Plan Your Trip
Getting Around Zanzibar
The short answer
A small island that is never quite as quick as the map suggests.
Getting around Zanzibar is almost always a private car with a driver, arranged with your hotel's help. From Zanzibar International Airport (ZNZ) it is about 1 hour 15 minutes to the quiet southeast coast, roughly 75–90 minutes to Stone Town, and around 2 hours to the north. There are no trains, and the public minibuses are slow, so a private driver is how most guests travel. For mainland safaris, you fly from ZNZ to Arusha or Kilimanjaro in about an hour.
| Airport → southeast coast | ≈ 1h 15min by private car |
| Airport → Stone Town | 15–20 minutes |
| East coast → Stone Town | ≈ 75–90 minutes |
| East coast → north coast | ≈ 2 hours |
| To mainland safari | ≈ 1h flight (ZNZ → Arusha / Kilimanjaro) |
| Best way around | Private driver, arranged with the hotel’s help |
| Last verified | August 2026 |
Arrival day
From the airport to your hotel
Zanzibar is a small island, but it is not always a quick one — the roads are single-lane and unhurried, and the distance on the map rarely matches the time on the clock. Almost everyone gets around the same way: a private car with a driver, booked with the hotel's help. It is comfortable, safe, and means you are not negotiating fares at the roadside. Here is how long the main journeys actually take, and how we set them up for guests at Boutique Hotel Matlai.
Plan on about 1 hour 15 minutes from Zanzibar International Airport (ZNZ) to the southeast coast by private car — and treat any promise of 45 minutes with suspicion, because the road simply does not allow it. Allow up to 1 hour 30 minutes when Zanzibar Town is busy; it is around 65 km south-east, through the Jozani Forest corridor rather than through Stone Town, and if a map app proposes the northern loop it is wrong and much longer. We help you arrange a driver who meets you outside the arrivals hall with a sign showing your name and the hotel's, so there is nothing to organise on landing. The car costs USD 60, payable at the hotel by card or cash — it goes to the driver's company, not to us.
If you are heading to Stone Town instead, the airport is only 15–20 minutes away, which is why a Stone Town visit pairs so neatly with an arrival or departure day. Our day-trips guide covers what to see once you are out and about, with the real drive times.
Distances
How far apart things really are
Distances on Zanzibar are best measured in hours, not kilometres. Michamvi Pingwe sits on the southeast tip; from there it is roughly 75–90 minutes to Stone Town in the centre-west, and about 2 hours up to the north coast around Nungwi and Kendwa.
Those northern beaches are the island's main party-and-snorkelling strip — worth a day trip if you want to see them, but a different feeling from the quiet east coast. For most journeys you will be in the car for one to two hours, so it pays to group sights into full days rather than darting back and forth across the island.
It also means there is no need to change hotels mid-trip to see Zanzibar. From one quiet base on the east coast, Stone Town, the north and the south coast are all reachable as day trips, and most guests prefer to settle in one place and travel out from it rather than packing and re-packing every couple of nights.
Day to day
Private drivers, taxis and the dala-dala
For day trips and excursions, the simplest option is a private driver arranged with the hotel's help — you set the pace, and the timings are yours rather than a tour bus's. Local taxis are also available and fine for shorter hops along the coast; agree the fare before you set off, as meters are not used here, and note that there is no Uber on Zanzibar, so everything reliable is pre-arranged.
Public minibuses, the dala-dala, do run across the island and are very cheap, but they are slow, crowded and not how most visitors get around. If your time on the island is limited, a private car is the better value by far. Self-driving is the other option most guests decline: single-lane roads, unfamiliar rules and roadside fare-negotiating are not what you want on day one — and the same reasoning is why our safety page is blunt about hired scooters.
The mainland
Reaching the mainland: domestic flights
Zanzibar is part of Tanzania, and the mainland is a short flight rather than a long haul. From ZNZ you fly to Arusha (ARK) or Kilimanjaro (JRO) in about an hour — the usual hubs for a Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater or Tarangire safari. Dar es Salaam is the busiest hop by a distance — dozens of crossings a day, twenty minutes in the air — and Seronera, the airstrip in the middle of the Serengeti, has a scheduled service of its own.
Because the hop is so short, a great many guests combine the two into one trip: bush and beach without losing days to travel. We help you line up the timing so your safari flight and your road transfer meet in the middle. One warning about those aircraft: luggage limits are real, and most operators allow 15 kg in soft bags, which is exactly what the safari packing list is built around.
Two halves
Planning a Zanzibar and safari trip
The classic combination is seven nights on the coast at Matlai plus three to five nights on safari, and it works in either direction. Some guests fly in, go straight to the mainland, then come to the beach to recover; others do the reverse and finish on safari.
Either way the connection is a one-hour flight, so neither half eats into the other. If you are weighing the order, we usually suggest finishing on the coast — it is the gentler way to end a trip before a long flight home.
One piece of practical advice: build in a buffer day at the end, on the coast. Flights from the safari strips run on small aircraft and can shift with the schedules and the weather, and you do not want a delay on the mainland eating into your international departure.
Who drives
How we help you arrange the driving
Rather than leaving you to find transport, we help you set everything up in advance with trusted local operators. Our regular driver works with Semeni Tours and Safaris, run by Seif Haroub, who has handled Matlai's airport runs and day trips for years; for larger groups, the established agency Zantours is an option. We work with these local travel agencies and taxi companies precisely so that the arranging is not left to you.
The practical upshot: you step off the plane to a named driver holding a sign, and every onward trip — Stone Town, the north coast, or the airport for your safari flight — is set up before you arrive, with your butler holding the flight number so the driver waits when the flight does not cooperate. For the full picture of what is worth the drive, see our Stone Town guide, and for the flights themselves, our flights page.
Good to know
Questions travellers ask
What guests ask once the flights are booked and the island has to be crossed.
How long is the transfer from the airport to the east coast?
About 1 hour 15 minutes by private car to the southeast coast — allow 75 minutes, not the 45–60 minutes sometimes quoted, and up to 1h30 when Zanzibar Town is busy. Your butler helps you arrange a private driver who meets you at arrivals.
How do you get around Zanzibar?
Most visitors use a private car with a driver, arranged with their hotel's help. Local taxis work for shorter hops (agree the fare first), and cheap dala-dala minibuses exist but are slow and crowded.
How far is the north coast from the east coast?
Around 2 hours by road from Michamvi to Nungwi or Kendwa. It is worth a day trip to see the north's beaches, but it is a different, busier feeling from the quiet east coast.
Can you fly within Tanzania from Zanzibar?
Yes — from Zanzibar International Airport (ZNZ) you fly to Arusha or Kilimanjaro in about an hour, the usual gateways for a Serengeti, Ngorongoro or Tarangire safari. Dar es Salaam is twenty minutes in the air, with dozens of crossings a day.
Do you need to rent a car in Zanzibar?
No. Most visitors do not self-drive; a private driver is more comfortable and avoids the roadside fare-negotiating, single-lane roads and unfamiliar rules. There is no Uber on Zanzibar — everything reliable is pre-arranged.
How do you help with airport transfers?
We help you arrange a private driver in advance through trusted local operators such as Semeni Tours, so a named driver meets you outside the arrivals hall with a sign showing your name, and handles your onward trips.
Have your dates?
Tell us your dates — we’ll hold the beach week and send the tide table for it.
Send us your dates