Dar es Salaam Transportation

If you are using Dar as your arrival point for Zanzibar or the interior, when you come out of international arrivals you must cross the courtyard to the departures hall on the right hand side. There will be a long queue waiting to get in, because the security machines are about 6 feet inside the door. Don't panic - the queue moves quite quickly, and you can use the time for people watching.
I don't recommend the cafeteria in the departures lounge - snacks may make you ill.

To most travellers, Dar es Salaam is just a convenient port of call on the way to more exotic destinations of Zanzibar, the game parks, Pemba or Mafia Islands. This is a great pity, because “Dar”, as it is affectionately called by aficionados of the city, is a fascinating rabbit warren of a tropical port, often surprising the unwary wanderer with scenes of breathtaking beauty. While Dodoma has been (somewhat absurdly) appointed as the new capital of Tanzania, Dar is the real capital, a hustling, bustling seaport that straddles some of the most important sea routes on earth.

This is coolest night view of Dar es salaaam Harbour or locally known as Bandari ya Dar es salaaam. Daladala is the major and cheapest way to get around Dar es salaam. Cabs and car rentals might also be helpful.

BUSES

Buses are a good mean of transport in this part of Africa, besides a real experience by itself. We took this bus from Moshi to Dar es Salaam. We went to the bus station early in the morning, there were several buses, and we went into one of them, but none could tell us the time of departure. We waited and waited and it only departured after one hour, when the bus was completely full!! The bus had a nice TV but they only showed videos of african singers, which is quite interesting the first 30 minutes... but the travel took more than 7 hours!!!

Emirate Airways is a good idea to get to Dar from Europe. You have a stop over at Dubai butt arrive and lieave at good times
Getting around in DAR is not too difficult. Most places are relly in walking distance.

By air or by bus. When travelling from Dar es Salaam to (for example) Moshi, its is best to take a 'vip'bus, like the Fresh ya Shamba or even better the 'Scandanavian'. Both have good busses (not falling apart) and have good service on board (two sodas, cookies, sweets and english newspapers are included). The price difference between a 'local' bus and a better bus should only be about 4000shillings (4 usd), but it is worth it. Those are the only busses that will run on scheduled time, instead of the other ones, which wont move before the bus is full, and you will have a seat instead of sometimes standing for half of the way. The first time I was travelling by bus from Dar es Salaam to Moshi, I took a local bus and waited for three hours in the a very hot and full bus, with loud Tanzanian music, before it even started moving... it also stopped at every small town on the way to moshi, a journey which should have taken only about 6 hours lasted 10 hours for me! You should try it once, but thats enough...
taxi