Take a break from the sun lounges and souvenir stalls, and escape into the island's green pockets of lush indigenous forest. Join a half-day tour, which will take you to Zanzibar's quiet interior, offering some of the best opportunities for wildlife viewing.

First stop is the quiet and exceptional Jozani Forest, home to the island's most famous and photographed resident, the Zanzibar Red Colobus monkey, as well as the Ader's duiker, Sykes monkey, bush babies, African civet, giant elephant shrews, and chameleons as well as over 83 species of birds.

Next a wave of colour will be added to your trip as you venture next door to the Zanzibar Butterfly Centre, an interactive butterfly exhibit consisting of a netted tropical garden with hundreds of butterflies, all of which are native species to Zanzibar. The enclosure is one of Africa's largest butterfly exhibits and provides residents and tourists of Zanzibar with an interactive and visual environment to learn about butterflies.

Following the butterflies, you will visit a community turtle sanctuary built by local villagers to house injured turtles and other marine animals. These precious creatures are nursed back to health before being released into the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. The sanctuary is ideal for families and children, offering a fun and interactive environment.

Our last stop on the tour is ZALA Park - a fascinating menagerie of exotic reptiles and amphibians, as well as duikers, bushbabies and hyrax. Various concrete compounds are dotted about the small park, and inside natural habitats have been created for snakes, monitor lizards, crabs and chameleons, to name just a few. You may even be allowed to crawl into the large cage housing four enormous pythons!