Prison Island Exploration: A Journey to Nakupenda Beach and Historic Stone Town Tour

Embark on a private guided full day tour to Prison Island and Nakupenda Beach. Explore historical buildings, play with giant tortoises, snorkel at a pristine sandbank, and enjoy a buffet lunch. Then, escape to Stone Town for a city tour, visiting markets, historical sites, and museums.

Duration: 8 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Prison Island - Changuu Private Island - Visit: Prison Island - Changuu Private Island.
    Explore the natural beauty of Prison Island on this full-day tour, which includes snorkeling among pristine corals. Accompanied by a guide, visit the viewpoint at the historical Prison Buildings and a long jetty with peacocks. Observe giant tortoises basking on…
What's Included
  • Private transportation
  • Lunch
  • All Fees and Taxes
  • Use of snorkeling equipment
What's Not Included
  • Alcoholic beverages
Additional Information

This exclusive, guided full-day tour can start anytime between 9:00 AM and 5:30 PM. Meet the skilled guide and boatman as you board a steam-engine wooden boat. Travel to the renowned island and enjoy the 30-minute trip. Learn about the island’s history and explore its historical buildings, which have served various roles over the years, including as a…

Location
Prison Island - Changuu Private Island
Off the Coast From Stone Town, Shangani
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.5
(52 Ratings)
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1 star
Lora_g
Feb 9, 2026
Fascinating city and tour ! - Amina was a lovely guide! She was very knowledgeable about the history of Zanzibar. Stone Town was not itself as impressive to us as the history behind it. Prison Island and the beach cookout were also perfect. A great way to experience Zanzibar!
Review provided by Viator
Marijana_m
Nov 21, 2025
Great tour! - A great experience on Prison island, Nakupenda Beach and Stone Town. The sandbar is breathtaking, just beautiful in the middle of the ocean. The turtles were ao big and we took many photos. The Hasan is very nice and has told us many stories in Stone Town and speaks super German. A big thank you.
Review provided by Viator
Marcis_g
Oct 19, 2025
Relaxed and fantastic family day trip - It was a perfect day trip for a family. Lots of stunning views, great guide, and a relaxed trip with no rush and time to explore on our own. Seafood lunch was perfect with fries, calamari, kingfish, prawns, octopus, shrimps, lobster and fruits. Loved the swim and lunch at sand island and second part of trip to prison island and stone town. Driver did a good job on picking us up from Mora hotel and brought us back before the sun down. Overall great value for the price!
Review provided by Viator
Agnieszka_r
Oct 12, 2025
An amazing experience... - An amazing experience with a great guide Amina which gave all the meaningful insights to the historical and cultural aspects of Zanzibar, Stone Town and Prison Island. It was a trully amazing experience!
Review provided by Viator
Emilie_l
Sep 4, 2025
Unmissable activity! - Superb day spent with our guide who spoke perfect French and our driver! Visiting the Prison Island and its giant turtles was our favorite. After a seafood barbecue on the Nakupenda sandbar, we reached Stone Town where our guide explained to us with great detail & anecdotes the history of slavery in Zanzibar. Really unmissable activity!
Review provided by Viator
Francesco_b
Aug 22, 2025
Great tour! - Recommended tour: I visited many interesting places in one day with a good sea food lunch at the beach. Special thanks to the guide Amina and the driver Simba!
Review provided by Viator
Gary_m
Jan 24, 2026
Disappointing...what more can I say! - Mango Travel tour rep not very engaging, asked us what we wanted to know rather than 'selling' us the tour. Stone Town disappointing as all historic attractions allegedly closed for renovations ...so saw very little of what we expected to see. The boat rides were a bit like a fair ground rollercoaster...and without life jackets!...but the food and the visit to Nakupenda sandbank was a positive memorable experience
Review provided by Viator
Helen_s
Aug 16, 2025
Don’t bother! - A long day of not very much! Too long looking at doors in Stone island. Very commercial on beach. Poor boat. Prison island very tired and disappointing. Nice guide and taxi driver but tour too long and poor
Review provided by Viator
Turduck
Oct 25, 2025
Most Awful Experience - Pictures say one thousand words... We were so looking forward to our tour experience with Mango Tours. However, it was worse than what any paying customer should have to endure. ASIDE from the fact that the boat engine broke down leaving from Prison Island to Nakupenda Sand Bar, and a 10 minute trip took almost 90 minutes to reach the sand bar...hakuna matata at least we made it. Then they started setting up the lunch tent...and when we saw the disrepair of their tent and the table we were supposed to enjoy lunch on came, which appeared came from a local junkyard, we respectfully told our guide we wanted to return back immediately as we did not trust the quality of the food we were going to be served. Look at the pics...I'm sure any paying customer would agree. However, they ignored our wishes and kept setting up the tent and lighting the charcoals as if we were going to stay and eat under the shambles of their setup. Now we know this is Africa, but every other tent set up around us was beautiful. We looked like we payed for the no cost tour. But it was over $250!!!! They insisted on continuing setting up until we start enchanting no no no -- take us back. And all during this time they were laughing like little children. THEN they insisted on taking us back on the broken boat 😬🤐😠😧. We said absolutely no, and a fellow boat operator offered to lend them the boat to bring is back to Stone Town...and it took less than 10 minutes to arrive back!! When we departed the boat, we told our guide Amina that we cannot continue the tour as she completely disrespected us...and without apologizing, she just walked away, no apology. We ended up enjoying a wonderful lunch at Cape Town Fish Market at 3 pm, the same time our tour was supposed to continue until 5 pm. We enjoyed the rest of our day exploring safe Stone Town alone, and found out own transportation back to our hotel. For anyone reding this review, please know this Tour Agency should not exist given the extremely nonexistent customer service they offered. STAY AWAY from MANGO TOURS at all cost. P.S. when we were stranded on the water heading to the sand bar from Prison Island, they tried to reach the tour agency with no avail. No one answered! Good thing our boat was not capsized!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jeff_b
Oct 22, 2025
Worse Than Terrible - We were so looking forward to this tour experience today. However, it was worse than what any paying customer should ever have to endure. ASIDE from the fact that the boat engine broke down leaving from Prison Island to Nakupenda Sand Bar, and a 10 minute trip took almost 90 minutes to reach the sand bar...hakuna matata at least we made it. Then they started setting up the lunch tent...and when we saw the disrepair of their tent (torn, with holes, and filthy) and the table we were supposed to enjoy lunch on appeared came from a local junkyard, we respectfully told our guide we wanted to return back immediately as at this point we did not trust the quality of the food we were going to be served. Look at the pics...I'm sure any paying customer would agree. However, they ignored our repeated requests to leave and kept setting up the tent and lighting the charcoals as if we were going to stay and eat under the shambles of their setup. Now we know this is Africa, but every other tent set up around us was beautiful. We looked like we payed for the no cost tour. But this tour cost us over $250!!!! They insisted on continuing setting up until we start enchanting no no no -- take us back. And all during this time they were mocking the situation and laughing like little children. THEN they insisted on taking us back -- on the broken boat 😬🤐😠😧. We said absolutely no, ESPECIALLY SINCE SAFETY WAS AT STAKE. Finally a fellow boat operator approached us and offered to lend them their boat to bring is back to Stone Town...and it took less than 10 minutes to arrive back!! When we departed the boat, we told our guide that we cannot continue the tour as she completely disrespected us...and without apologizing, she just walked away, no apology. Now we are sitting at Cape Town Fish Market about to enjoy a wonderful lunch on our own at 3 pm, the same time our tour was supposed to continue until 5 pm. We will enjoy the rest of our day exploring safe Stone Town alone, and will find out own transportation back to our hotel. We will not mention the tour guides name out of respect, but this Tour Agency should not exist given the extremely nonexistent customer service they offered. STAY AWAY from MANGO TOURS at all cost. P.S. when we were stranded on the water heading to the sand bar from Prison Island, they tried to reach the tour agency with no avail. No one answered! Good thing out boat was not capsized!! P.P.S. we never had a bad but experience on the many tours we have taken through Viator and expect we will be refunded for this terrible experience. Hopefully no one will have to endure such an experience like we had today.
Review provided by Viator
From $145
up to 15 guests
1 - Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).