Jambiani runs for several kilometres along the south-east coast, just south of Paje, and it is one of the few places on the island where the village and the beach are genuinely the same place. Houses, small hotels, fishing boats and seaweed drying racks share the same strip of sand.
The water is a startling turquoise over white sand, protected by the same reef that shelters Paje. At low tide it retreats a long way, exposing seaweed farms worked mostly by the women of the village and firm sand you walk for kilometres. At high tide the lagoon fills and turns swimmable.
The pace here is slower than at Paje and considerably slower than the north coast. There are no large resorts, no nightlife to speak of and very little pressure. People come to read, walk, swim on the tide and watch a working village get on with its day.
Kuza Cave, the natural coral swimming cave with a strong Swahili cultural programme, sits a few minutes inland.