Zanzibar local services directory

1 listed

Art, craft and galleries

Galleries, working artists, woodcarvers and craft workshops. Tingatinga painting is the style you will see everywhere; buying from the painter…

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Family and children

Babysitters, nannies, day care centres and the things that actually work with small children. Most hotels can find a sitter,…

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Food experiences and private chefs

Cooking classes, private chefs, spice-farm lunches and food tours. A Swahili cooking lesson is the one souvenir you take home…

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Hair braiding and beauty

Braiding, nails and beauty. Braiding on the beach is common and usually cheaper than a salon, but a salon is…

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Laundry and practical help

Laundry, luggage storage, repairs, printing and the unglamorous things that go wrong mid-trip. Laundry is usually priced per kilo and…

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Massage and spa

Massage, spa treatments and bodywork. Hotel spas charge hotel prices; the independents a street back are often the same therapists.

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Music and entertainment

Live musicians, DJs, drummers, dancers and fire shows, for a party, a wedding or a dinner. Taarab and ngoma groups…

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Photographers

Photographers and videographers for beach shoots, couples, families and content. Most travel to you, and most charge by the session…

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Restaurants and beach clubs

Where to eat and drink, by area. Restaurants change hands faster than anything else on this list, so the checked…

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Weddings and special occasions

Planners, celebrants, decor, cake and flowers for weddings, vow renewals, proposals and birthdays. Legal marriage in Tanzania has paperwork; most…

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Yoga and wellness

Drop-in yoga, retreats, breathwork and sound healing. Most classes on the east coast run early morning and late afternoon, around…

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We fill these one at a time, and only with people we have used ourselves or had a guest come back happy from. That is slower than scraping a list off the internet, and it is the only reason this is worth reading.

Everyone listed here runs their own business; none of them is us, and you deal with them directly. We choose who goes in and we turn people down — that is the whole point of the list. Where a business has paid for placement it is labelled Sponsored and sits apart from the rest; nothing else moves anybody up the page. Prices are what the business told us, not a promise.