Sansibar Aromatic Spice Farms Tour

Our guide, Zamir from Madeira Travel and Tours of Zanzibar, took us to the Union Spice Farm which operates as part of a local village. The explanations of the spices and their growth stages and uses were very informative. Whilst we walked around the farm, Illi climbed trees to bring down samples and made us beautiful jewellery from the leaves and flowers, a very talented young man. As Australians, we could not take any spices home, but were shown the packaged soaps and perfumes that Australian customs will allow. There was no hard sell, which we really appreciated. Finally, Butterfly the showman performed a show demonstrating the benefits of coconuts and how to engage a multilingual audience.

Great visit with a francophone guide. It's a must-do. We learn how some of the spices we use every day are grown. We're discovering unknown fruits. Fruit and spice tasting at the end of the tour.

Yesterday with my girlfriend we went on the spice tour. Our very young guide, who spoke Italian, showed us around the plantations. Every time we were stopped at a plant, it made us smell the leaves from our hand to see if we understood what fruit plant or spice it was. Later he explained the plant which it was and there had been the fruit you could also taste. It was a nice nature tour, no mosquitoes and in the end you could even buy spices. Towards the end of the tour they took us to see the butterfly man climbing to the top of the coconut palms. Then they give you a coconut to drink and eat... delicious. here tipping is almost mandatory

On the whole, the day was a little disjointed with the initial van not being large enough for our party, so we had to wait for an additional van to get there. The spice farm tour itself with James as our guide, was very interesting. He and his "assistant" showed us numerous spices in their natural form, how they grow, how they harvest them and uses for different parts of the plants. The assistant(s) wove hats, ties and headbands from fronds and presented them to us and there was an opportunity at one point to buy soap, lotions or oils and at another point to buy the herbs and spices in different forms. Because of the way it was segmented, it seemed that was always someone that should get a tip, and cumulatively it added up to a high percentage of the tour cost. James and his portion of the tour was very well done and informative....balance of the tour was average

We visited the Spice farm in Zanzibar in February of 2019. It was a superb introduction to the many spices we use all the time. Who knew the size of a growing vanilla bean or how difficult it is to cultivate and how much manual labor is involved. we saw cloves on the tree, nutmeg, and cinnamon as bark. the guides were knowledgeable and easy to understand. One assistant was an expert weaver of palm leaves. I still have my tie.. this is a winning tour. I recommend it!!