If you travel long enough, at some point you end up on a lousy tour…. Ours happened on Zanzibar. We booked a day tour that included a taxi to and guide for Stone Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The drive was long (an hour), the day was hot (34 degrees Centigrade), and our guide was bored…. He recited the pertinent details in a monotone and hustled us down the hot streets to the next highlight.
He steered us into a jewelry shop even after I told him I was NOT interested – the commission he would have gotten if I bought some tanzanite jewelry there was worth the risk of my annoyance.
There were hidden costs. We had to pay our own entry into The East African Slave Trade Exhibit (EASTE) . Which we went through by ourselves, because our guide decided he was going to hang out outside with the other bored guides. Uwe and I took our damned time going through the museum. We weren’t going to rush through at least that part of the history of Zanzibar.
Anyway. We could have taken a taxi from our hotel and used our guide book to see Stone Town. We’d have saved money and had more time and more fun.
But we’ve had such good luck all these years that one lousy tour won’t keep us from trying to see the sights the next time. Until then, here are some photos from the Stone Town Market Hall.
NOTES: PS: I did buy organic spices there! © Jadi Campbell 2026. All photos © Uwe Hartmann. To see more of Uwe’s pics from our trips go to viewpics.de.
I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. Recent awards include F
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