Fabulous experience. I loved the spice farm and the cooking class. Shopping for ingredients was a lesson in itself. The spice farm tour was outstanding. In addition to seeing how common spices grow, we got to eat fruits from the tree and smell basic ingredients in medicine and perfume. Plus fun events and surprises. Best of all was the cooking class. I learned a lot from Lutfia - and was able to cook sitting on the floor. If you cook and want to learn about different cultures, don't miss this experience!

Nakupenda is a beautiful sand bank surrounded by clear blue waters. It’s a short 20 minute boat ride from Stone Town. There are people selling beers, offering hair braid services, henna and massages on the beach. I had an amazing time! Highly recommend visiting this island!

The main positive thing we got to Nakupenda before most of the people, so we had roughly 20 minutes with only 10 other visitors. It rained most of the time, but it is no responsability of the tour operator. The 2 boat staff who came with us spoke a very basic english, so we had almost no interaction at all. We had to tell them to find snorkeling equipment because otherwise there would have been none. We asked if there was water on board for the trip, and he was offering us his personal water, when there were indeed 8 bottles on, meaning he just understood "water". We bought the self-guided tour, so I have no idea if someone speaking proper english would have been sent for the guided tour. It is also astonishing compared to the average level of english of the other boat owners stopping us in Stone Town roads to sell the same tour. In addition to english, the captain was pretty careless of other boats' integrity, he "pushed" himself inside other two on shore to go back finding a second mask, and while leaving Nakupenda I had to help another boat owner to push our boat from hitting his engine.

I really enjoyed this cooking class with Lutfia. We purchased fresh ingredients form Stone Town market before travelling to the spice farm for a tour and then setting to work. The group was quite big (9 people) but there was lots of space and enough food to feed an army! Although the dishes we cooked were simple they were very delicious. The only thing that went slightly amiss was the timing....we didn't sit down to eat until 1.45pm by which time most of my group was getting very hungry!

This is NOT A CLASS, there was no instruction and we essentially spent 2.5 hours helping chop vegetables without a cutting board crouched on the ground to help the family prepare a large dinner which they will use to feed themselves for 2 days while we just paid to work for them. Our guide did not explain anything to us and was on her phone the whole time or chatting/joking in swahili to the other people around. We have been on other tours where we were engaged with and taught or explained at least some useful information.

The cooking class was such a fun experience! We made an entire meal including curry chicken, rice pilaf, cooked spinach, plantains, bananas with coconut milk, and salad. It was delicious!!!

Absolutely so great! We had an amazing time. Please ignore the rude comments. Yes you will be eating as the locals do. The tour guide is very sweet. I will say to be sure to take a small snack if your hungry but you will get plenty of delicious fruit to snack on. I will say as a caveat, if you’re not going in March when we went I can’t promise what will be available at that time.

Amazing cooking time with Lutfia. First ingredients in locals markets Second time in the spice farm to discover a lot of fruits, spices.. Third time: cooling time with the so nice Lutfia. We cooked: banana vegetables and coconut milk, grilled fish, mixed vegetables and fresh coconut milk, pilao rice 😋

Everything is beautiful with Zanzibar sandbanks.Early morning we board on a motorized boat to nakupenda island.It is is sooo beautiful 🏖️ sandbank.It was our first time to visit the sandbank in early morning where there is no one.Very calm we had few shots with our client from America she was so excited to have this experience.I will recommend if you want to have amazing experience with the sandbank visit it early around 9:30 or 10 am to have the best experience.

The tour starts at the market, where vegetables, rice, chicken and fish are purchased. It is fun if you haven't already been to the markets yourself. Thereafter a 30-40 min drive follows to the village. We did not know that the tour also included a spice tour which to us was the highlight of the tour, After that, the cooking started in an open hut with five firewood stoves. No chairs or tables. For the participants it was not exactly cooking but solely very, very basic tasks such as cutting potatoes, onions etc. while the tour guide mixed the vegetables/meat/spices in pots and pans. Therefore, do not expect this tour to be an actual cooking class - you do not learn to cook local food, but you see how they cook traditionally. The result was quite disappointing ... lacking spices ironically, overcooked and not at all at the level you experience in Zanzibar. Would not recommend. By the way - we never recieved the recipies ...

The tour starts at the markets, where vegetables, rice, chicken and fish are purchased. It is fun if you haven't already been to the markets yourself. Thereafter a 30-40 min drive follows to the village. We did not know that the tour also included a spice tour which - in our opinion - was the highlight of the tour as we had not done a spice tour yet. After that, the cooking started in an open hut with five firewood stoves. No chairs or tables. For the participants it was not exactly cooking but solely very, very basic tasks such as cutting potatoes, onions etc. while the tour guide mixed the vegetables/meat/spices in pots and pans. Therefore, do not expect this tour to be an actual cooking class - you do not learn to cook local food, but you see how they prepare it themselves while helping with simple tasks. The cooking session took three(!) hours, not including the actual eating. The participants we were with kept the spirits high for the first two hours, however, during the last hour we - and the rest of the participants - started to feel restless and people lied on the floor. Unfortunately, the food we got was the least tasty of all of the food we had during our two weeks in Zanzibar. The spices just didn't come through. We had especially hoped to learn how to make the very delicious curry that is served in most restaurants in Zanzibar but were disappointed. We chose this cooking class because of the great reviews it has gotten. Maybe we were unlucky but the experience was very disappointing, especially considering the price. We have been to many cooking classes around the world, and this is the first cooking class where we did not learn to cook at all. In addition, the food was not even tasty. We were back in Stonetown around 16.30.

Amazing day at the beach.. amazing moment at the prison...felt amazed by the locals ... I trully recomend to visit.. the waters are so cristal clear.. endless blue

Spice and nature best experience. Excellent guide and tasty food .fresh fruits in good company.higly recomended

Don’t spent money and your precious time om this! This is just one big tourishippo - unfortunately. We were told by the guide so many time that this was where the locals did their shopping - severals time of the day … I hope not. 80% of the products were souvenirs and just the same that are sold everywhere else in Thailand. It was exiting to se how the sellers managed to move everything from the track at the railwaymarked, but it’s sad to se that we the tourists are the biggest challange. In the floating marked we where placed in the charming boats - but the trip was anything but charming … The sellers were very pushy and grumpy. The bustrip back to Bangkok took over 2 hours because of the trafficjam. Not a good experience.

This is a great way to practically view the plants that produce the prices and experience what part of the plants are harvested and how it is done. With the cooking lesson you start from basic spices and process then to add to the meat and vegetables.