Jozani Forest is located in the southern part of Zanzibar and is easily reachable from Stone Town, Jambiani, Paje, or, in my case, Michamvi, where I stayed three nights at Michamvi Spirit Lodge. Only a 40-minute car ride away, it was the perfect starting point for a half-day tour of the national park. Jozani Forest was founded as a forest reserve in the early 1960s, where most travelers came to hunt for Zanzibar leopards. It was only in 1984 that this place was turned into a national park to protect its precious wildlife.
Nowadays, the whole park area covers 50 square kilometers, which is, compared to many other national parks worldwide, relatively small. Still, Jozani Forest can boast of itself as home to the largest remaining stand of near-natural forest in Zanzibar.
You can visit Zanzibar’s only national park all year round from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm every day. From June to September, it’s the dry season in Zanzibar, so I recommend you plan a visit during these months. It’s not fun to walk through the park on a rainy day. Although you can arrive at Jozani Forest on your own, it’s not possible to visit it without a tour guide. You don’t need to pay extra for one, it’s already included in the price.
How to Get to Jozani Forest
The easiest way to get to the national park is as part of an organized tour. It depends on the area and type of accommodation you stay at, but most hotels all around the island offer guided tours. Especially from Stone Town, there are many options for half-day tours to Jozani Forest.
Thanks to its convenient location, the park is easily reachable from most parts of Zanzibar. For example, the car ride from Michamvi, the area I stayed at, was just less than 45 minutes. Even from the very northern places such as Nungwi or Kendwa, it only takes a little over an hour.
If you’re brave enough to rent a car, you can park it almost directly at the starting point of the tour. There are enough parking spaces available.
The last option is to come here by dala dala, the public minibusses of Zanzibar, but you never know when one will come or leave, so you may have to wait for an unknown time.