Zanzibar Diving Season

Zanzibar has amongst the best diving locations in the whole of East Africa. It is rich with coral and marine life and is the perfect place to spot shrimp, pipe fish and butterfly fish as well as manta rays, lobsters and dolphins.

If you are planning to head out to Zanzibar, the best season will depend on the tides, winds as well as the water visibility. Kusi or southern winds move into Zanzibar between July and August while those from the north known as the kaskazi winds blow in between November and March.

You can take advantage of the two calm seasons that occur between the monsoon winds. You will want to avoid diving between April and May as this is the rainy season.

If you want to make the most of your diving experiences in Zanzibar, travel to this beautiful archipelago between June and August as well as mid-November to January.

During this time, the water is warmed by the hot sun and is between 24⁰C and 30⁰C, perfect for diving. One of the best places to visit and dive is Leven bank. It has plenty of marine life to see such as the barracuda, tuna as well as moray eels. If you are lucky and happen to plan your visit between September and October, you might even spot some whale sharks as well as sperm whales and humpback whales.

Diving in Leven bank between December and April will bring you face to face with the manta rays.

Zanzibar’s coral reefs are rich with life being home to well over 500 different marine species. Generally, visibility here is also one of the best anywhere in the world. The warm Indian ocean is heated by the sun resulting in clear waters sometimes up to a depth of 100 ft.

Whether you are a diver or snorkeler, you are simply spoilt for choice with more than 30 dive spots such as the reef, wreck diving and the wall. Let’s not forget Mnemba atoll which is a reef that spans some 7 km. Here you can easily spot turtles during the months of September to December.

The warm waters of the Indian ocean attract many marine species both huge and small to the waters of Zanzibar. Many divers are particularly keen on spotting the crocodile fish and ribbon eels.

If you are an advanced diver, you can go down deeper and spot barracuda, as well as black tip and white tip reef sharks. Zanzibar is also home to a myriad of smaller sea creatures such as the frogfish, and the nudibranchs. If you’ve decided to dive at night you can spot bluefin trevally as they hunt for their food.