Beachlife @ Zanzibar

When I talked 🗣️ to other travellers about Zanzibar, everyone was recommending Paje on the east coast of Unguja (the main island, informally referred to as Zanzibar).
So, I decided to spend 2 nights there in the hostel “Your Zanzibar Place”. Like everywhere else on Africas east coast, it was very hot and humid. But a breeze 💨 here and there made the temperatures more or less bearable.
In addition, the cycles of low and high tide as well as the very shallow beaches resulted in the water being gone for most of the day. It was windy though which made the beach perfect for kite surfers 🏄 but not me. Getting a kind of refreshing bath in the (warm) sea was therefore only possible in the mornings, really. 😩
On my first evening in the hostel, I met Pedro (from Denmark) again who I still knew from Arusha. He came back from a full day trip with a scooter and was reporting about corrupt police men 👮🏿 who would ask him for bribes on 3 different occasions that day - unfortunately nothing unusual on Zanzibar. On the next morning, we met Gloria (from Kenya) at the breakfast 🥞 table. She was usually living and working in Nairobi but took the week off to spend her holidays in Paje. After breakfast, the three of us went to the beach 🏖️ and made the best of the ebbing tide. Unfortunately, both had to leave at lunchtime for their home countries that day. So, my encounter with them was only brief.
As I wrote in my last post, it is currently pretty quiet 🤫 on Zanzibar because of Ramadan as well as the start of the rainy season. Thus, there was not much else to do in Paje. I went a few times to the very cozy “Mr. Kawaha” restaurant / café ☕️ directly on the beach front to continue reading my book but I got bored pretty quickly and with all the circumstances (heat, humidity and missing ocean to cool off) I didn’t feel as if I wanted to spend more time in Paje. Sadly, I didn’t leave it with the feeling that it was such a great place. 😕
However, I treated myself to 3 nights in the “Natural Kendwa Villa” (3-star hotel) at Kendwa Beach. Kendwa is in the north of Zanzibar and on the western coast / opposite side to Paje. Therefore, it was not affected as much by low and high tide 🌊 It is the place with one of the nicest beaches on Zanzibar. And the 3-star hotel - though still expensive for low season (120 EUR / night) - was really cozy. It was exactly what I needed!
Although it rained every day for approximately 1-2 hours, the afternoons were usually very sunny. ☀️ That allowed me to chill and continue to read my book at the pool of the “Natural Kendwa Villa” as well as the private beach of the cooperating Kendwa Rocks Hotel (4-Star hotel). And when I went into the cool and crystal clear water on that beach, I knew that I had finally found it - the paradise 🏝️ everyone was referring to when thinking of Zanzibar.
The villa and the beach had restaurants / bars and I lifted my otherwise pretty rigid travel budget restrictions for those 3 days to be able to fully enjoy the time. So, an ice cream 🍦 , a fruit juice 🥤, a beer 🍺 or a cocktail 🍹 was never far away. On my last day in Kendwa, I even got a 1 hour long massage in the Spa of my hotel. It was really good and added nicely to the relaxation of the past few days. After all the hostels and budget accommodations of the past months, it was a welcome change to stay in such a nice place towards the end of my trip. 😌Read more