It was my first time visiting Zanzibar after I had heard so many recommendations from friends to visit this dreamy destination.
We flew from Düsseldorf to Zanzibar with Turkish Airlines and had a stop in Istanbul where we spend our layover time in the Turkish Airlines business class lounge which is one of my favorites in the world. Once you enter you don’t even know where to start. The two level lounge offers everything from most delicious, fresh food to sleeping rooms, massage beds, video games and a golf simulator and even a cinemas with popcorn of course 🙂
So time flies quick here and you can find a video of the lounge of one of my previous travels here.
So after our little Istanbul stop we rolled back on the plane where we had even more amazing food awaiting us on our super smooth flight to Zanzibar.
The first nights of our trip on the island we stayed at Tulia Zanzibar located in Pongwe, a small boutique hotel with 16 beautiful garden bungalows directly on the beach which is a little place of pure bliss and heaven. The property is beautifully designed and has won several garden awards already due to its tropical scenery. My highlight besides the crystal clear blue ocean were the two water slides at the pool that you can go down on floatys which are super fun.
Tulia Zanzibar is the perfect place to chill and work on your tan and I would recommend it to couples and families who like to have a private beach holiday in an upscale environment.
From Tulia we also went to the rock bar Zanzibar for sunset drinks which was one hour away by taxi. I had always seen the pictures of this little restaurant in the middle of the ocean where they take you with little boats and of course had to go when I finally was in Zanzibar but to be honest it was a bit disappointing as its quite a tourist place and nothing really special except its location, so when you´re close you might want to visit but otherwise its not really worth to drive all the way. If you go make sure to always negotiate the taxi price before with the driver 🙂
The last part of our Zanzibar trip we spent at Melia Zanzibar. We stayed in a bungalow on a rock with ocean view so it was nice to sit on the terrace watching the sunset. Melia Zanzibar is quite a big property with several restaurants to choose from, pool and private beach which is located 5 minutes away by shuttle tuk tuk. My favorite restaurant at Melia was actually their beach restaurant for lunch as we loved to hang out by the beach most of the day. Melia has several sports activities and night entertainment and is the right choice when you go with a group of friends or family and like to try something new every day.
Zanzibar surprised us with beautiful beaches and it was a super relaxing stay. To get in the local spirit and learn a bit of Zanzibars traditional culture its nice to spend a day in stone town also with all its little shops.
We combined our beachy Zanzibar trip with a safari in the Serengeti which I can only recommend as it was the perfect combination of relaxation and wildlife activity in one trip. You can read more about our safari and the probably coolest pool in entire Africa here.
xx
Mareen
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