Zanzibar's southeast coast, especially around Michamvi and up toward Matemwe–Mnemba Island, is one of the best places in the world for snorkelling and diving, for first-time snorkellers and experienced divers alike.
What's in the Water
Snorkelling and diving here means a real chance of seeing:
- Dolphins, especially near Kizimkazi
- Green sea turtles and hawksbill turtles
- Reef sharks, stingrays, and occasionally whale sharks (seasonal)
- Colorful coral reefs, sponges, sea fans and other marine invertebrates
- A wide variety of tropical fish
Near Matlai
From the beach at Matlai, you'll find calm, shallow water good for spotting colorful starfish on the sandy bottom, parrotfish, clownfish and butterflyfish weaving through coral, and octopuses, moray eels and sea urchins among the rocks. Your butler can help arrange:
- Dolphin-watching near Kizimkazi — see below for how we recommend doing it, and why
- Snorkelling at Blue Lagoon or Starfish Beach with a local boat
- A ngalawa sailing trip to Chwaka Bay for sunset over the water
A Responsible Approach to Marine Tourism
Zanzibar's coral reefs and marine life support tourism, fishing and local livelihoods, which makes looking after them everyone's problem, including visitors'. We'd rather you avoid unlicensed beach vendors who ignore basic guidelines — lifting starfish out of the water for photos, or walking on reef at low tide — and choose an operator who respects the ocean instead.
Local reef-restoration and sustainable-fishing initiatives, working with communities and tour operators, are part of what keeps this coastline worth visiting. Choosing a responsible operator is a small decision that adds up.
Mnemba is the site everyone names — and it is under pressure
Mnemba Atoll is the prestige snorkel and dive site of the north-east, and it deserves the reputation. It is also busy: many boats work the same water, the island itself is private, and the reef has taken both coral bleaching and physical damage from anchors and nets. A restoration project has been running on roughly four hectares of it since October 2024 and is scheduled to continue to September 2027, aiming for around a ten per cent increase in living coral cover.
None of that means don't go. It means go knowing what you are looking at, choose an operator who moors rather than drops anchor on coral, and keep fins off the reef. A snorkeller who touches nothing costs the reef nothing.
The dolphin trip: not recommended as it is usually sold
Kizimkazi's dolphin trip is the most-booked marine excursion on the island, and the way it is normally sold is the problem, not the animals. Boats leave mid-morning, arrive together, and a dozen hulls end up circling the same pod. Two species use that water — Tursiops aduncus and Stenella longirostris — and the research is consistent that this kind of traffic disrupts the hours they use to rest.
So we don't put it on a list of things to do. We also don't refuse it. If you genuinely want to go, we will arrange it the only way it is worth doing: leaving around 05:00 so the boat is at Kizimkazi before the fleet, with a captain who keeps his distance and does not chase. Get there early and you may have them almost to yourself, which is a completely different morning. Arrive at the same time as everyone else and it is loud, crowded and not worth the alarm clock.
Be honest with yourself about the odds too: seeing them is roughly fifty-fifty. They are wild animals with somewhere to be. You need an early start, a good captain and a lucky day — and anyone selling you a guarantee has none of those three to offer.
The starfish rule, and why our rooms have a card about it
Every room has a card asking guests not to lift starfish out of the water. It is not decoration: taking a starfish out of the sea to photograph it kills it. They breathe through the water passing over them, and a few minutes in the air and sun is usually enough. Put your mask in the water instead — Starfish Beach is more impressive from above the surface than in someone's hand. Our staff and guests also run a beach clean programme, which is the least interesting sentence in this article and probably the most useful one.
Timing beats gear
Two local trips are worth planning around the tide rather than the clock. Blue Lagoon is about twenty minutes out by local boat and is best in the morning, before the afternoon wind gets into the surface. Starfish Beach is about ten to fifteen minutes north and is best as the tide is going out: lower water means undisturbed sand, better visibility, and starfish sitting shallow enough to see clearly. On a rising tide with any chop, the sand lifts and you will see far less.
Season matters less here than people expect. The dry months of May to October bring the calmest seas and the clearest water, but the local reefs off the east coast are snorkellable year-round — which is the advantage of a fringing reef and a lagoon that keeps its water.