Brett and Bernii

We spent four days in Madrid for some much needed R&R (full-time travel can be tiring 🫩) and CVT (cerveza, vino and tapas 🥳). Our hotel was Diezmadrid Hostal (AU$210.80 per night) which was perfectly located directly across the road from Matador, a great little tapas bar which we frequented daily.

After sufficient rest, we flew from Madrid to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Our flight was an overnight flight via Dubai with Emirates Airlines, and we arrived in Dar es Salaam at 1:55PM. After passing through immigration, we caught a taxi to our hotel – the Four Points by Sheraton (AU$227.21 per night). We had a few beers by the pool and went to dinner at the Bandari Grill restaurant at the hotel. The Nyama Choma was delicious.

The following morning, we checked out of the hotel and walked a short distance to the ferry terminal. We caught the 12:30PM ferry with Azam Marine to Stone Town, Zanzibar. The ferry took a little over two hours. On arrival to Zanzibar, we walked to the Tembo House Hotel where we checked in to one of their B&B Apartments for the night (AU$121.71 per night).

We then headed to Livingstone’s Beach Restaurant where we sat with our feet in the sand and enjoyed the live music and some more drinks. We shared an octopus curry which was very tasty.

After the first night we changed rooms to stay at the Tembo House Hotel (instead of the nearby apartment) where we spent 3 more nights (AU$197.78 per night), enjoying the hotel pool, getting lost in the maze of alleyways in Stone Town, and relaxing beside the beach at Travellers Café.

On our wedding anniversary we had lunch at Cape Town Seafood Restaurant overlooking the ocean. The grilled prawns and the mango and octopus salad were fantastic. We returned there again on our last day in Zanzibar.

After our stay in Stone Town, we caught a taxi to the northern tip of Zanzibar to the beachside village of Nungwi. We stayed at the Zanzicrown Hotel (AU$128.80 per night) for three nights. During the day we walked along the beach, frequently getting accosted by local touts trying unsuccessfully to sell us day tours and island trips, and occasionally also drugs. We ate at various beachside restaurants. The afternoons would get very hot so we would return to the room for a siesta before heading out again to watch the sunset and enjoy some drinks. Kajibange Bar was one of our favourites and their seafood was really nice (and cheap).

We returned to Stone Town where we stayed one more night at the Tembo House Apartments before another long travel day. We had breakfast and checked out of the hotel before making our way to the ferry terminal and catching the ferry back to Dar es Salaam and getting a taxi to the airport. We checked in for our flight with Oman Air and flew overnight via Muscat to our next new country – India.