Tangawizi Spice Farm — Local services in Unguja

One of the many Spice Farms around Stonetown. Entrance Fee was 10 Dollar per person. The place itself looks decent in my opinion. It is not a real farm but only for tourist information purposes (none of those farms are real farms, but that's ok). The guide was also friendly, talking good English. Negative points: There is a guy who climbs up a coconut tree and is singing (very loud) a song. That is so unneccessary and riciculous. During the tour I heard this guy over and over again (because he is singing for other visitors) and in my opinion it disturbs the tour. I would like to have a quiet and peaceful spice farm. There is also another guy who creates crowns, ties etc. out of banana leafs. This is also unnecessary tourist bs. At the end you get some different tea and fruits (just small pieces, but that's ok). Of course they want a tip for every single s*. Of course they do not get one since nobody of us asked them to do this (and it's included in the 10 dollar price). Sansibar people would really doing themself a favor if they would not expect a tip for every single s*. I mean I already paid 10 Dollar which is massive. Nevertheless you can give the guide a little tip at the end of the tour if you want. But please keep it in a reasonable range, otherwise they get further spoiled (and yes, 10k Shilling is way too much tip). During the tour at some stationary stores on the farm they try to sell you very much overpriced parfum, soup and spices. I politely declined and they accepted this without further asking and stopped the sales trial. Please never buy from them. It is a rip off. Buy spices somewhere else like in Stonetown market.

You can go to Tangawizi farm, it is one of the bigger ones, well organized. You can learn about different spices. But be aware of the negative points I stated in this review. They apply to (most probably) every other spice farm...

If you read the reviews you may think it's not worth going there because it's a tourist trap with tipping required for everything, not a real farm etc. - I was a bit worried about it too, but we enjoyed a tour very much.

Yes, it's not a real farm - but the point is more educational here - you can see the different types of fruits and spices, try to guess which one is which, learn quite a lot on how those are growing and what you can do with them - so if you treat it as an informative tour rather than 'how the real farm on Zanzibar is running' then the experience is better.

Yes, the tip is highly welcome, but to be honest, I actually felt like the guy earned it. Yeah, you are paying 10$/person at the entrance, but isn't that quite common everywhere to tip for the good service?

Yes, it's designed for tourist - you get fancy stuff made out of palm leafs, you get the show with the guy climbing the coconut tree, you are offered to buy some overpriced cosmetics - but it's all a part of the tour, so you can just enjoy it and say 'no' for anything that you are offered to buy and the guys here won't be mad - at least we didn't feel like they are pushing us to buy anything.

So, all in all -...

First of all, I'm not sure this is a working spice farm. It is certainly a tourist trap though. We were led through a small garden area with samples of various spice plants and trees. For the entire length of the tour we were told to "guess what this is" with no answer back from our guide when we gave up. It was interesting to see the various plants. But we really weren't given much information on them. Second, someone was assigned to make us crowns, rings, and bracelets--even though we told them we didn't want them. Like someone else mentioned, so touristy. Of course, this individual required a tip. The "Butterfly Man" climbed a coconut tree and sang from the top. Again, so touristy and again, he required a tip. There was a fruit tasting. Very nice but once again, the person cutting the fruit (same fruit at our hotel breakfast, by the way) required a tip. At least 2 other individuals "helped" with our tour. And, you guessed it, they needed a tip. We made the mistake of buying spices while we were there. Big mistake. The prices were much higher than they were in the Spice Market in Stone Town. Overall, a pretty awful...