Sooo touristic but I feel its worth it. The way there is beautiful and not far from Park Hyatt/tembo hotel. Theres a restaurant with animals around and the restaurant staff is so friendly. The turtles area is so crowded with tourists.

It was easy to find a boat to take us across to the island from the water front past the gardens, loads of them,haggle a price. Trip takes about 25 minutes, once there we were met by a local guide who showed us where to pay the entrance fee, $4 to the islands owners ( this is due to rise to $15 1st November- far too much in our opinion) and then a $3 government tax at another counter. He then took us around the tortoises enclosure. Large but bit smelly, did feel sorry for the young ones kept caged in a small dark area. On leaving the tortoises they tried asking for further donations to care for them- pretty sure none of this goes to making their lives any better, if it did they would be in better cared for surroundings. The prison held a restaurant. Past the deserted hotel and back onto the boat home. We were pleased with the trip and found it surprisingly easy to organise ourselves.

Two things of importance here. The old prison itself and the giant Aldabra Tortoises. Changuu Private Island is worth a visit although at over $100.00 it is not cheap. We took a small boat off the beach to the island....about half an hour and spent a couple of hours wandering through the old prison and then the Tortoise Sanctuary. There are quite a lot of the tortoises on the island and some of the older ones are huge. We were told that the island is the only place in Zanzibar, that still has large numbers of the tortoises. On the way back to Zanzibar, we stopped off on a coral reef for an hour of snorkeling.

We took a boat from Stone Town to the Prison Island with our local guide Ibrahim. It was a short, 10-15 minutes boating. We visited the old prison buildings and learned about its history. We walked around and saw lots of giant tortoises and some peacocks. The huge lazy animals were very friendly we could touch them and took some photos. We enjoyed it very much.

We had a very nice experience at 31 degrees C, in December which was very nice because at home in Romania at that time we had cold weather and 1,2 degrees C maximum. We enjoyed Prison island and the Tortoise Center and Nursery and seeing those 109 years old turtles was a precious moment to me, especially that I pet two of them. The place is nice and full of visitors that come by boat only. So you must visit when in Stone Town and book a boat that will take you there. It is a nice activity. You can sunbath and swim once you get there because the prison island has few small beaches with white sand. Inside there are big and old turtles also small babies 🐢kept in the nursery outside. Also, peacocks 🦚 and a small antilope we saw (see the photos I posted). Over all I totally recommend having this half-day activity.

I had read previous reviews and almost didn’t go as I was worried about the poor tortoises being mistreated but this was not the case. The baby tortoises were kept in a large purpose-built round enclosure with lots of fresh food. Some of them are very tiny and need to be kept away. These tortoises have been reduced to tiny numbers through poaching (just 7 left in numbers in 1996) and need protection. I saw no one riding them or mistreating them at all- visitors were respectful and lots of space for them to escape from visitors should they wish. The restaurant had amazing views, the toilets were very clean and the beach was beautiful. We paid $30 for a family of four return and a $3 conservation tax + $12 entrance fee each. We had no guard as the museum on the island boards told us all we needed. We used BooEddy on the beach and he was great. The hotel wanted $40 each and I would have be aggrieved to have aid that but felt we had value for money

Taking the boat ride over on the gorgeous aqua water was the fun beginning. Seeing all the tortoises was unique. The baby tortoise nursery was darling and let you realize this is a good place for the Aldabra Tortoises. Learning the history of the prison was interesting. The small museum was well done.

Good to know the history of the prison island. The facility does require some upkeep. The Prison island museum and the tortoises were the highlight for us. There is a govt fee of $ 3 per person apart from the entrance fees of the island, which is approx $ 12 per person. You can pay via card for island entrance fees but for the govt fees, we had to pay in cash. This is apart from the money that we paid for the transport to the prison island, which cost us approx $ 20. We didnt hire any guide for the tour. The island does have some restaurants but we found them expensive. Better to carry your own water and snacks.

To be honest there isn't any wow factor about the place. apparently we enjoyed the boat ride to and from the island more than the actual list. has Cristal clear and white sand beach. if you are into TORTISE then there are lots and lots in the island. other than that its just a normal place

Saw the history of the prison island in Zanzibar. There were many large tortoises. One is supposedly 200 years old. Peacock were in full force with the tortoises. Good to see that they keep the young ones in separate enclosures.