People tell you not to come to Zanzibar between March and May and then never explain what that actually means, so here is what this month has looked like. It does not rain all day. It comes down hard for an hour or two, usually mid afternoon, and then it stops and the sun is back and the sand is dry by evening. What matters is what the rain does to the water. Off Kendwa last week the visibility was about five metres one day and closer to thirty the next, and there is no way of knowing which of those you have booked. The other half of it is that a lot of the north coast simply closes. Some places shut for the whole of April. What stays open is quiet in a way nobody arriving in August will ever see, and the prices follow. Our half day boat with the snorkel stop and lunch came to about 55 dollars a head. Come in August and you will not see that number. If the water is the reason you are coming, June onwards. For an empty beach and a book, May is fine and I would do it again. Where people come unstuck is building a whole week around what they expect to see underwater.
