Spice Island: Hot and glorious Zanzibar

Stone town has a faded charm about it. The Zanzibar town is teeming with strolling tourists, while locals ride around on bicycles and scooters.

Vendors sell everything from spices to colourful printed fabrics. The streets of the world heritage site in the heart of the town are narrow, built in a time when cars were few. Some buildings are brightly coloured, others are a dirty off-white - all are in need of a fresh coat of paint. Stone Town wears its faded glory on its walls.

Driving in an air-conditioned bus, the tour group makes its way to Nungwi, a "fishing" village on the northwest coast of the island, an hour from Stone Town.

"The sun lives there," someone said before I left. Indeed it does, and it hides surreptitiously behind clouds, but you feel its presence as its rays burrow into your skin. The humidity sticks to you like cling wrap. Zanzibar is boiling hot.

On the drive to Nungwi the landscape gradually changes. Colonial buildings are replaced by tiny houses and mud huts. The bustling markets disappear. The human traffic fades. People seem less busy than those in Stone Town, often sitting outside homes, staring into the distance or at their fingers. It's a far cry from Diamonds La Gemma Dell'Est, the five-star resort that will be home for the next three nights.

At La Gemma there are many water activities , from canoeing to skiing and snorkelling. On one of the evenings, we went on a sunset cruise . The clear blue ocean is always at low tide and warm. It's hard not to feel like a swimsuit model while at the beach - it looks like something out of a photo shoot. But pictures don't capture Zanzibar's real beauty.

A half-hour drive from La Gemma you'll find two more resorts. First is the rustic four-star Sandies Mapenzi Beach, which has strong north African influences in its architecture and wood carvings. It has beautiful wooden doors, but it's not luxurious.

The luxury lover will feel more at home at Dream of Zanzibar, a two-minute walk up the beach from Mapenzi. At the all-inclusive five-star resort young tourists lounge around pools, chill on the beach and move between the near-dozen restaurants. One of the most beautiful spaces is an Asian restaurant named Chopsticks, which feels like a Buddhist temple.

The food at all three resorts is international. There are no exotic, unpronounceable dishes on the menus. The adventurous eater will have to look for local food.

All too soon, after days spent lounging around on the beach, we head back home. On the way to the airport, the bus drives past poor villages back into the peeled paint on the walls of Stone Town. At the airport, the heat is almost suffocating. It's time to leave paradise.

• Boshomane was a guest of Mango Airlines, which flies to the island on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Return tickets cost an average of R4955, although prices are subject to change according to bookings. Visit flymango.com