Anyone have any recent experience in Zanzibar, need some help

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newgentry

Contributor
Messages
113
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Location
Virginia
# of dives
500 - 999
My youngest daughter is in Tanzania with the Peace Corps, my wife and I are going over there the last two weeks of June to see her, we have the standard touristy-safari things planned on the mainland, and our trip includes 3 nights on Zanzibar, we're staying at the Myblue Boutique Hotel, which is way up on the northern point of this island. My daughter and I are both divers, so I'm thinking about booking a trip for one day while we're there. But I can't tell how close the hotel is to the dive sites and/or the operators, and I really don't want to turn a two-tank dive into an all-day excursion while my wife is back at the resort (she doesn't dive). Can anyone assist? And any recommendations on operators would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!!
 
Your hotel is in Nungwi. There are several dive operators there and just south in Kendwa and there are a number of sites a very short zodiac away. I dove in Kendwa with ScubaDo and highly recommend them. Avoid Spanish Dancer, how they are still in business is beyond me. Scuba Do might pick you up. It's probably a 20 minute beach walk, but I don't recommend it as that strip of sand is a purse snatching area.
 
Your hotel is in Nungwi. There are several dive operators there and just south in Kendwa and there are a number of sites a very short zodiac away. I dove in Kendwa with ScubaDo and highly recommend them. Avoid Spanish Dancer, how they are still in business is beyond me. Scuba Do might pick you up. It's probably a 20 minute beach walk, but I don't recommend it as that strip of sand is a purse snatching area.

Not the best advertisement
 
Thanks to those who replied. I'm late giving a report on our dive experience, such as it is (we only dove one day). We would up going with Spanish Dancer as they were only a two minute walk away from our resort. I echo the comment about "purse snatching area," above, as even that short walk made us a tad nervous, there were some shifty-looking folks around that looked like they were sizing us up as possible marks. Spanish Dancer was fine, the people were nice and the equipment appeared to be in good shape and maintained well. Air gauges are in bars instead of psi, which took a few minutes to get used to. The only real issue that I had was that they packed a whole ton of divers into one boat, there was very little room to sit or move around. We dove two tanks on Mnemba Atoll, the first dive made me wonder why I was out there, really strange currents, crappy viz, and very little to see. Second was better than the first. I decided that I have been badly spoiled by doing the vast majority of my dives in Cozumel, Zanzibar isn't in the same league as what I've become accustomed to, although I also realize that two tanks on just one day may not be a fair representation of what's there. All in all, the experience was a 5 on a 10 scale, just kind of "meh," I guess. Your mileage may vary, of course.
 

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