Pemba Clove Plantation Tour

While Unguja's spice tours mix cloves in among a broader sampler of vanilla, pepper and cinnamon, Pemba is where the clove economy actually lives: the island supplies roughly 70% of Zanzibar's total clove output, and its rural landscape around Chake Chake, Wete and Mkoani is dotted with smallholder clove plantations rather than a single tourist-oriented spice farm. This tour walks those working farms directly — clove trees heavy with buds, the distinctive clove-scented air, and, depending on timing, the harvest and drying process itself.

The clove season runs strongest from July to October, when pickers hand-harvest the unopened flower buds and lay them out to dry in the sun. Visiting outside that window still offers a genuine look at the plantations and smallholder farming methods, just without the harvest activity itself.

Pemba Tours runs a confirmed version of this as part of its Spice Tour product, visiting clove farms specifically rather than a generic mixed spice garden; several other informal local operators around Chake Chake and Wete offer similar smallholder visits.