Giant Tortoises & Turquoise Sands: Your Nakupenda and Prison Island Tour

Picture a stretch of pure white sand with nothing around it but turquoise ocean, then a walk with tortoises old enough to have outlived three generations of the people photographing them. That’s the two-part story behind our Nakupenda Sandbank and Prison Island tour, a private boat trip from Stone Town’s historic harbor that pairs Zanzibar’s strangest wildlife encounter with one of its most photographed beaches.

Changuu Island, better known to travelers as Prison Island, was never actually used as a working prison. It served as a quarantine station for yellow fever cases in the 19th century, and today it’s home to a colony of Aldabra giant tortoises brought over from the Seychelles, several of them over a hundred years old. From there, our private dhow carries you to Nakupenda, a sandbank whose Swahili name means “I love you,” and whose entire shoreline disappears back into the Indian Ocean once the tide turns.

You won’t find this combination of century-old giants and a tide-dependent beach anywhere else on the island, which is exactly why it’s one of our most requested Zanzibar tours. For full background on the island’s Changuu history, our Prison Island guide covers it in more depth.

Nakupenda Sandbank and Prison Island Tour Highlights

Here’s what a day built around tortoises, tide, and turquoise water actually looks like from start to finish.

• Private dhow or motorboat transfer from Stone Town’s historic harbor
• Guided walk through the ruins of Prison Island’s old quarantine station
• Close, hands-on encounters with Aldabra giant tortoises, some over a century old
• Swimming and snorkeling in the calm reef water off Changuu Island
• Boat crossing to Nakupenda, a sandbank that only exists at low tide
• Fresh seafood and tropical fruit lunch served barefoot on the sand
• Flexible, private pacing, not a shared group boat on a fixed schedule

Meeting Zanzibar’s Living Giants: Prison Island

Our first stop is Changuu, a short crossing from Stone Town’s harbor by traditional dhow. Your guide walks you through the island’s quarantine-station history before leading you to the tortoise sanctuary, where Aldabra giant tortoises, some of the longest-living land animals on Earth, move slowly through the grass, seemingly unbothered by their own celebrity status.

You’ll get real time here: feeding them, touching their weathered shells, and taking the kind of photos that don’t need a filter. Before or after the tortoises, the water off Changuu’s small beach is calm and shallow enough for an easy swim or a first snorkel of the day.

Where the Ocean Turns to Sand: Nakupenda Sandbank

From Changuu, we continue by boat to Nakupenda, a sandbank so temporary it only fully reveals itself at low tide, surrounded on every side by shallow, glass-clear water. It’s the kind of place that photographs better than it can be described: no trees, no buildings, just sand and sea meeting in the middle of the ocean. We serve a fresh seafood lunch right there on the beach, usually grilled prawns, calamari, and lobster with seasonal tropical fruit, while you swim, snorkel among the reef fish, or simply sit with your feet in the water until the boat calls you back to Stone Town.