After our incredible experiences on safari in the Serengeti and visiting with mountain gorillas in Rwanda, it was awesome to have some days to sit on the beach and reflect on the amazing experiences we just had — and what better place to do that than Zanzibar?

Zanzibar is a traditional Swahili island with the language and culture felt everywhere. What was once almost fluent Swahili, barely came back to me while there, but the few words and sentences elicited smiles from drivers or those at our hotel.

We spent most of our time at a hotel in Nungwi, on the Northern tip of Zanzibar. We had heard about snorkeling trips, diving excursions and sunset boat cruises, but we were totally content lying in lounge chairs, reading books and staring at the ocean.

Our home base in Zanzibar

Our schedule each day was pretty consistent: morning gym time (when you travel for 9 weeks and there is a mini gym at your hotel, you take advantage of the opportunity to move!), daily coconuts with awesome fresh breakfast, lying in our lounge chairs reading, jumping into the ocean then pool for quick dip, walking along the beach to find lunch — then rinse and repeat (exchanging the word lunch for dinner and add in a sunset).

Pretty perfect.

We spent our last day in Stonetown and were lucky to get a last minute reservation at the #1 rated TripAdvisor restaurant in all of Zanzibar, called Emerson on Hurumzi (the Tea House Restaurant). Located high up on a rooftop in town, we sat on pillows on the floor while enjoying a 3 course traditional Swahili dinner and entertained with local music and singing. It was a beautiful place to watch the sunset and cap off an amazing three weeks in Africa.

It is hard to say goodbye to this portion of the trip but we’re on to our next adventure — South East Asia, here we come!