Introduction
The northern tip of Zanzibar holds Nungwi and Kendwa, the island's busiest beaches, and there is a physical reason they are the busiest: this is the one stretch of coast where deep water sits close inshore and the enormous Zanzibar tide does not strand swimmers twice a day.
Overview
Zanzibar's tidal range is dramatic, and on most of the island the sea withdraws several hundred metres at low water, leaving flats you can walk across. At the northern tip the seabed drops away quickly instead, which means you can swim at any hour — and that single fact explains why the resorts, the dive centres, the beach bars and the crowds all gathered here rather than somewhere equally pretty. Nungwi and Kendwa are the result: a dense strip of accommodation from backpacker to expensive, restaurants and bars along the sand, boat trips leaving all day and a sunset that faces west over open water, which no other main beach on the island does. It is lively and it is developed, and whether that reads as a virtue depends entirely on what you came for. Underneath the resort layer, Nungwi is still a working village and one of the last places on the coast where ocean-going dhows are built by hand on the beach. Offshore to the east lies the island's best diving and snorkelling around the Mnemba atoll, and the sea turtle sanctuary at Nungwi is a genuine conservation project rather than an attraction. Two or three nights is the usual stay; longer suits people who want the sea rather than the schedule.
Discover Zanzibar North
Zanzibar's tide does something that surprises first-time visitors: on the east and south coasts the water can retreat far enough that the sea is a distant line and the beach in front of your hotel becomes a wet plain of sand, seagrass and starfish for several hours. It comes back, and the flats are their own kind of beautiful, but swimming is intermittent and scheduled by the moon. The northern tip is built differently. The shelf drops off close to shore at Nungwi and Kendwa, so the water stays deep enough to swim in at any state of the tide, and Kendwa in particular has the most consistently swimmable sand on the island. Everything else about this coast follows from that — the concentration of hotels, the dive boats, the bar strip, the sheer number of people. It also faces west, which gives it the island's only true beach sunset over open ocean, and that has become an event in itself: boats out, music on, a crowd on the sand every evening. If you want to swim whenever you feel like it and be among people while doing it, come here. If either half of that sentence puts you off, the southern and eastern coasts are the other answer.
Ways to Experience This Destination
Deep water close inshore at Nungwi and Kendwa — the one part of the island where the tide never strands you.
Ocean-going hulls still built by hand on the sand at Nungwi, shaped by eye in one of the last places on the coast doing it.
The island's best diving and snorkelling — hard and soft coral, turtles, and dolphins on the boat ride out.
The only main beach facing west over open ocean, with a nightly crowd, boats out and bars along the sand.
Frequently asked questions
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