Tanzania is a fantastic beach destination. Whether you’re after a post-safari seaside break or a full beach holiday, the possibilities are endless. Most visitors opt for Zanzibar Island, which is encircled by idyllic beach resorts
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catering to all tastes and budgets. Alternatively, the relatively undeveloped islands of Pemba or Mafia both combine unspoiled beaches with superb snorkeling and diving. And then there’s the underpublicized mainland coastline, whose 800km/500mi of Indian Ocean frontage is dotted with historic ports and beautiful beaches.
Zanzibar is probably Africa’s most alluring beach destination. Situated off mainland Tanzania, this legendary Indian Ocean island is lined with gorgeous palm-fringed beaches. These include trendy Nungwi and Kendwa, kitesurf-friendly Paje and Kiwengwa, village-like Jambiani andRead more Bwejuu, and the more pristine likes of Fumba and Mnemba. Whichever beach you choose, you can expect a warm Zanzibari welcome and a great choice of resorts and restaurants.Part of Zanzibar’s appeal is that it offers so much more than just a standard beach holiday. Yes, it’s a great spot for swimming and sunbathing, but the surrounding reefs also offer fabulous snorkeling and diving, while day excursions include monkey trekking in tropical forests, spice tours to plantations and boat trips to see marine wildlife. An urban highlight is the Stone Town, with its wealth of old architectural gems and rich cultural heritage.
Beaches
There are dozens, and they’re all idyllic
Crowds
Mostly busy but seldom crowded
Eating
Most beaches are lined with restaurants and bars
Sleeping
From boutique and package hotels to basic guesthouses
The former capital Dar es Salaam is Tanzania’s largest city. It hosts the country’s busiest international airport and forms an important gateway to the popular likes of Zanzibar and Nyerere National Park (formerly Selous Game Reserve).Read more But this characterful Indian Ocean harbor city – founded by the sultan of Zanzibar in the 1860s – also doubles as a pleasant and oddly neglected beach destination.Lively Coco Beach, close to the city center, is lined with no-frills local bars and restaurants, while amenities at the Msasani Peninsula are slicker and more upmarket. The most popular resort beaches near Dar es Salaam are Mbezi, Kunduchi and Kipepeo, where you’ll find an excellent choice of hotels, restaurants and bars. To get away from it all, make a day trip to the pristine islands of Bongoyo or Mbudya, both of which lie within a marine reserve.
Beaches
Most beaches have a suburban feel
Crowds
Can be busy at weekends
Eating
The city has a cosmopolitan restaurant scene
Sleeping
All the options you’d expect of a large city
Activities
Swimming; boat trips; snorkeling; nightlife; dining out
Yes, Zanzibar is the bucket lister with the Instagram-friendly name and greater choice of beaches. But if you’re looking to get away from things, more southerly Mafia Island makes for an alluring off-the-beaten-track alternative. What touristRead more development exists on this lush green island is focused almost entirely on Utende, a sleepy fishing village that sprawls across the southern end of Chole Bay. The beach here is shallow, well sheltered and uncrowded, making it ideal for sunbathing and swimming. It also offers good snorkeling in suitable conditions.Utende is a great base for excursions on and around the Mafia Archipelago. These include snorkeling and diving on the magnificent coral reefs protected within Mafia Island Marine Park, ocean safaris to look for and other marine wildlife, and visits to the impressive medieval ruins at Kua. These outings are often combined with beach barbecues on nearby islets and sandbars.
Bagamoyo is a port of significance. For much of the 19th century, it was the mainland terminus of the slave caravan route between Lake Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Later, in 1888, it became the first headquarters ofRead more German East Africa. It is also a stunningly beautiful beach destination, fringed by a long stretch of palm-lined white sand that runs north from the Kaole Ruins to the estuary of the Ruvu River. You could swim almost anywhere here, although the beach in front of the old town is less suitable than more outlying resort areas.Bagamoyo is rich in local history. The medieval Kaole Ruins incorporate two mosques and a cemetery with four tall pillar tombs. The Holy Ghost Mission, where the explorer body was temporarily interred after his death in 1873, houses an excellent local history museum. Guided walking tours lead past many other buildings that hark back to Bagamoyo’s 19th-century heyday.
Underrated beach destination on the southern coast
By rights, Kilwa Masoko should be one of Tanzania’s top holiday destinations. This laid-back port town, 320km/200mi south of Dar es Salaam, lies on a stretch of coast whose postcard-perfect beaches offer access to impressive coralRead more reefs and landmark historic sites. And yet despite all it offers, Kilwa still languishes in relative obscurity, and tourist development amounts to a handful of underused beach hotels.Most of Kilwa Masoko’s hotels are centrally located on 1.6km-/1mi-long Jimbizi Beach. A couple more stand on the seemingly endless sweep of white sand that stretches north of town. Farther afield, a short ride takes you to Kilwa Kisiwani, a small island graced with the ruins of what the 14th-century Moroccan adventurer Ibn Battuta called ‘one of the most beautiful and well-constructed cities in the world’. Other attractions include snorkeling, diving and the sleepy 19th-century port of Kilwa Kivinje.
Beaches
There’s a small urban beach and a longer one stretching north
Pemba is gorgeous. The second-largest island in the Zanzibar Archipelago, it is lined with some incredible near-deserted beaches, most notably Makangale and Vumawimbi on opposite sides of the Ngezi Peninsula. Here, you can enjoy swimming inRead more warm reef-protected shallows or take long beach walks to the Ras Kigomasha Lighthouse on the island’s northernmost tip. Other attractive beaches farther south include Wambaa, Chokocho and the islets of Shamiani and Misali.Beaches aside, the deep reefs off Pemba offer some of the best diving in East Africa, while shallower coral gardens offer superb snorkeling. It is worth taking a guided walk into the Ngezi-Vumawimbi Forest Reserve, where you might see monkeys, the outsized and all four bird species (Pemba scops owl, Pemba green pigeon, Pemba sunbird and Pemba white-eye). Best of all, Pemba remains very uncrowded, with just a handful of rustic boutique resorts scattered along its beaches.
Beaches
Long idyllic stretches of near-deserted white sand
Crowds
Very quiet
Eating
The only restaurants are generally at hotels
Sleeping
Upmarket boutique resorts; some mid-range options
Activities
Diving; snorkeling; swimming; forest and beach walks
There’s nowhere else quite like Saadani National Park. This is the only part of East Africa’s Indian Ocean coastline where the likes of elephant, buffalo, lion and leopard still roam free. And because Saadani is aRead more national park, its beautiful beaches possess a wild and pristine feel, their authenticity enhanced by the occasional passing or fisher. Visitor numbers are very low, and beach swimming at the park’s handful of lodges is considered safe, because wildlife doesn’t eat sand or drink salt water. here tend to be hit-and-miss, but you stand a good chance of seeing elephant, giraffe, buffalo, , and a variety of antelope. Other attractions include river boat trips, where you might spot , and . You might also see and other wading birds on the , and – less reliably – on nighttime beach visits during the nesting season.
Size
± 30km/19mi long
The Beach
Beautiful sandy beach fringed by coastal scrub
Crowds
Very quiet, with long empty stretches
Eating
One public restaurant at the park-run complex
Sleeping
A handful of upmarket beach lodges and camps
Activities
Swimming; ; boat trips; guided walks; biking
Access
Flights available; 4 hours’ drive from Dar es Salaam
Pangani feels ancient. Actually, it is ancient. Something of a backwater today, this timeworn port on the Pangani River mouth dates back at least a thousand years. What’s more, because the river rises on theRead more slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro, many scholars believe Pangani is the same place as Rhapta. An Indian Ocean trading port, Rhapta was described by the 2nd-century Greek geographer Ptolemy as being 25 days’ trek downriver from a snow-covered mountain.Pangani lies at the southern end of a long empty beach lined with low cliffs and a handful of unpretentious palm-shaded resorts. You could spend days walking, swimming and sunbathing in this idyllic spot, but it also makes a great base for excursions. The Pangani Coast Cultural Tourism Programme runs walking tours that take in several key historical sites, as well as boat trips up the forest-lined Pangani River and snorkeling outings to the reefs near Maziwe and Fungu Islands.
Size
± 20km/12mi long
The Beach
Low cliffs, swaying palms and a seemingly endless beach
Named after the coconut palms (‘mikinda’ in the language) that flourish in the area, Mikindani is yet another of those small Tanzanian ports that combine a rich history with a beautiful seaside location. This nowRead more obscure town hit its stride in the 19th century, when it was a major exporter of rubber. Explorer , who spent a fortnight there in 1866, described it as the ‘finest port on the coast’.Timeworn buildings dating back to that distant heyday include the Old Boma, which was built by German colonists in 1895 and is now a charming boutique hotel. There are some beautiful beaches in the immediate area, but the most popular local attraction is the Mnazi Bay-Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park. Here, you can chill out on the staggeringly beautiful 15km-/9mi-long Msimbati Beach, and snorkel or dive on some of the region’s best-preserved coral reefs.
Idyllic but little-known north-coast beach retreat
No list of this sort would be complete without a best-kept secret. And when it comes to beaches in Tanzania, Ushongo is exactly that. Situated about 12km/7mi south of Pangani, this traditional village boasts oneRead more of Tanzania’s most perfect swimming beaches – one whose unusually steep incline means you can wade in at shoulder height in all tidal conditions.Ushongo is not a party beach. Interwoven with coconut palm plantations, the village retains a blissfully remote and off-grid feel thanks to its isolated location. The unbridged Pangani River lies to the north of Ushongo, while to the south are the wilds of Saadani National Park. Despite this, there are a few superb boutique resorts here, and a varied range of activities includes diving or snorkeling in Maziwe Marine Reserve and sea kayaking in the .
