Zanzibar where to stay for snorkeling Z or Hideaway Hotel ?

Hello Magda

Both hotels are at the same beach note that, but you can hire a boat to Mnemba Island where is beautiful coral reefs for colourful fishes, and amazing marine life. The boat cost $30 per person and they pick up you from the hotel to Mnemba Island. But the Nungwi beach where both hotels allocated the beach is white sand the best one on island where also you can swim and do shorter snorkelling along it. Have you checked with Essque Zalu Hotel?.

Thank you for the information, for sure at these two hotels is any reef or no ?

or at the hotel Essque Zalu Zanzibar is safe and better reef approx. 1 m depth then close to Hideaway Hotel ?

Magda

You the thing is there is white sand on the beach and shores so that you should swim for some metres far from the shores in order to explore the reefs, but Essque Zalu Zanzibar the do have jetty which you can snorkelling from that jet direct into the water and easy to access. I can send you the contact if you wish of the person who we used previous on that area and i think he might help you to choose right place as you wish.

I just returned from a trip to Zanzibar with my husband and our 3 girls - age 5, 8 and 11.
We didn't go to Nungwi, so I know nothing of this area... But we did snorkel 5 times...
1 time from Jambiani - most for sailing in the local boat - it was nice, but not that much to see. The sea is so beautifull there though..
2 time from Dongwe - it was really nice. The corals were nice and also quite a lot of fish... But when the tide started to come back it got unclear.. The lower part of the arra was still clear, but you had to be carefull not hitting something..
We also went to look at all the big starfish nearby..
At low tide you could walk around and see lots of small corals and fish just of the beach.. But lots of sea urchins..
3 time beside "prison island" My husband liked this place the most.. But I thought that it was either really deep water or very low - was afraid to hit one of the sea urchins!
4 (and 5) time we went to the Mnemba area and snorkeled 2 places. The first place was out on open sea - my 8 year old got very fast cold and afterwards seasick from sitting in the boat.. Sailing to the second place (just east of the island - very close to the beach) we saw dolphins. The snorkling there was very nice.. The sea was more quite there. The water was very deep there too (high tide), but the wather was so clear and there were lots of fish and also some corals (but most of the corals were dead)
We went there (the place just beside the island) again two days later.. But it rained a bit and the sky was completely grey - it was to cold for the girls to swim.. They only looked at the fish from the boat. My husband and I snorklede, but the visibility was not very good.. And sailing there and back was a bit rough and scary in the not so good weather... (It was a very small boat) - The first time it was fine...
We stayed just north of Matemwe and it took about 30 min. .. We didn't like the beach there much..

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