What does half board mean in Zanzibar?

Half board (HB). Breakfast and dinner. Lunch is yours. This is the most common arrangement on Zanzibar’s east coast, and for good reason — most people are out or on the beach at lunchtime and want to eat lightly, then want dinner to be simple. On the east and south-east coasts, where villages are quieter and options are fewer, half board is usually the right answer. On this coast almost every path ends on half board, which is why it is the default here and not on the north-west.

Planning the practical side

All-Inclusive, Half Board, or Bed and Breakfast: Eating Well in Zanzibar

Jambiani, Zanzibar · 7 min read

The board basis is usually the last box you tick when booking, and on Zanzibar it deserves to be one of the first. Get it wrong and you either eat the same buffet fourteen times or find yourself hungry in a village with two restaurants, one of which is closed.

A plate of cut tropical fruit set out on a made bed in one of the rooms.

The deciding factor is not price. It is how far you are from somewhere else to eat.

On the north-west coast, where restaurants sit within walking distance of each other, bed and breakfast gives you the most freedom. On the east and south-east coasts, where villages are quieter and options are fewer, half board is usually the right answer. All-inclusive makes sense when you genuinely intend not to leave the property.

What the terms actually mean here

Bed and breakfast (B&B). Room and breakfast. Every other meal is your own arrangement, at the hotel or elsewhere.

Half board (HB). Breakfast and dinner. Lunch is yours. This is the most common arrangement on Zanzibar’s east coast, and for good reason — most people are out or on the beach at lunchtime and want to eat lightly, then want dinner to be simple.

Full board (FB). All three meals, drinks usually excluded. Less common, and worth checking whether lunch is a fixed menu or an open one.

All-inclusive (AI). All meals plus drinks, generally including local-brand spirits, beer, wine and soft drinks. Imported brands are usually extra. Most all-inclusive properties on Zanzibar are on the north-west coast and in the larger size categories — see twelve rooms or two hundred for why those two things travel together.

One thing to check in every case: whether the restaurant is open to non-residents. A hotel restaurant that also serves outside guests generally has a better kitchen, because it has to compete. A restaurant serving only house guests can go either way — very good when the property is small and the chef is cooking a short menu, or very ordinary when it is a captive audience.

Why your coast decides this

This is the part most booking sites leave out.

Nungwi and Kendwa, north-west. Dozens of restaurants and beach bars within walking distance of each other. Here, B&B is genuinely liberating — you can eat somewhere different every evening without arranging transport. All-inclusive in this location means paying for freedom you then choose not to use.

Paje, east coast. A reasonable spread of casual places along the beach road, geared to the kitesurfing crowd. B&B or half board both work.

Jambiani and the quieter south-east. A village strung along several kilometres, with a handful of local restaurants and hotel kitchens. Options exist but they are spread out, some close in low season, and walking back along an unlit beach road after dinner is not everyone’s idea of an evening. Half board is the sensible default here.

Matemwe and the remoter stretches. Fewer options again. Half or full board.

Stone Town. Bed and breakfast, without hesitation. Eating out is the whole point, and the night market at Forodhani is one of the best things on the island.

The honest case for and against all-inclusive

For. It removes decisions, which on a honeymoon or after a long safari is worth more than people admit. You know the cost before you arrive. With children it is genuinely easier. And on the north-west coast, where the good all-inclusives are, the standard can be high.

Against. A kitchen serving four hundred people cannot cook to order, so the food is built to be inoffensive rather than memorable. You will also feel the pull not to leave — you have already paid for dinner, so eating in the village starts to feel like paying twice, and a fortnight goes by without you eating a meal Zanzibar actually cooks. That is a real loss on an island with this food.

Our own view, for what it is worth: all-inclusive works well for a first trip, for families, and for people who want to be looked after completely. For a second visit, or for anyone curious about the place, it costs more than it saves.

Working out what you need

Three questions, in this order. Follow them down and they end on a board basis.

How many evenings do you actually want to eat somewhere else?
1. None, or one or two
  
  Half board, or all-inclusive
2. Three or more
  1. How far is the nearest alternative, and is the walk lit?
    1. Walkable, and lit
      
      Bed and breakfast
    2. Twenty minutes along a dark beach road
      
      Half board
Are you travelling with children?
1. Yes, and fixed mealtimes are worth a lot
  
  Half board at minimum
2. Yes, and you want the day to run itself
  
  All-inclusive

The board basis in three questions. On this coast almost every path ends on half board, which is why it is the default here and not on the north-west.

A fourth, quieter question: do you want to eat Swahili food? Coconut, cardamom, tamarind, the daily catch, spices grown thirty kilometres away. Most large buffets serve an international menu with a Swahili corner. Small kitchens and village restaurants serve the actual thing. If that matters to you, weight your decision towards B&B or half board and eat out at least twice.

Two things worth knowing about eating here

Fish is a matter of timing, not of price. The boats come in during the morning, and kitchens that buy from them serve it that evening. This applies as much to a village restaurant as to a hotel, and it is why a modest place can serve better fish than an expensive one.

Ramadan changes the picture. During Ramadan many local restaurants close during daylight and some close entirely for the month. Hotel restaurants continue to serve guests as normal. If you are travelling then, half board removes the uncertainty. We have set out the dates in When to Visit Zanzibar, Month by Month.

Where we sit

Raffia is in Jambiani, so everything written above about the quieter south-east applies to us.

We are bed and breakfast. Breakfast is included in every rate and every room type, and you can eat on the property in the evening. It is a small kitchen and a small place — personal rather than elaborate, which is true of most things here.

There are village restaurants within reach and they are worth going to. There are not twenty of them, and that is worth knowing before you arrive rather than after.

If eating somewhere different every evening is part of the holiday for you, the north-west coast will suit you better than we will. If a quiet dinner and an early night sounds closer to the point of the trip, this is the coast built for it.

See our rooms

Choosing a coast first? Read Where to Stay in Zanzibar. Weighing hotel size? Twelve Rooms or Two Hundred. Planning the timing? When to Visit Zanzibar, Month by Month.