Zanzibar for Christmas

Marc Lurie wrote:
On 27 May 2006 02:55:40 -0700, wrote:

I've been thinking of going with a group of friends to Zanzibar for
Christmas.
Great idea. You'll have a ball.

Thank you for the encouragement!


From Cape Town there are two obvious routes. One is to take the train
to Durban, then drive up to Mozambique, through Malawi (maybe taking in
Lake Malawi on the way) to Tanzania and then by boat to Zanzibar.

If you take this route, then you MUST plan time in Malawi. Lake Malawi
is fantastic. Also, plan to spend some time in Mozambique as well.

My niece suggested that this is a good idea as she is very keen to go
there. My cousin's daughter had some of her honeymoon in Mozambique,
and I gathered that it was well worth while visiting too.

Are there particular places on Lake Malawi that you'd recommend?


The other is to take the train to Johannesburg, then overland to
Gaberone, up to Lusaka and then onto the Tanzam railway to Dar.

I think that I favour the latter. I enjoyed my trip the other way on
the Tanzam railway.

It would, of course, be possible to do both, one there, the other back.


Is there a better routing? I don't see any point in getting involved
with Zimbabwe and both routes cut that out.

On the World Atlas, it looks as if there is road all the way up the
coast to Dar from Durban - is the road passable? Do you need a four
wheel drive vehicle? Are there other railways that I've missed out?
Peter, there is a road all the way up fro Durban to Mozambique that
ends at Palma on the Tanzania border. It is possible to do this road
with a two wheel drive vehicle, but there are sections of the road
that will be difficult in the rain, and there are sections that are
pretty lousy. A 4 Wheel drive vehicle will be a better choice. (Diesel
is readilly available, petrol is available but not reliably so.)

The problem is crossing the river at Palma. There are rumours of a
ferry to Mtwara, but I can't confirm this. The more common route
through Mozambique is to head to Tete, and then into Malawi.

Thanks largely to the Rhodesian air force in the 70's, there is no
rail infrastructure in Mozambique.

*******s! That is a great pity - a pity too that there hasn't been any
re-building. Coastal railways are a particular delight to travel along
and they provide an excellent transfer of wealth to nice places to stop
along the way.

Is Zanzibar a good place for Christmas? Is there anywhere to avoid or
to stay that is particularly nice and/or cheap?

Zanzibar will be quite busy at that time of year. If you're looking
for empty beaches and solitude, Zanzibar is the wrong place to be :-)
For empty beaches you need to look at northern Mozambique.

We've got tons of fairly empty beaches in Cape Town (well, not on Bank
Holiday weekends), so we're not really looking for beaches at all. I'm
not, anyway! A quiet holiday with interesting places to see and good
food is more the objective.