Plan Your Zanzibar Trip

The four parts

The four things to sort before you fly

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Entry. Most visitors come in on a standard Tanzania tourist visa, which covers Zanzibar as well as the mainland: USD 50 for a single entry, valid for stays up to 90 days, bought online in advance at the official government portal or on arrival at Karume airport. US passport holders are the exception and pay USD 100 for a multiple-entry visa. Apply online if you can — it is the same price and it skips the slower arrival queue, which is reliably the longest part of the day. Your passport has to be valid for at least six months beyond your arrival date, with a blank page for the stamp, and airlines check that at departure rather than at the far end. The entry requirements guide has the whole sequence, including what to have in your hand at the jetway.

Insurance. This is the piece most guides still get wrong. Since 1 October 2024 every visitor to Zanzibar must also hold the island's own inbound insurance, issued by the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation: USD 44 per adult, USD 22 per child aged 3 to 17, free under 3, covering stays of up to 92 days. Buy it before you fly, because some airlines have the system built into departure check-in and will refuse to board you without proof, and the QR code is checked in the jetway before you reach immigration. Two warnings come with it. The ZIC is an entry requirement, not travel insurance — it is not the cover you would rely on for medical evacuation, cancellation or your belongings, and you still want your own policy. And the detail has changed more than once since the rule appeared, which is why our flights page deliberately prints no figure: ask us when you book and we will tell you what is current on the day, in writing.

The road. Zanzibar is small and slow. From the airport to the quiet southeast coast is about 1 hour 15 minutes by private car — up to 1h30 when Zanzibar Town is busy — and roughly 65 km south-east through the Jozani Forest corridor rather than through Stone Town. Stone Town itself is only 15–20 minutes from the airport; the east coast to Stone Town is 75–90 minutes; the east coast to the northern beaches around Nungwi and Kendwa is about 2 hours. There are no trains, the dala-dala minibuses are cheap but slow, and there is no Uber, so almost everyone travels by private car with a driver. The getting-around guide has the full table of times, and the reason we tell guests not to change hotels mid-trip.

Courtesy. The island is roughly 99% Muslim, and the habits that matter are small: cover shoulders and knees away from the beach, greet before you ask, give and receive with the right hand, ask before you photograph anyone, and eat and drink discreetly in public during Ramadan. Tipping is appreciated and never obligatory — $1–2 for bags or housekeeping, $5–10 for a driver on a full-day trip, around 10% in a restaurant if service is not included, in small US-dollar notes. The culture and etiquette guide covers the rest, down to why the ngalawa is not a dhow.

Timing

What changes with the season

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The island's year runs on two named winds, and they decide more about your trip than any forecast will. The Kusi, the southeast trade, owns May through October: drier air, livelier seas with swells peaking June to August on the east coast, and the best underwater visibility of the year — June to October is the classic window. The Kaskazi from the northeast takes November through March: warmer, stiller, with the short rains passing as afternoon theatre rather than all-day grey. Between the two sit the long rains of April and May — the heaviest rainfall of the year, when some lodges close and we honestly recommend other dates.

Ramadan is the one cultural date to check, because it shifts earlier each year. During the month, local staff may be fasting through daylight hours and some village restaurants and shops rest by day or keep shifted hours; hotel kitchens run as normal, so your meals are unaffected. What is asked of you is discretion — eat, drink and smoke out of direct view during daylight, dress a touch more modestly than usual — and what you get in return is the best half of the day, because after sunset the mood lifts entirely and the evening markets fill up. Travelling then is entirely workable if you know about it in advance.

Two more seasonal notes worth planning around. The festive weeks from late December into early January are the busiest and priciest of the year here and want booking three to six months out, as do July through September. And the weather forecast is less useful on this island than almost anywhere else: tropical rain arrives in short heavy bursts and clears, so a week of thunderstorm icons routinely delivers six sunny afternoons. Book the month for its season, not its ten-day forecast — our best-time-to-visit guide works through it month by month.

Our end of it

What we handle, and what stays yours

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Visa guidance goes out with your booking confirmation — US$50 single-entry, US$100 for US citizens, apply online — so the paperwork is settled weeks before you pack. The road is the other half of arrival day: we help you arrange a driver who meets you outside the arrivals hall with a sign showing your name and the hotel's, working with the local travel agencies and taxi companies we have used for years, and your butler holds the flight number so the driver waits when the flight does not cooperate. The car costs USD 60, payable at the hotel by card or cash — it goes to the driver's company, not to us.

What stays yours is the insurance. Buy the ZIC before you fly and buy your own travel policy alongside it, with medical evacuation cover written into it, because that is the one line that matters on an island where serious cases are flown to Dar es Salaam or Nairobi. Everything else — excursions, the tide table, a driver for a day in Stone Town — is a WhatsApp message away once you are here.