Stone Town is Zanzibar's only city, and the center of all its commerce and history. There is no place more historic or culturally fascinating in East Africa. Today, Stone Town is a travelers' paradise with good hotels, a maize of narrow stone streets lined with shops selling spices and curios, and many excellent sightseeing opportunities. These include the impressive monument built over the last slave trading market, on which sets the Anglican Church built by Livingstone. Visitors are taken on a tour of the underground concrete holding area where slaves languished prior to their auction. Shipyards that still build mighty wooden dhows entirely by hand can be visited, and there are old monuments from the Sultan's rule, including the House of Wonders and the Summer Palace.

Visitors traveling to any of Zanzibar or Pemba Island's fabulous beaches will have to pass through Stone Town, and it would be a real shame not to spend an overnight or two here.