Hi Everyone, me and my SO will be spending roughly a week on Zanzibar in December, and I would love some recommendations on a beach resort and some activities.

We are wanting to spend 4-5 nights at a local beach resort, but the amount of choices is overwhelming. Anyone here have some recommendations for a good place under $200/night? Preferably it would be on the east coast, but we're flexible and willing to change our plans.

Secondly, we were going to spend 2-3 nights in Stone Town, do some walking tours and we're looking at a Prison Island tour. Has anyone done Prison Island and can provide some feedback? Also, is the PH worth $400/night over the Doubletree?

Finally, if anyone has any unrelated suggestions or recommendations, I'm all ears. Thanks!

Personally I would stay at Doubletree and use the money saved from not staying at Hyatt towards upping the amount you spend when at beach. The Doubletree has a better breakfast than the Hyatt in my experience and whilst the rooms are not as luxurious and the Doubletree is not on the beach, it is still well located and you will spend most of the day and night out exploring...

For me, I never understand why people like the east coast (unless you are a kite surfer). I prefer the northern tip at Nungwi. The Hilton at Nungwi has a great location but is probably beyond your budget...

We did the Prison Island tour last month. The prison part is pretty ho-hum but the tortoise sanctuary makes up for it; we really enjoyed that part. I would consider the sanctuary to be the only real reason to take the tour.

We stayed at the Park Hyatt, but used Chase free night certs for our 2 nights (redeemed before they raised the property to cat 5). Got a Globalist upgrade to a suite at check-in to boot, so we were more than pleased with our stay. While the hotel is ocean front, I didn't see a lot of hotel guests on the beach itself.