A Guided Beach Tour - What's Out in the Water in Zanzibar?

While we were in Zanzibar, we (I) thought we'd be able to see plenty of colorful starfish right off the beach. Who needs a tour?! This was based on my 2016 experience in Kigomani, not far to the north of where we were staying in 2025 in Pwani Mchangani (yeah, try pronouncing those names!). Well either things have changed, or I was just fortunate 8 1/2 years ago. Relaxing in the 8" of water we had at mid-tide and trying to fend of beach boys "teaching" us the meaning of "hakuna matata", I saw a bunch of people walking out into the water at a specific area not far up the beach from our hotel. "Look! There must be starfish there! Stop relaxing, we're going for a walk in the hot sun. Let's go!"

So yes, they were looking for starfish, and about half the people had beach boys with them (AKA guides, some dressed as Maasai warriors which may or may not actually be Maasai). Ill prepared for the sun, we walked in the knee to butt-deep water, working out our legs and getting sunburned. Not a starfish one. We asked others we passed on their way in and nada. What a bust.

So when our new guide Abbass (My Zanzibar Tour Guide - An Honest Recommendation ) told us he lived in the area and knew where the starfish slept and we could see them near our hotel, we sure were dubious at best. We agreed to hire a guide and where do you think we met him at 6:15 AM? Sure enough, same spot. It's in front of LUX and Neptune hotels. It's pretty obvious as there's a sandbar that forms out into the water to give you a head start.

Pretty much right away our charismatic guide nicknamed Octopus (or Pulpo) walked up with a couple of weirdly cute sea hares (yeah, I had to look that up). I love them! I constantly felt badly about having these animals out of the water and although I kept asking him to put them back in, it was a losing battle. Then of course he scared them so they would release their ink. No guilt there.

Then we saw a gorgeous spotted moon crab, some brittle stars (hey, starfish!), a gazillion sea urchins (thank goodness we brought our reef shoes!), a giant cowrie shell (snail?), a small moray eel, a snowflake(?) eel, clown fish, hmm, what else? It really was interesting. Man, did we walk far! We made it all the way out to another sandbar and we seemed so close to the reef break that I did not even see from shore before. I tried to measure it in Google Maps and is it possible we walked almost half a mile out??

But alas, NO STARFISH. Abbass hung with us and led us around the area through the urchin gardens (yeah, I did get one through my foot, ouch - sorry urchin) while Pulpo wandered in a wide berth around us looking for stars. He finally yelled to Abbass that the tide was coming in and we should head back in. Yes - no argument here! I have been in places where the tide comes in quickly and had issue getting back in to shore in time!Honestly I think he was just setting us up. He met us part way and low and behold, he pulled 3 colorful red starfish out of his backpack. We joked that he had dead ones in there all along. LOL But nope, these poor guys were alive and out of the water for our enjoyment. I wish that were not the process but we had no idea that's what was going to happen. We got them back in the water, marveled at their beauty, took our photos, and headed back in. Now they're there for the next groups that come out. We also got to eat some of the seaweed / algae that's farmed there. It's strung from stick to stick under the water and is farmed when the tide goes out. It actually tasted good. It's used in so many products and is shipped to be used by companies around the world.

The beaches are strange in most parts of Zanzibar. The tides go out so far, that the beaches are not really swimmable. But they are interesting and it's a different world when the tide goes out. For a normal turquoise beach you can soak in, go to Kendwa or take a tour out to Mnemba.

How much did it cost?

At the end, he just let us pay what we thought it was worth. Well that's a bit loaded. I gave him 50,000 TZS (what I thought at the time was about $25 US) and our guide asked me to give him another 10,000 so of course I did. I have no idea what's normal but he would not have asked me to give more if I had not given him enough already (I don't think!). We were out there for maybe 2 hours for about $25+. Honestly that seemed high to me to go by foot but whatever. Maybe I'm not accustomed to current Zanzibar prices AND we are staying at a nice resort so he may be treating us like rich tourists rather than my typical budget self. ;)

Do You Need a Guide?

I can say without hesitation that we would not have seen any single one of the animals we saw, other than the multitude of sea urchins, without our guide Octopus.