The spice tour – what to expect from Zanzibar’s classic tour

If you travel to Zanzibar Island, you are bound to go on a spice tour. And you should look forward to it! You will learn where the spices come from that you use so naturally when preparing your everyday meal at home.

There are many tour operators on the island and it’s easy to find a guide who will introduce you to the aromatic world of spices for about 15 USD. The reception in your hotel is a good place to start when looking for an operator.

That’s exactly what we did, starting our tour in our hotel in Stone Town. We were picked up in a minibus, before fetching the other guests at their respective hotels. We left Stone Town, making our one-hour trip to our destination, the spice plantation. We continued on foot through the plantation, which had been designed and grown specifically for the purpose of guided tours for travellers. On working plantations, you would normally only see one single sort of plant.

Walking along small paths, seemingly plain plants turned out to be lemon grass, vanilla, cardamom, and co. Our guide explained how the plant grows and what we use it for. You get the chance to not only smell but taste a small sample of the plant. You can keep the samples for later and carry them in a small bowl made of palm leaves. We also tried fruits directly from the tree, which at home in Europe we only know from the supermarket. Star fruits not only have a great name, they also taste great!

After this two-hour tour, we could not only buy the spices we had just seen but also oils and perfumes which were made of the spices on-site. For lunch, we cosied up on the floor, enjoying spiced rice, chapati, spiced bread, spinach and coconut sauce – so delicious!

After experiencing so many new sensations for nose and pallet, we enjoyed the fresh wind on our next stop by the beach, before we visited a former slave cave.

This way, the tour combined culinary, relaxation and history.

For small money, you dive deep into Zanzibar’s culture on this half-day trip.

Our advice: a spice tour on Zanzibar is a must-do!

Author: Webmaster

Through his work on the websites and with the offered tours, our webmaster is learning more and more about eastern Africa. Thereupon, he has been on safari in Kenya and Tanzania repeatedly, climbed the peak of Mt Kilimanjaro and third-highest peak of Mt Kenya and visited the sandy beaches by the Indian Ocean. He also lived and worked in Tanzania. Not only does he know HTML, he speaks German, English, is almost fluent in Kiswahili and have basic knowledge of Zulu. Feedback about the website is welcomed by the webmaster.