New Year's Eve on the east coast does not look like New Year's Eve anywhere else. It is 30 °C at midnight, the sea is warm, and the whole thing happens outdoors on sand. This is how the night runs here, so you know what you would be booking.
The evening, in order
It starts early and slowly, with live music in the garden while the light goes — a guitarist and a singer rather than a sound system. Zanzibar is a Muslim island and this is a quiet coast; nothing about the evening is loud until the drums start.
Dinner is a multi-course barbecue at Zatiny: seafood landed locally that day, cooked over charcoal, served by the butlers rather than laid out on a buffet. With six rooms, dinner is a table of people who have mostly met each other during the week, which is a particular kind of New Year and not for everyone.
After dinner everyone moves down to the beach, where a bonfire is lit. Local acrobats perform around it — and at some point one of the head butlers joins in, which is not on any programme and is usually the part guests describe afterwards. Then drumming, dancing around the fire, sparkling wine, and the countdown under a sky with no light pollution in it.
What happens after the guests go to bed
The staff hold their own party once the last guest has gone up. It is a tradition here, it coincides with one of the chefs' birthdays every year, and it goes on considerably longer than the official celebration. Breakfast the next morning is, understandably, a relaxed affair.
If you are thinking about coming for New Year
- Book early. Six rooms across two villas is the entire capacity, and the festive period fills further ahead than any other time of year.
- Expect warmth, not fireworks. Late December sits in Kaskazi: around 32 °C by day, sea at about 28.5 °C, and short showers that pass. Rain in the afternoon does not threaten the evening.
- Come for several days, not the night. The 31st is the centrepiece, but the days around it — quiet beach, low tides, no crowds — are the reason to be here.
- Tell us if you are celebrating something else too. Anniversaries and proposals cluster around New Year, and a fortnight's notice buys something better than a decorated table.
For what the weather actually does across the year, see the best time to visit Zanzibar.
