Our Stone Town counter is in Zanzibar Town itself, close to the old quarter and its hotels. Most people spend a day or two in the lanes on foot, then pick up the car for the coast road north, where the palace ruins at Maruhubi and Mtoni are 15 minutes away and the Kidichi baths and Mangapwani caves about half an hour. The airport is 7 km south when it's time to fly home.
Our Stone Town counter is in Zanzibar Town itself, close to the old quarter and its hotels. Most people spend a day or two in the lanes on foot, then pick up the car for the coast road north, where the palace ruins at Maruhubi and Mtoni are 15 minutes away and the Kidichi baths and Mangapwani caves about half an hour. The airport is 7 km south when it's time to fly home.
Pay for the days you drive
Stone Town is best on foot, and most old-town hotels have nowhere to park. Start the rental the morning you check out, and you pay only for the days the car is actually on the road.
Car hire in Zanzibar Town itself
If you've already spent a few days in town, there's no need to go back out to the airport for a car. The counter is here in Zanzibar Town, a short walk from the old quarter.
The sultans' coast on your doorstep
Maruhubi, Mtoni and the baths at Kidichi are 10 to 25 minutes up the west coast. With your own car they make an easy half-day. By taxi you'd be haggling over three separate fares.
Return at the port for your ferry
If you're carrying on to Dar es Salaam or Pemba by boat, choose Zanzibar Port as the return counter and drop the car off just before check-in, a few minutes' drive from the old town.
Unlimited mileage
There's no charge per kilometre at this counter, so a day in town costs the same as a day spent driving up to Mangapwani and Fuji Beach and back.
Everything here is inside the old town or a short boat ride off its beach, so leave the car parked until you head up the coast.
The town's main market, on the eastern edge of the old quarter: halls of fish and meat, mounds of fruit, and stalls selling cloves, cardamom and cinnamon by weight. Go early, when the fish comes in and the lanes are still cool.
The sultans' seafront palace is now a museum of the royal family, with a room on Princess Salme, who eloped to Germany in 1866. A few lanes away on Kenyatta Road, the house where Freddie Mercury's family lived holds a museum of his life, opened in 2019.
Boats leave from the beach in front of Stone Town for the island's giant Aldabra tortoises, its never-used colonial prison and a small snorkelling reef. Agree the boat price, and whether the island's entry fee is included, before you board.
Wooden sailing dhows take passengers out from the beach below the old town in the late afternoon and come back once the sun has gone down behind the mainland. Prices vary a lot from one boat to the next, so settle it on the sand, along with how long you'll be out.
The sultans built their country palaces and baths along the west coast north of town, and none of them is more than 35 minutes from the counter.
10–15 min
Up the coast road, the ruins of Maruhubi, built in 1882 for Sultan Barghash and his harem, stand among palms near the shore. Mtoni, 1.6 km further north, was built for Sultan Said from 1828 and is the oldest palace of its kind on the island; a fire left it in ruins in 1914.
about 25 min
Inland among the clove plantations, Sultan Said built a bathhouse in 1850 for his Persian wife, Scheherezade. Persian craftsmen carved birds and flowers into the stucco of the domed rooms, and the bathing pool is still there. It is usually visited on a spice tour.
about 35 min
Twenty kilometres north, a long stone stair leads down into a natural coral cavern with a freshwater pool. Beside it is the chamber where enslaved people were held around 1880, years after the trade was banned in 1873. A quiet beach lies below both.
20–30 min
The nearest proper swimming beach north of town, reached by a dirt track from the middle of Bububu village, 10 km up the coast. You'll share it with fishermen and local families rather than hotel guests, so bring water and something for shade.
Keep out of the old quarter
Most of Stone Town's lanes are too narrow for a car, and some end in steps. Keep to the roads around it – Creek Road, Mizingani Road along the harbour and Kenyatta Road – and walk in from there.
Ask your hotel about Stone Town parking
Few old-town hotels have parking of their own. Ask yours where guests leave cars overnight before you collect, or simply pick the car up on the morning you check out.
Leave before the market rush
Traffic around Darajani Market and Creek Road slows from mid-morning, with dala-dala minibuses stopping in the lane. Set off early and you are clear of town in ten minutes.
Fuel up on the way out
The roads leaving Zanzibar Town have the island's widest choice of petrol stations. Fill the tank as you leave rather than on the coast, where stations are few and far between, and keep Tanzanian shillings for the pump.
Scooters on both sides
In town, motorbikes and bicycles pass on either side and pedestrians step out between parked cars. Drive at walking pace near the markets and fold the mirrors in when you park on a narrow street.
Returning before a flight
Return the car in Stone Town and the airport is a 20-minute taxi ride, longer in the evening traffic. Returning at the airport counter instead saves the taxi and the time.
Yes. The partner at the Stone Town counter asks for a Visa or Mastercard credit card at pick-up, and the balance can be paid by card or in cash. If you only have a debit card, look at Zanzibar Airport, where some cars take a refundable deposit on a debit card.
In Zanzibar Town, by the old quarter. Your voucher names the exact meeting point, the address and the time, and My Reservation shows the same details, so check it the evening before you collect.
Yes. Choose Zanzibar Port as the return counter when you search; the price on each car already includes it. The terminal is a short drive from the old town, so drop the car about an hour before sailing and walk in to check in.
One or two days is enough for the old quarter, the Palace Museum and a boat to Prison Island, and none of that needs a car. Most people start the rental on the morning they leave for the coast.
Not inside the old quarter, where most lanes are too narrow to drive. There is street parking on the roads around it, and some hotels arrange a space nearby. Ask your hotel before you arrive, and never leave the car blocking a lane.
Between 21 and 75, for every car at this counter. Bring your national licence: visiting drivers also need a temporary Zanzibar driving permit, which the partner normally arranges at pick-up for a fee.
Basic Insurance or Full Insurance. Full lowers the excess you would pay after damage. The exact excess for each option is shown on every car before you book, so compare them there rather than at the desk.
Yes, easily. Maruhubi and Mtoni are 10–15 minutes up the coast road, the Kidichi baths about 25 minutes inland and Mangapwani about 35 minutes north. Together they make a comfortable half-day, and if you leave after breakfast you're back in town for lunch.
Stone Town, Zanzibar Town
Book in minutes, see the insurance options and excess on each car before you choose, and collect it in town on the morning you set off.
