6 Tourist Scams in Stone Town

Beach boys are young men who offer tours, boat trips, and restaurant recommendations on Zanzibar beaches.

Some are legitimate, but many earn commission by steering you to overpriced activities and restaurants. A snorkeling trip that costs $15 through your hotel becomes $40 through a beach boy. What starts as a friendly conversation becomes persistent harassment if you decline.

You arrive at Stone Town port to buy a ferry ticket to Dar es Salaam.

Before reaching the official Azam Marine counter, you pass through a gauntlet of unofficial booking offices that look official. They charge a markup of $10-20 per ticket, sometimes selling you a different class than promised.

You walk out of your hotel in Stone Town and within minutes a young man introduces himself as a ...

You walk out of your hotel in Stone Town and within minutes a young man introduces himself as a licensed spice tour guide. He says today is the last day of a special discount and the tour leaves in thirty minutes. He leads you to a minibus where you pay 40 dollars. The tour visits one spice farm briefly before spending three hours at souvenir shops where the guide earns commission. The actual spice content is minimal and the guide has no official license. Licensed operators charge 20 to 25 dollars and spend the full day visiting multiple farms.

You arrive at Zanzibar airport and a line of unofficial taxi drivers surrounds you.

One grabs your bag and starts walking toward his car. He quotes 50 dollars for the ride to Stone Town when the actual fare is 15 to 20 dollars. If you resist he becomes aggressive or claims the lower rate only applies to locals. Papasi (beach hustlers) operate similarly at the port, quoting tourists five to ten times the local rate for rides to beach destinations.

You book a sunset dhow cruise from a man at Forodhani Gardens for 15 dollars per person.

The wooden dhow has no life jackets, no radio, and the captain appears intoxicated. The boat takes on water during the cruise and other passengers begin bailing with a bucket. Unlicensed dhow operators undercut established companies on price but cut every safety corner. Several tourists have been injured in dhow accidents off Zanzibar.

You ask your hotel doorman to call you a taxi or van to the airport.

He says he 'knows a guy' and makes a call. The van that arrives charges triple the standard rate, and the doorman gets a cut. A Reddit user on r/tanzania documented this exactly: 'Thinking I'm sleek, I ask the doorman at the hotel to hail a van for me (huge mistake). He says he knows a guy, whips out his phone.' The doorman-driver partnership is pervasive in Stone Town, where staff at hotels and guesthouses supplement their income by funneling tourists to overcharging transport operators.