@atlasnocturna: One thing I wasn’t prepared for in Zanzibar was how difficult it can be to simply be left alone. This isn’t about being approached once or twice. On the beach, on the street, even when I was clearly going somewhere, someone would often come up to me, start asking questions, walk alongside me or try to sell me something. Being approached wasn’t the problem. The problem was that “no” rarely seemed to end the interaction. I could say “no, thank you” five times and they would still keep walking next to me. I could explicitly say “please don’t follow me” and they would still follow me. And if, after the fifth “no”, I finally became more firm, the reaction sometimes changed completely: annoyed looks, raised voices or comments directed at me in a language I couldn’t understand. The one time I tried sitting completely alone on the beach, one man came and sat down next to me. I kept telling him I wanted to be alone and asking him to leave. He stayed there for about 10 minutes anyway. After he finally left, another man came over. And it started all over again. Both kept repeating the same kind of questions and comments, no matter how many times I said I wanted to be left alone: “Your face looks like an angel.” “You’re very beautiful.” “I love you.” “Do you like me?” “Do you like me?” “Do you like me?” That was also the last time I sat alone directly on the beach. After that, whenever I wanted a beach day, I chose a sunbed belonging to a hotel, beach club or more contained area instead of sitting by myself right by the water. And this wasn’t limited to that one day. Versions of the same interaction happened again and again while I was walking around. I understand that many people here make their living from tourism and this obviously isn’t a statement about everyone in Zanzibar. Being friendly, starting a conversation or trying to make a sale isn’t the issue. The issue is having a clear “no” repeatedly ignored and sometimes being treated as rude for eventually making that “no” impossible to misunderstand. After experiencing this repeatedly, I decided to simply turn my camera on during an ordinary 2 min walk alone on the beach. This is what those 2 minutes looked like. #zanzibar #tanzania #solofemaletraveler #solotravel #zanzibartravel

Iza | yt: @izzygoingworld :

Zanzibar is a hell for solo travel women. Never again

paté :

my name is cappuccino 😅😅😅😂😂😂😂😂

JFoxArt :

It’s incredibly stupid of them, because they’re driving tourists away. The island authorities ought to step in.

vftm11 :

Being a woman is exhausting

Alec :

Yes. That’s just how Zanzibar is. Hotel security guards automatically accompanied me everywhere; they stayed within five meters of me and wouldn't let anyone get close.

Shae❄️ :

Humans (greedy Men) ruin everything

kris :

It’s a shame that there are so many beautiful places in this world to visit and you can’t even go and enjoy it because of things like this! That would honestly be so scary as a solo female traveler to me!

Alison :

When I went to Zanzibar the hotel security guards escorted you onto the Beach!

The_sleepy_owl :

I planned a Zanzibar trip then researched more about them, their animal abuse, all the tourist scams.... And then canceled the trip again... I always wanted to go there for the apparent nice beaches but have no desire anymore

Doremi :

I couldn’t go there. Can’t stand people who harass me.

kcathie2207 :

Nightmare for solo female travellers. It’s harassment.

☁️Nelly☁️ :

my name is cappuccino

Liz :

Zanzibar is beautiful but only if you are not walking alone as a woman. It’s not necessarily that they are rude when approaching you, but you literally can not walk 2m without being approached and it gets exhausting. When I was walking around with my guy friend, it was way less frequent

MsCr :

The most beautiful beaches on earth will not tempt me when constantly harassed.😭

Gladio :

Ki Jhané :

i would be out there acting a DONKEY. yall gon be scared of me

❤️‍🔥gabraccooon❤️‍🔥 :

I used to live in Senegal and it was the same thing – I always had one of my local male friends accompany to the beach for safety reasons

bobbytoolhire2 :

Horrible

lisalee501 :

Creepy

Isola Travels 🦋🇻🇬 :

Yes same thing happened to me. They need to teach their sons better because all over the world men act like this. It’s ridiculous

annie_roo2125 :

yeah, don't think I will visit

matiylda :

Finally someone is talking about this! I went there alone with my mom - two white, blonde women. We couldn’t even go for a walk on the beach or get into the sea in peace 🤡

Herzileinyyy :

Grund genug da niemals hinzufahren

caketin :

I worked in a hospital there and even the male staff were harassing us as we tried to work. A lot of people were lovely but the men need to chill lol

JES_6666 :

And then there are also women who get involved in such things and "fall in love," like my mother-in-law.