Day 15: Arusha to Zanzibar

We were quite looking forward to a rest after the safari, but Wednesday morning was not going to be the day for a lie-in. A taxi was coming to pick us up from the hotel outside Arusha at 06.30 and drive us to Kilimanjaro Airport, from where we'd be catching our flight to Zanzibar.

The flight was at 09.50 so we ended up getting to the airport a bit earlier than we needed to, but it wasn't the end of the world. There was quite a performance at the airport because we had to go through security twice - once at the entrance to the airport and once before getting to the gate as normal - and security involved not just taking out all your electronics, but also removing your shoes.

We were flying with a local airline called Precision Air and I was relieved to see that the plane was a reasonable size.

We even got a complimentary snack of cashew nuts.

It was a pretty short flight - only an hour and 20 minutes - so before too long we saw the coast of Zanzibar coming into view.

I'd booked an airport transfer through our accommodation, so once we retrieved our luggage and passed through yet another security check, we stepped outside into arrivals and located a taxi driver holding a sign with my name. The island of Zanzibar is quite large, with the airport being on the west coast and the village of Paje where we were going to be staying on the east coast. It took over an hour to drive across the island to the hotel.

When we got there we were pleasantly surprised by how nice our room is.

We had our towels folded into the shape of a swan, which seemed very posh!

Our little cabin is right by the beach and we've got a fantastic view of the sea from the terrace outside.

We were pretty hungry by this point, so we had lunch in the hotel restaurant. I had a margherita pizza, while Tim had a chicken burger. Both were really lovely.

We followed it up with pudding. I had chocolate crepes...

...while Tim had chocolate peanut rolls. It sounds strange but they were essentially peanuts, wrapped in crepes, covered in chocolate sauce and cheese.