Best Time To Visit Zanzibar

September is the best single month of the year. It is among the driest and it has the coolest nights, with minimums around twenty-one degrees.

October holds up too, staying dry while the heat starts building again ahead of the short rains.

November carries the short rains, and these are afternoon showers rather than lost days. The island is green and quiet.

The pricing does not follow the rain. November sells as low season and December as peak, even though December is only a little drier, which makes November much the better value of the two.

December to February is dry and the classic high season, with February the driest of the three and the hottest month of the year at about thirty-three degrees.

It is also the most humid stretch. For the same dry reliability four degrees cooler, June to September does the job at lower prices.

March gets filed under the long rains and does not deserve it. It carries less rain than November and only a little more than December, both of which sell as good months.

Early March is bookable. The gap between March and April inside that single labelled season is enormous, so the first half of the month is worth a look.

April is the wettest month of the year by a long way, taking something like a quarter of the annual rainfall in one month. May is second.

Switching along the coast will not help, because Mombasa has the same long rains. For fixed April or May dates, Thimphu is in its spring window and Hua Hin is still dry.

Sauti za Busara fills the Old Fort in Stone Town, and it has moved from February towards March in recent years, so confirm the dates for your year rather than assuming a month.

The Zanzibar International Film Festival runs in late June or early July, inside the prime dry window. Check the Ramadan dates as well, since they change restaurant and bar hours across Stone Town.