time and space to reconnect with your true self.
Sunset Yoga on Sandbank
Experience the bliss of doing yoga on a chall white sandbank surrounded by the blue ocean and its calm. This is a truly unique and unforgettable yoga experience where you will immerse yourself with nature’s energies. Sailing out on a dhow to the sandbank adds to the zen of Zanzibar’s yoga experience.
Come and revive your zest for life with us.

 

Private Yoga Tuition at your Hotel in Zanzibar
Enjoy the luxury and exclusivity of booking private or small group yoga classes whereever you are staying on the North and East coast of Zanzibar. A Yoga session of one and half hours consists of sun salutations, dynamic asana sequence, breathing techniques and meditation.
7 Days Yoga Retreat Holiday
The Yoga Retreat Holiday consists of morning and afternoon yoga classes daily. The duration of a Yoga session is an hour followed by breathing techniques (15minutes) and meditation (15min). It also includes a Yoga manual, which consists of yoga topics which are discussed during the sessions to deepen your understanding of yoga. You can also include Yoga Expressive Dancing, Reiki treatments and fire poi spinning workshops at the retreat.
Come and leave your yogi footprints on Zanzibar.

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Contact Us

TANZANIA OFFICE

TELEPHONE
Office: +255 739 909 000
Hotline: +255 787 252 678

EMAIL
info@lomotanzaniasafari.com
booking@lomotanzaniasafari.com

NETHERLAND OFFICE
Telephone: +31 (0) 180 234072
Email: marian@lomotanzaniasafari.com

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