Zanzibar Prison Island

The highlight was seeing the giant tortoises at Prison Island. They are brilliant and you can get up really close to them.

The Prison Island is pretty and the boat trip is pleasant as you get nice views of the islands and Stone Town.

However the old prison which now operates as a cafe was not as interesting as I'd hoped - apart from a few boards which explains how the structure was used there is not much else to see here.

Because of high winds, we were unable to go on our planned day and didn't want to waste another day in Stone Town just to visit Prison Island.

Was it worth it to miss another day lounging on the beach in the north to visit this island? Yes! We were SO utterly surprised at how wonderful this island was!

We had an elderly local fisherman take us out for the day, for a snorkel and tour of the island.

The snorkeling was pleasant but highlighted by the abundance of starfish to the right side of the beach.

We saw literally hundreds of starfish ranging in every color of the rainbow. Truly breathtaking.

Then we carried on to the turtle sanctuary, seeing MASSIVE turtles ranging in ages from a few weeks to 150 years old!!!!

They were gentle and sweet and you can pet them and feed them lettuce pieces from the ground. Seeing these turtles is only possible in the Seychelles islands, Galápagos island, and Zanzibar!

It's an experience that you won't forget, I promise!Beyond that we visited the "prision" which was never really used for a prision but actually as a quarantine center.

The decayed beauty of it's brightly painted walls and vine covered patios is great for photographs and we spent more than one hour sitting on it's back patio overlooking the sea and taking in the calm.

In the end, we were beyond happy that we stayed one extra night in our mosquito ridden hotel in Stone Town to visit this gem!

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