Chris McIntyre went to Africa in 1987, after reading physics at Queen's College, Oxford. He taught with VSO in Zimbabwe for almost three years and travelled extensively, before co-authoring the UK's first guide to Namibia and Botswana for Bradt Travel Guides. He now has three Bradt guides to his name: Namibia, Botswana and Zambia, and co-authors three others: Tanzania, Northern Tanzania and this guide, Zanzibar. Chris is also the managing director of Expert Africa, a leading tour operator to Africa. When not travelling and researching, he works with his specialist team to organise tailor-made trips and honeymoons to southern and eastern Africa – including these Tanzanian islands.

Susie McIntyre has spent the last two decades promoting responsible global travel, both as a PR and marketing consultant, specialising in travel and tourism, and as an author and journalist. From Indian Ocean diving to cutting-edge conservation, community development to family travel and off-grid adventures, she is dedicated to thorough, on-the-ground research and works tirelessly to ensure the complexities of these archipelagos are accurately represented. With her husband and co-author, Chris McIntyre and their adventurous young children, she spends a significant amount of time travelling and researching in Africa to get her fix of the continent and ensure she remains totally abreast with developments.

This edition has been updated with Philip Briggs, who has been exploring the highways, byways and backwaters of Africa since 1986, when he spent several months backpacking on a shoestring from Nairobi to Cape Town, and when he first visited Tanzania, bussing from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam then catching the Tazara Railway to Zambia. He has since returned to Tanzania and Zanzibar numerous times, among other things to research and author the first Bradt Guide to Tanzania, published in 1992, as well as all eight subsequent editions. Tanzania and Zanzibar aside, Philip is the author of more than 10 Bradt Guides and has visited more than two dozen African countries in total.