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What do you picture when you think of Zanzibar? Some see white sand beaches, gorgeous restaurants, blue sea for days. Me, I see the Omani architecture of Stone Town, chaotic markets, winding streets and spices. In Tanzania, Zanzibar is fondly dubbed ‘Spice Island’, because they’re able to grow so many aromatic plants, herbs and spices there. It’s ironic actually, because they don’t find it easy to grow much else!
There are so many things to do in Zanzibar, but a spice tour is definitely not to be missed. The question is though: which is the best spice tour in Zanzibar?
There are a good few of them available, so it’s pretty tough to narrow down the options. Well, I’ve been to Zanzibar about 6 times now and I’ve tried a few different spice tours, some great some not so great. I have a favourite, but I think it works well for some visitors and less well for others. This post aims to break down what a spice tour is, which ones are worth trying and which one will be right for you. Let’s get into it!
✨Just want a quick answer? Here are my top picks:
The best value tour – Arnoldis Seafood (The Swahili Spice Experience) (best if you have a car or pick up costs extra)
Best tour for convenience – Babu Tours and Safaris (pick up included)
The best give-back experience with cooking class – Zanzibar Local Experience
Table of Contents
- What to expect on a spice tour
- My favourite spice tour in Zanzibar
- Alternative spice tours in Zanzibar
- How to choose the best spice tour in Zanzibar for you
- What to bring with you
- Top tips for your spice tour
- After your tour: what to do next
- Where to stay in Zanzibar
What to expect on a spice tour
A spice tour is generally really fun and interesting. Personally, I am a big plant nerd and love to see how things are grown, so I think I would enjoy this no matter what, but there is more to it than just looking at plants. Each time I’ve gone, I’ve been with people who aren’t as ‘planty’ and they’ve definitely enjoyed it too.
Of course, each tour is a little different, but the general outline is:
🚗 Pick up from your hotel (sometimes included, sometimes not)*
🚶🏽♀️ Walking tour of the spice farm: see, smell and taste some spices and see how they’re grown with a local guide
👌🏽 You may also have the opportunity to harvest some spices or taste some fruits, depending on the tour
🌴 A coconut tree climber then usually climbs a coconut tree in front of you to harvest some coconuts for you to eat. They generally sing while they do this and it’s a fun little moment.
🌸 They’ll often also make hats and jewellery from plants for you to wear
🥗 Local lunch is sometimes included
*Note: most spice farms in Zanzibar are in the centre of the island, away from Stone Town and the beach resorts, so if you don’t have a car, it’s important to choose one that includes hotel pick up and drop off.
There is also usually a chance to buy souvenirs, like spices or perfumes. As a small insider tip, I do usually find the spices on the farms much more expensive than those in the markets in Stone Town, so I don’t usually buy them here, however I love to support them by buying the home made perfume bottles. If you want to purchases the spices there though, it is a great way to support the farms further.
Is a spice tour worth it for you?
If you like to see a cultural side of the place you’re visiting, and enjoy informative tours, then I highly recommend a spice tour. It’s a really fun and different side of the island than a lot of tourists who just stick to the beaches see, and they can be really good value. The tours are also usually vegan-friendly – I’m vegan and I usually just let them know in advance, and they don’t struggle to make food for me. I am sure the same could be said for coeliacs, as most Swahili food is rice-based, but you’d likely need to explain exactly what you can and can’t eat.
In terms of who the tour would not suit, the tours I have done are not the most wheelchair-friendly, as the farms don’t usually have paved paths, so you’re walking over uneven ground most of the time. A lot of the tours also do request that pregnant people don’t take part, as some of the spices can be dangerous for them to ingest.
My favourite spice tour in Zanzibar
My favourite spice tour in Zanzibar is called the Swahili Spice Experience run by Arnoldi’s on the Cliff, which is a restaurant on the coast, and they take you to visit Hakuna Matata Spice Farm. The main reason I love it is that it is phenomenal value. For only £20 per person (about $25), they give you everything I described above and a really fancy lunch in a cliff view restaurant, which I really wasn’t expecting to be so good. It was like a spice farm tasting menu, and we all left feeling absolutely stuffed!
We also had a really great guide for this tour, called Neela. She was really knowledgeable, kind of sassy (which I love) and completely tailored the tour to what we wanted to do. She even asked us at the beginning how long we’d like the tour to be, which I really appreciate.
The only ‘downside’ in my opinion is that pick up and drop off is not included in the price of the tour (fair, because it’s a very low price anyway!), so you need to ask them to add this on, or else hire your own car or driver.
✨ You can check prices for The Swahili Spice Experience and book a slot here
What to expect
The tour starts at 10am, but they have a few other time slots you can choose from too. You need to arrange your own transportation as mentioned, and then you are assigned a guide at the farm. There are a few on site, so it may not be the same guide we had.
You first take a walk around the farm, find out more about the different spices and how they are used in cooking, traditional medicine, perfumery and beauty. You can also taste and smell some of the spices. They have things like vanilla, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg (which they also use as a perfume!) and ylang ylang, as well as some tropical fruits like pineapple.
During the tour, you’ll go by a small perfume stand, selling small bottles of homemade perfume for a reasonable price, and a shop full of spices, where you can buy souvenirs if you want to.
After the tour, you sit down to try some fruit, like pineapple, mango, papaya and banana, and then the coconut harvester climbs a palm tree (while singing!) and harvests coconuts for you to eat. They also create some impressive hats and jewellery for you to wear while you’re eating and drinking your coconuts!
A tip is a appreciated for the guides (though of course not mandatory) and after that you make your own way to Arnoldi’s Cliffside Restaurant. The road there is a little bumpy, so being a confident driver who can handle off-roading is recommended, or you can easily hire a driver in Zanzibar for a reasonable fee.
The meal is actually great. The restaurant is small and seating is outside, with cliffside views right next to a beautiful beach. You get a full three course meal, which looked small but had us all stuffed full by the end, and they explain how the spices have been used at each stage to create the experience. I honestly couldn’t believe this was all included for just £20, it was amazing value! You just need to pay for drinks.
The full tour lasts about 3-4 hours including lunch, depending how long you want the tour to be.
What’s included
Here’s the full list!
The spice farm tour (walking with a guide)
Fruit tasting
Coconut tasting with the tree climbing performance and singing
3 course lunch at Arnoldi’s restaurant with tea or coffee
Not included:
Transport to and from the farm (and from the farm to the restaurant)
Souvenir spices or perfumes
Tips
Why I love it (and potential caveats)
I was really impressed by this tour (and I think I was surprised by how impressed I was!). Here’s what I absolutely loved and some things to think about:
💰 This is easily the best value for money spice tour in Zanzibar. Overall it was very high quality and the price is the lowest I’ve seen. I was honestly expecting a ‘cheap’ experience to match the price but that wasn’t the case at all
🥘 The food was really tasty and the views at lunch were amazing. You also had full access to the beach below the restaurant, which would have been great for a walk after.
👌🏽 The quality of the spices (and perfumes) was great. We bought two little bottles of perfume and we use them at home – they’re also perfect hand baggage size!
🚶🏽♀️ Our guides were fantastic. Very knowledgeable, very enthusiastic and so flexible to what we needed.
Some things to be aware of:
🚗 You do ideally need to have your own transport (whether that’s a driver or your own car). It’s easy to hire and drive a car in Zanzibar (take a read of my full guide here), or you can ask the tour company to help you with a transfer when they contact you to confirm details, but it will likely be a little more expensive.
📍 The company told us some people struggle to find Arnoldi’s restaurant – we didn’t, it’s clearly marked on Google Maps, but it is worth being aware of.
✨ It’s best to be connected (or download Google Maps) – I use Holafly for unlimited data in Zanzibar and I really like them. You can get 5% off with code THATTRAVEL.
Alternative spice tours in Zanzibar
I love the Arnoldi’s tour, but I can see with the transport issue that it wouldn’t be for everyone, so here are two strong alternatives to compare, each with slightly different features.
1. Babu Tours & Safaris
This was the first spice tour I took in Zanzibar. It is a more basic tour than Arnoldi’s, but aims to make things as easy as possible for the tourists, as they include your pick up and drop off. It’s everything you would expect from a spice tour, with an emphasis on understanding more about the spices and how they are used.
Babu Tours run a really slick operation and everything tends to run very smoothly. They also run tours in lots of different languages, so it’s great if you don’t speak English or feel more comfortable in a different language. It doesn’t include lunch, but the price is still really reasonable considering that pick up and drop off is included.
Who this tour would best suit: those who just want the spice tour without any extra fluff, those who want the convenience of pick up and drop off
✨ Book Babu Tours Spice tour here!
2. Zanzibar Local Experience
What’s fantastic about the Zanzibar Local Experience spice tour is that it also includes a traditional cooking class, so you can use your spices in action! You also get to harvest some of the food yourself (we harvested cassava leaf) and make coconut milk, so you definitely feel like you’ve earned your food.
You eat the food right there on the farm, which makes the whole experience feel really personal and definitely adds another layer, plus the tour company make a contribution to the local community, so your visit gives back. I particularly love this tourism company, because they are small, locally run and genuinely trying to do some good with their tours, and that’s evident from the moment you meet the guide.
Who this tour would best suit: visitors who want to get a bit more out of their tour and give a little more back.
✨ Book Zanzibar Local Experience here!
How to choose the best spice tour in Zanzibar for you
There are a few things I would think about first when it comes to choosing the right spice tour for you:
💰 Budget
🚗 Transportation (whether you need it included or not)
🤔 The overall experience you want to have
🍌 How hungry you’ll be!
To break down the tours above, here’s an at-a-glance comparison:
The Swahili Spice Experience (by Arnoldi’s) – amazing value for money (especially with such a nice lunch included), but you need your own transport or to arrange it for an extra fee with them
Babu Tours and Safaris – a straightforward spice tour with no bells and whistles. Good value considering transfers are included, but no food included except fruit.
Zanzibar Local Experience – a really meaningful experience with the local community, plus a fun and interactive cooking class. Quite a bit more expensive than the other two.
All three experiences rate really well, but you can go more in depth on the reviews and see what others had to say on GetYourGuide. All three are private tours.
What to bring with you
You’ll be outside for a lot of your tour and Zanzibar can get very warm, so I would bring:
Sunglasses
Sun hat
Camera
Sunscreen
Cash (Tanzanian shillings) for tips and souvenirs
If you have dietary requirements, be sure to let them know in advance, especially if food is included
Top tips for your spice tour
💰 Bring a little bit of cash with you in case you want to buy souvenirs and for tips. Tips are appreciated but not mandatory, and guides will usually indicate when they expect you to give a tip. Of course you can refuse if you did not enjoy the tour
🌶 The farms are a nice place to buy souvenirs, however I will say that you can usually get them for a fraction of the price in the Darajani markets in Stone Town so you may wish to get them there instead. Buying them at the farms is still a nice way to support the guides and farm owners.
👟 Take sturdy walking boots, especially if it has rained, as the farms can get a bit muddy!
After your tour: what to do next
There are lots of things to do in Zanzibar!
If you have your own car, I would take the afternoon to head over to some of the island’s beaches, like Paje or Kendwa. Spend the day relaxing
Visit the Rock restaurant for dinner! It’s perfect at sunset.
Head back to Stone Town – there is LOADS to do there! Start with a stroll through the Darajani markets, a spiced coffee in Zanzibar Coffee House, see how many ornate doors you can spot and finish with some deilcious street food at the night markets.
Where to stay in Zanzibar
I really recommend to stay a few days in Stone Town. You can always go onto the beaches later, and it’s a great place to get your bearings (plus a good departure point for a lot of the spice tours). I recommend the Rumaisa Hotel (a nice locally-run hotel near the port), Al Johari Hotel and Spa (lovely mid-range local hotel in the medina), Shoki Shoki (a cute hostel in the city centre) or the beautiful Neela Boutique Hotel (a gorgeous luxury boutique in the city centre).
👉🏽 Or read my full guide on where to stay in Zanzibar here! It’s packed full of personally vetted recommendations and beautiful stays all over the island!
Check rates at my 4 favourite stays here:
✨ Rumaisa Hotel
✨ Al Johari Hotel and Spa
✨ Shoki Shoki Guest House
✨ Neela Boutique Hotel
I hope you love your spice tour, whichever one you choose – make sure to let me know how it goes in the comments below, and take a look at my other Tanzania and Zanzibar posts to help you plan your trip.
You might also find these articles helpful:
✨10 things to do in Stone Town
✨ Arusha city guide from an ex-local
✨ The best 2 week Tanzania itinerary plus Zanzibar (flight free!)
✨Where to stay in Zanzibar
✨Is Tanzania expensive? How to save money in Tanzania!
✨10 really amazing things to do in Tanzania
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Written by Emma
