Full Review: Coffee, Ceremony, Organic Lunch & Mnemba Snorkeling

If you’re thinking of signing up for a full-day tour in Zanzibar that crams in a load of very different experiences, so like a coffee ceremony, an fancy lunch situation with totally organic food, and snorkeling around Mnemba Atoll, that you might be interested in reading this review first. What I’m saying is, it looks great on paper, sure, but very is it actually worth the money and your time? Well, let’s have a good look!

The Allure of a Packed Itinerary, more or less.

The thing that makes this sort of trip so, too appealing is almost that it promises a whole bunch of different things in a single day. You get a real sense of the local culture with the coffee part, so then there’s the promise of amazingly yummy, wholesome food, and yet you cap it all off with what’s arguably Zanzibar’s top-notch snorkeling spot: Mnemba Atoll. Is that what everyone’s selling, basically: a highlight reel of Zanzibar in just one day, is that it? What I mean to say is, it can seem pretty ideal, if you want a taster of it all.

When you’ve only got a limited number of days in a place, there is that temptation to squeeze in as much as is physically possible. This very is where tours like this one are so, too tempting: they’re very almost claiming to give you it all. Now, whether or not they really deliver on that, really, well, that is another question, isn’t it?

Coffee Ceremony: Aromatic Start, you know?

The very coffee bit typically starts early. What they normally do is whisk you off to a local village, somewhere you can watch the traditional preparation of Zanzibar coffee. This typically includes roasting the beans over an open fire, grinding them by hand with something like a mortar and pestle situation, and brewing it all in a traditional pot. Very honestly, the smell alone is great!

The taste? Is that like…well, that depends! Usually, it’s very is strong, and rich, with a hint of smokiness because they roasted those beans on an open fire. Now, how interesting you find this just very depends on how interested you are in coffee. Are you a real coffee fanatic? Is that so? Well, then you’ll probably very like seeing this age-old technique, right? Are you not really a big coffee drinker? Then you could still find it mildly interesting from that sort of “cultural experience” kind of angle, is that it?

Organic Lunch Break: Farm-to-Table Freshness

Next up, many is the fancy, so to speak “organic” lunch. And really, you do start to think, “hang on a second, did they use that word too liberally?”, so to speak, or very they actually telling the truth? Anyway, normally these trips involve eating at a local farm or some kind of garden restaurant type of place. That means, in theory, that the food that you get served is like unbelievably fresh, locally sourced and full of tasty flavor, is that what’s going on?

You could expect things like freshly picked fruit, local spices, rice, grilled fish, maybe even some sort of Swahili curry situation. If you’re that kind of foodie that thinks about what’s in every ingredient and where things come from, you can really very enjoy that aspect of things. Now, it might not necessarily be a Michelin-star thing going on, very is it? Is that more a home-cooked, comforting kind of experience that is what you’d call pretty cool?

Mnemba Atoll Snorkeling: Underwater Paradise, is that correct?

Right, so onto the bit most people are there for: snorkeling at Mnemba Atoll. As snorkeling spots around Zanzibar go, they’re some of the best you’re going to find, very are they, in fact! So, really is this a little circular reef island, off the northeast coast, totally bursting with ocean wildlife of all shapes and sizes. What happens typically is you grab your snorkeling stuff and you hop onto a boat before it heads on over.

And that’s where you find totally clear water with so many shades of blue and green, and you start to see coral gardens and brightly colored fish, do you see it? In the right weather conditions you should have decent visibility of all these super beautiful things. You might even get to see turtles or dolphins. That’s where these snorkel spots offer something genuinely quite amazing.

Potential Downsides and Things to Bear in Mind

It’s so true, while it does sound very, very cool, a crammed itinerary could well mean that you’re spending the entire day rushed off your feet, you know? Each of the locations ends up getting less of your time and attention.

Also, Mnemba Atoll has the very great possibility of getting crowded, particularly in high season. Now, combine that fact with lots of tours turning up at the same time and suddenly you aren’t getting that totally tranquil ocean experience you’re kind of imagining, very is it?

It’s also important to very, very think about how much travel is involved. A lot of Zanzibar’s roads may not always be fantastic. Could be that zipping from a coffee place to the farms and gardens and on to Mnemba could just mean very, very spending large chunks of your day crammed in some kind of mini-van type arrangement. No one really loves doing that, do they?

Is This Tour For You, in fact?

So you need to think hard if this particular tour is exactly what you really want. Like are you one of those travelers who just hates spending too long in any one single spot? So then maybe a quick taster of several Zanzibar highlights could work, yet?

Would you class yourself as something of a relaxed traveler, basically someone who gets greater pleasure from sitting still in one location, or taking your time soaking everything in? In this instance you’d be happier doing one thing, and doing it well. Really is that you saying to yourself, that it just isn’t necessary to cram everything in?

Last thing you must ask yourself is: “What am I looking for, is that it?”. Do you want lots of variety? Are you super interested in loads of stuff? And do you get very bored when things stand very still? Well this trip may very much be up your street.

Basically the thing is, there are no simple and fast answers. Ultimately what tour you are keen to go on must be directly connected with what is important to *you*!