Zanzibar: Kizimkazi’s dolphins and fishermen

At the southern tip of Zanzibar Island, Kizimkazi is a sleepy fishermen village in the south of the island and the best place on Unguja to spot and swim with the dolphins. Visitors from all over Zanzibar come here to take a boat ride across the clear blue waters of Menai Bay Conservation Area to see the dolphins.

If what you’re looking for your expedition in Africa is something wild, adventurous and true the village of Kizimkazi is what you are going to expect from Zanzibar.

A long beach with fishermen‘ boat and nets, ready to sail the Indian Ocean to the old challenge of fishing, will welcome you and there will always be a place on their boat if you want to go to spot the dolphins with them.

The small village of Kizimkazi has ones of the largest baobab tree on the island, the oldest mosque and a beautiful coastline with great rocks still totally wild in some points.
The Kizimkazi Mosque is believed to be the oldest Islamic building on the East African coast, constructed in the 12th century by settlers from Shiraz, under the order of Sheikh Said bin Omar and rebuilt in the 18th century. It has been extensively restored and even if appears relatively modern on the outside, on the inside there are inscriptions in Kufic and Arabic dating to 1107 and 1770.

Riding a bicycle along the roads around this village will bring you back in the past, where modern brick houses leave space to limestone and coral rocks, and the humans just live in peace with the nature around.

Close to Menai Bay Conservation Area, that with its 470 square meters, it is Zanzibar‘s largest marine protected area with extensive coral reefs, tropical fish, sea grass, and mangroves, makes Kizimkazi one of places in Zanzibar with the highest possibility to spot the dolphins. There is a chance to see the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins or the bottlenose dolphins.

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The Nature here is the Master! Beautiful flowers on the side of the roads will immerse you in an unique atmosphere. The sunset in Kizimkazi is breathtaking.

Walk along the beach and just breath it!

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Kizimkazi is for sure more than a fishermen village and a dolphins spot; is one of the last villages where the human been is still living in symbiosys with the Nature. Usually tourists just come for a quick boat ride just for the dolphins, but we advice to stay a couple of days to better live inside the all-day-life of this paradise.