My Zanzibar Tour Guide - An Honest Recommendation

Why Choose Abbass to be Your Guide or Driver?

Some Guides are Out for the Hustle

In my short experience, there seem to be a lot of people acting as guides in Zanzibar from certified guides, to beach boys at varying levels of trustworthiness. All out for the tourist dollar (or shilling). You have to barter and be on your toes! You are likely being squeezed for money at every turn and quite frankly it doesn't feel good.

Abbass has Good Rates, Good Service and is a Good Man

I barely even had to bargain and he gave me fair pricing right away and there was no hidden agenda. He's working hard for his family and wants the business. Why not give it to him!? He's genuine, kind, and funny. And that was even during Ramadan when his eating and sleeping schedule was a MESS! I'm not saying there aren't other honest people out there. Of course there are. But here you go. I'm handing one of them to you right here. :)

He will pick you up promptly to the minute. He gives you a QR code so you can use Wi-Fi in the van. He checks with you to make sure everything is okay. He's not like this long-time seasoned veteran that has his schtick down pat. He's a guy who's working hard to do well and succeed. He's young (mid-20s?) and doesn't have the best marketing or English but it's good enough and I'm sure will only get better with time. He's responsive at almost all hours via WhatsApp.

I mean, look, I'm writing an entire page just for him on my travel site! I care that much about his success. His sweet and thoughtful demeanor won us over.

Tours and Services Offered

From my understanding, he not only drives the van himself, but has a network of connections and can arrange anything from boat tours to land safaris! Anything you want in order to customize your unforgettable visit to Zanzibar.

• Taxi, Transfer, Transportation Services
• Big 5 Safari Tours, private or shared (Mikumi, Tarangire, Ngorongoro, Manyara or Selous)
• Zanzibar Excursions such as:
    • Jozani Forest
    • Butterfly Centre
    • Starfish
    • Spice Tour
    • Stone Town
    • Mnemba Snorkeling and Dolphins
    • Nakupenda (sandbar)
    • Prison Island (giant tortoises)
    • Sea Turtle Aquarium
    • many other options, just ask

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Here's his video that he sent me, with a cover photo I created.

How We Met

We weren't initially planning on going on tours while we were in Zanzibar, but when we realized that our beach area wasn't going to supply enough of what we wanted, and much to my dismay LOL we immediately realized that my current travel mate was NOT going to be riding in any daladalas (local transportation), we had a change of plans.

We had a bit of a travel-weary need-to-get-something-different-going late night scramble to arrange a driver for the next day. I made a post in Zanzibar travel group that I knew to have guides relentlessly posting their services regardless of the poster's actual question, so I knew I'd get a response.

In short, my quotes looking for a driver to take us to Kendwa beach, Jozani park, and to see the starfish by Michamvi varied greatly, including people misquoting us the entry fees to Jozani and the Butterfly Centre, telling us we could only take a boat even at low tide at Michamvi, and selling us a Mnemba tour to see the starfish just to try to get more money out of us.

Only one guy, Abbass Thabit, gave us exactly what we wanted (although he did start with a higher price initially but came down immediately when I did not answer his text right away). Not only did he give us a good price for transport service only (where we could pay our own entry fees, which is what I asked for), but he also told us that he lives in the area and we could see the starfish out in front of our own hotel instead of trying to sell us an expensive tour! Okay, I'm sold on this guy.

I will say that in hindsight, we may have preferred it and seen more starfish at Michamvi, but we really didn't have the time or energy for that anyway so the point is that Abbass did not try to upsell us and was quite happy that he was going to help us see them so close to home.

Our Adventures / Tours

Day 1: Jozani Park & Butterfly Centre

He picked us up PROMPTLY to the minute at our hotel. Gave us a QR code to scan to have Wi-Fi in the van. His English is okay, not perfect, but he is friendly and funny and checks in to make sure everything is okay. Oh, he did get pulled over by the tourist police (all vans were) and had to pay 5,000 TZS ($2) for a tourist permit sort of thing but he did not ask us to pay for it.

We drove to Jozani Park where, even though I planned on purchasing the tickets myself, he walked me up to the window and helped me through the process. Nothing shady, he was just being super helpful. He walked us to our park guide, then met us to drive us to the mangrove (it's part of the tour) and kept an eye out for us when we got out of the park.

He went with us to the Butterfly park and I saw him taking photos; i think he was enjoying it, too. We were hot and tired but we had fun having him teach us some words in Swahili and learning about Ramadan on the way back to the hotel.

I'm hesitant to put the price because that will vary by season, number of people, your bargain skills, etc. ;) We paid $45 plus tip, plus the standard park entry fees of $12 each for Jozani and $8 each for the Butterfly Centre.

Day 2: Kendwa Beach

We enjoyed Abbass so much, we booked him again for the next day. We decided to go to Kendwa Beach. We let him run the plan. He picked us up at 2pm, learned a couple of new Swahili words along the way, and he walked us to where we could rent a shaded beach bed. He was so tired from fasting during Ramadan so he went and rested while we enjoyed the beach.

Then as sunset came, he fetched us. We sat on the beach while he cut a bunch of tropical fruit he had bought for us. So nice! We enjoyed fresh passion fruit, coconut, purple-skinned avocado, papaya, mango. The poor guy was still fasting so it was difficult eating in front of him (during Ramadan it's considered disrespectful to eat in public), but the countdown to sunset (when he could break his fast) had begun!

Day 3: Starfish

We started off at 6:30am while the tide was down. We met up with Pulplo/Octopus who was to be our guide. He immediately started showing us all sorts of interesting creatures we never would have seen otherwise! I felt uneasy about taking them out of the water though and was constantly asking him to put them back in the sea. We walked SO far from shore in the (mostly) shallow water and eventually saw a few starfish.

Transfer to Stone Town

Once again, to-the-minute prompt pick up later in the day to take us to our new hotel (by his friend-like-brother who lives in Stonetown because he was busy that morning; it's nice that he has a network when he needs it) and a nice drive to Stone Town.

Day 4: Airport Transfer

Abbass contacted us in Stone Town to make sure we arrived at our hotel okay, then later asked if we needed help arranging an airport transfer for the next day which, yes, we did. What a thoughtful person! He even surprised us and drove all the way south to see us off!