Things to Do in Pemba Island 2026

Why Pemba Island is One of the Last Frontier Destinations

While Zanzibar (Unguja) has become one of Africa's most visited beach destinations, its northern neighbour Pemba remains genuinely undiscovered by mass tourism. There are no large hotels, no beach clubs, no crowds. What Pemba offers instead is something increasingly rare in the modern world: a destination where you can dive a pristine reef, kayak a mangrove forest and walk through jungle to find an endemic fruit bat, all in a single day, and not see another tourist at any point.

Pemba's remoteness is both its challenge and its greatest appeal. Getting there requires commitment — a four-hour ferry or 40-minute flight from Zanzibar — which acts as a natural filter. The travellers who make the journey to Pemba are invariably experienced, curious and seeking something more than a beach holiday. They find it in abundance: world-class diving, extraordinary endemic wildlife, authentic Swahili culture and landscapes of startling beauty.

Diving Pemba Island — The Statistics

Pemba's dive statistics are extraordinary. The island has over 50 named dive sites, most of them dived only by a handful of groups per year. Visibility averages 25 to 35 metres in calm season and frequently exceeds 40 metres at depth. Water temperature ranges from 24 to 29 degrees Celsius year-round. The fish biomass on Pemba's reefs is estimated to be three to four times higher than on most comparable Indian Ocean reefs that have experienced significant recreational diving pressure.

The wall dives are the signature experience — sheer vertical drops from the surface down to depths of 60 metres and beyond, covered in spectacular formations of sea fans, soft corals and black coral trees. The currents that flow along these walls bring in pelagic life: schools of barracuda, jacks and trevally, reef sharks, and occasional visits from whale sharks and hammerheads. For experienced divers, Pemba offers the kind of wall diving that most people believe no longer exists anywhere in the world.

The Pemba Flying Fox — An Endemic Marvel

The Pemba Flying Fox (Pteropus voeltzkowi) is the island's most charismatic resident and one of the rarest fruit bats in the world. Found only on Pemba Island, this species has been listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature following population declines due to hunting. Conservation efforts in recent years have stabilised the population, and the bats are now a key ecotourism asset for the island.

With wingspans reaching 1.6 metres, the Flying Fox is an impressive animal. Colonies roost in tall forest trees during the day and emerge at dusk for nightly foraging flights across the island. A guided forest walk at sunset, when hundreds of these enormous bats take to the air against a sky turning orange and purple, is an unforgettable wildlife spectacle. The forest paths to the roost sites are maintained by local conservation cooperatives whose fees support the ongoing protection programme.

Cloves, Culture & Community

Pemba Island was, for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, the world's largest producer of cloves. The fragrant spice still dominates the island's agriculture, and the smell of clove drying in the sun is the defining sensory experience of a visit to Pemba. Walking through a clove plantation in harvest season (July to September) — with the fragrance of hundreds of tonnes of drying buds filling the air — is an olfactory experience unlike anything else in East Africa.

Pemba's traditional villages are equally compelling. The island has been less exposed to outside influences than Zanzibar Town, and the daily life of Pemba's fishing and farming communities retains practices and rhythms that have changed little in centuries. Dhow building — the construction of traditional wooden sailing vessels — is still practised using hand tools and techniques passed through generations. A village tour led by a community-appointed guide provides context and connections that enrich every subsequent activity on the island.

Getting to Pemba Island & Practical Tips

Pemba is accessible by ferry from Zanzibar Town (four to five hours) or by Coastal Aviation or Auric Air small aircraft (approximately 40 minutes). The ferry departs from the Malindi port in Stone Town and is a comfortable journey with good views of the Pemba Channel. The flight is significantly faster and provides spectacular aerial views but costs more. Most multi-day packages include the transfer in the overall price.

Pemba has a very limited tourism infrastructure — no ATMs outside of the main town of Chake Chake, limited mobile data coverage in remote areas, and few restaurants outside of lodge dining rooms. This is part of the appeal for those who want a genuinely remote experience, but it does require careful preparation. Our team handles all logistics as part of every Pemba package: transfers, accommodation, dive bookings and any additional activities are all pre-arranged before you arrive.