Unguja rewards travellers who walk. Stone Town's coral-stone lanes, its 1699 fort courtyard and its sunset terraces cost nothing, dala dalas cross the island for under 2,000 TZS, and a loaded local plate rarely tops 6,000 TZS.
Zanzibar's oldest standing building, raised by Omani Arabs in 1699 over a Portuguese chapel. The coral-stone courtyard, sunken amphitheatre and craft stalls are free to walk 09:00–22:00 daily; only the evening shows charge.
A triangular junction deep in Mkunazini where Stone Town men argue politics over thimble cups of black coffee poured from a brass pot. Kahawa costs 200–500 TZS; the plastic stools and the wall-mounted football TV cost nothing.
Built 1887–1894 by Indian merchant Tharia Topan as a charitable hospital, this is Stone Town's most ornate facade — green fretwork balconies, coral columns and stained glass. The restored ground-floor courtyard is open free on weekdays.
The former English Club of 1888, whose second-floor terrace is the classic Stone Town sunset perch over the Indian Ocean. Walking in and taking a seat costs nothing; a Kilimanjaro beer or fresh passion juice runs 6,000–9,000 TZS.
Zanzibar's main covered bazaar since 1904, loudest between 07:00 and 11:00. Entry is free; a kilo of mangoes goes for 2,000–3,000 TZS, a bundle of cinnamon bark for 1,000 TZS, and the fish hall auctions the night's catch by shouted bid.
A cafeteria where Zanzibari civil servants queue with steel trays. Point at pilau, biryani, octopus curry, cassava and spinach; a loaded plate with fresh juice lands at 4,000–8,000 TZS. Open roughly 07:00 to 22:00 every day.
The island's largest market, 5 km southeast of Stone Town and almost entirely free of tourists. Secondhand mitumba clothes from 2,000 TZS, kangas, hardware, spices and produce sprawl over several blocks either side of the main road.
A no-frills institution near the Malindi ferry port, in business for decades. Plates of pilau, chips mayai or grilled fish with rice run 3,000–6,000 TZS, and a bowl of tangy urojo soup costs less. Plastic chairs spill onto the pavement.
The only national park on Unguja, 35 km southeast of town, home to the endemic Zanzibar red colobus monkey. Entry with a compulsory guide covers the forest loop and the mahogany boardwalk that runs out over the tidal mangroves.
A four-kilometre strip of white sand on the southeast coast where the tide retreats almost a kilometre twice a day, exposing the seaweed plots worked by women in kangas. Free to walk, and beach shacks sell chapati and chai for coins.
The Rock Restaurant perches on a coral outcrop offshore and charges a fortune to eat there — but at low tide you can walk out barefoot across the sand flats to its base and photograph it from Pingwe beach for nothing at all.
The one stretch of Zanzibar's east coast that faces west, at the tip of the Michamvi peninsula looking over Chwaka Bay. Fishermen drag their dhows up the shallows as the sun drops behind the mangroves; the sand and the show are free.