Safari from Zanzibar: Fly-in Trips to the Mainland

Yes, and your own policy will not do. Since October 2024 every non-resident visitor must hold Inbound Travel Insurance issued by the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation, valid for the length of the stay up to 92 days. The UK Foreign Office states plainly that other international travel insurance policies are not accepted. It costs around 44 US dollars per person and is bought at inbound.visitzanzibar.go.tz before departure; you show the QR code at immigration. This is separate from the visa. Buying it in advance avoids the queue at the airport kiosk.

It depends almost entirely on the tide. Nungwi and Kendwa in the north have very little tidal range, so you can swim at any hour. On the east coast at Paje and Jambiani the water withdraws hundreds of metres twice a day and the lagoon becomes a walkable sandflat — spectacular to see, but not swimmable when it happens. The east coast is the better side for kitesurfing and the quieter one; the north is the better side if swimming whenever you like matters to you.

No. The Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater are in northern Tanzania, roughly a thousand kilometres away, and anything sold as a day trip there is in fact a multi-day tour. What genuinely works in one day is a flight to Mikumi, about 45 minutes, or to Nyerere National Park — the former Selous Game Reserve — about 35 minutes. Both have elephants, giraffes, lions and hippos. Expect to leave before dawn and return in the evening.

April and May are the long rains, and that is the one period most visitors would rather miss: boats cancel more often, visibility for snorkelling drops, and many kitesurfing schools close entirely. Some hotels shut for those weeks. The seaweed that washes up on the east coast is also heaviest roughly between November and April. The driest and calmest stretches are June to October and December to February.

Zanzibar is predominantly Muslim, and outside the beach resorts modest dress is expected — shoulders and knees covered in Stone Town and the villages. Swimwear belongs on the hotel beach, not in town. During Ramadan many local restaurants close during daylight and the Forodhani night market runs differently; tours all still operate. Asking before photographing people is the norm, particularly in the villages.

In the July–August and December–January peaks the popular half-day trips fill one to three days ahead, and the fly-in safaris considerably earlier because the aircraft are small. Outside those months the day before is usually enough. Since almost every tour here cancels free up to 24 hours ahead, booking early costs nothing. Tide-dependent trips — Nakupenda, The Rock, Safari Blue — are the ones where the date matters more than the time you would prefer.