On safari everything is included. Here it is a real decision.

All-inclusive

Meals, local drinks and usually some activities, all in the rate. Common at the large resorts and increasingly offered by smaller hotels.

Suits: families, large resorts, coasts with nowhere much to walk to, and anybody who drinks enough to make the arithmetic work.

The catch: at a small hotel with one restaurant, all-inclusive means the same kitchen for seven nights. Ask how many restaurants there are before choosing it — at a fifteen-room property the honest answer is one.

The other catch: it quietly discourages you from eating anywhere else, which on an island with genuinely good Swahili food is a real cost.

Half board

Breakfast and dinner at the hotel, lunch wherever you happen to be. The common middle and the right answer for a great many stays.

Suits: most couples, most small beach hotels, and any coast where there is somewhere to walk to for lunch.

It also handles the day out well: if you are going to Stone Town or Jozani or out on a dhow, lunch was never going to be at the hotel anyway.

Bed and breakfast

Breakfast only. The right answer in Stone Town, where eating out is a large part of the point, and for anybody with a car or an appetite for exploring.

Suits: Stone Town stays, villa-adjacent trips, and travellers who would rather find their own dinner.

Watch for: coasts where the hotel is the only thing within walking distance. On a quiet stretch of the north-east, B&B can mean a taxi every evening.

What is usually not included

• Premium spirits and imported wine, where the house selection stops.
• Diving, which is always separate and is the activity that adds up.
• Excursions, most of which are inexpensive and better arranged privately.
• Airport transfers, at some properties, which is worth establishing since they can be ninety minutes.
• Spa treatments, which are good value here and are almost never in a rate.

Comparing two quotes

Put them on the same basis before concluding anything. An all-inclusive rate and a half-board rate at similar-looking properties are not comparable numbers, and the gap between them is frequently smaller than it appears once you add a week of dinners to the second.

The same applies to transfers. A property quoting an inclusive transfer against one that does not is a different total by more than people expect on the east coast.

Our default recommendation

Half board at a small beach hotel, with a night or two of bed and breakfast in Stone Town at one end.

It gives you the hotel’s kitchen when you want it, the island’s when you do not, and it does not commit you to a single menu for the length of the stay. It is not the cheapest arrangement and it is the one we would book ourselves.