Zanzibar driving etiquette: the dos and don'ts nobody tells you

The driving itself is the easy part to prepare for. Slow down, stay left, watch for speed bumps.

The mistakes visitors actually regret happen after they stop the car. Getting out at a village shop in swimwear. Photographing a woman at a well without asking. Parking on the seaweed someone spent the morning laying out to dry.

None of these are things anyone will shout at you about. Zanzibar is a polite place and you will probably never be told. That is exactly why they are worth knowing in advance.

Keep a shirt in the car

Zanzibar is overwhelmingly Muslim and conservative outside the resort strips. Swimwear belongs on the beach and inside hotel grounds. Everywhere else, including the village you stop in for water and the roadside stall selling mangoes, means covered shoulders and knees for both men and women.

The practical version of this rule: keep a t-shirt, a light shirt or a kanga in the car and put it on before you get out. It takes four seconds and it is the single biggest difference between a visitor who is welcome and one who is tolerated.

This matters more the further you get from the tourist coasts. Stone Town's back streets are residential neighbourhoods, not a tourist attraction, and people live their ordinary lives there.

Use your right hand

Give and receive with your right hand. Money to a parking attendant, your documents to an officer, change from a shopkeeper, a handshake.

The left hand is considered unclean and using it to hand something over reads as an insult, even though nobody will say so. If your hands are full, using both is fine. Using only the left is not.

Greet before you get to the point

Walking up and immediately asking a question is brusque here. The expected sequence is to greet first, exchange a few words, and then get to business.

Habari covers most situations and shikamoo is the respectful form for anyone noticeably older than you. There is more on this in our guide to police checkpoints, where the same principle applies.

Do not photograph people from the car

This is the most common complaint locals have about tourists in vehicles.

Ask before photographing anyone, and accept no as an answer. This applies particularly to women, and to anyone at prayer. A camera pointed out of a moving car window at people going about their day is intrusive in any country, and here it is also culturally loaded.

Never photograph police officers or military personnel, which is illegal in Tanzania. Avoid government buildings and the port.

Landscapes, beaches, animals and your own group are all fine.

Slow right down for children, and do not throw anything

Children will wave at your car. It is charming and you should wave back.

What you should not do is throw sweets, coins or pens from the window, however friendly the intention. It teaches children that running toward moving vehicles is rewarded, which on roads without pavements is a straightforwardly dangerous lesson. Schools and community organisations on the island have been asking visitors to stop doing this for years.

If you want to give something, give it to a school, a clinic or a shop owner, on foot, having stopped the car properly.

Watch for seaweed and crops on the road edge

On the east coast, seaweed farming is a significant source of income, much of it worked by women. The harvest is spread out to dry on any available flat surface, which frequently means the edge of the tarmac and the sandy verges.

The same applies to cassava, rice and cloves laid out to dry elsewhere on the island.

Driving over it ruins it. That is somebody's week of work and their household income, and they will not stop you. Give roadside spreads a wide berth, and if the road is genuinely too narrow, wait or find another line rather than driving straight through.

Ramadan changes how you drive

[EXTERNAL SOURCE NEEDED] Link the Zanzibar Commission for Tourism's Ramadan guidance for the current year. It is reissued annually.

During Ramadan, eating, drinking and smoking in public during daylight hours is restricted, and the tourism authorities issue this guidance to visitors and residents alike each year. Restaurants outside hotel compounds close during the day.

For drivers this has two specific consequences.

Your car is not a private space at a junction. Drinking from a water bottle at the wheel while stopped in traffic, with your window down next to someone who has been fasting since before dawn, lands badly. Drink discreetly, out of view.

The twenty minutes before sunset are the most dangerous driving of the year. Everyone is heading home to break the fast, they have been fasting all day, and they are in a hurry. Traffic spikes and patience drops. If you can avoid being on the road in the run-up to iftar, do.

Ramadan moves roughly eleven days earlier each year, so check the dates for your travel period rather than assuming.

Friday around midday

Friday prayers draw large congregations. Roads near mosques get busy, parking disappears, and pedestrians cross in numbers.

None of this is a problem if you expect it. Allow extra time for journeys around the middle of the day on Fridays, and do not park anywhere that blocks access to a mosque.

Think before you give a lift

You will be asked, particularly on rural roads and particularly in the rain. Many visitors want to help and often it is a perfectly ordinary interaction.

Two things to weigh. Your rental insurance may not cover passengers who are not named on the agreement, so check your policy. And as a driver unfamiliar with the roads, you are taking on responsibility for someone else's safety.

If you do offer, the ordinary courtesies apply: greet properly, and drop people where they ask rather than where is convenient for you.

Alcohol carries extra weight here

The legal blood alcohol limit is 0.08 percent, but the practical advice is zero, and on a majority Muslim island there is a social dimension on top of the legal one.

Drinking is available and normal in hotels and tourist restaurants. Driving afterwards through villages where alcohol is not part of daily life is a different matter, quite apart from the fact that you would be on unlit roads at night.

The horn is information, not aggression

A short tap means I am here and is used approaching blind bends, passing cyclists and overtaking. It is expected and nobody takes offence.

A long angry blast reads exactly as it would at home. There is more on horn use and the rest of the road rules in our guide to Zanzibar road conditions.

Parking in villages

Lanes are narrow and doorways open directly onto them. Do not block an entrance, a shopfront or a mosque approach, and do not assume a gap is a parking space.

If you are unsure, ask. Someone will point you somewhere better, and asking is itself the polite move.

Frequently asked questions

What should I wear when driving around Zanzibar? Covered shoulders and knees whenever you leave the car outside a beach or hotel. Keep something to throw on in the vehicle.

Can I drive during Ramadan in Zanzibar? Yes, with two adjustments: do not eat, drink or smoke visibly during daylight, and avoid being on the road in the twenty minutes before sunset.

Is it rude to use the horn in Zanzibar? No, a short tap is normal communication. A sustained blast is rude, as anywhere.

Can I take photos while driving around the island? Landscapes and scenery, yes. People, only with permission. Police, military and government buildings, never.

Should I give money to children who wave at the car? No, and particularly do not throw anything from the window. Give to a school or clinic instead if you want to contribute.

Most of this comes down to remembering that the villages you drive through are places where people live rather than scenery you are passing. The practical side of getting around, from journey times to whether you need four wheel drive, is in our full guide to driving in Zanzibar.