Zanzibar Town Transportation

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We flew directly from Johannesburg to Zanzibar with SAA on the Tuesday morning. The flight left JHB at 8h20 so we arrived in zanzibar at approx 12h30. We bought our visa's upon arrival for US$50. Some people on our flight bought their visa's in SA, but they were not recognised when we arrived so they had to pay again! We departed again at 14h20 on the Sunday. Please be aware that there is not much at the airport. You basically stand in the street to book in your luggage. And you have to pay a departure tax of US$25 in cash.

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There are a handful airlines operating in the region. 'Zan air' is among the better known ones.

We took a small 5 seater flight (Cessna?) on our trip from Unguja (Zanzibar island) to Pemba. The flight lasts an hour, flying fairly low over some fairly spectacular scenery (the low altitude makes it a bit bumpy too sometimes). Its a daily flight- leaves in the morning, returns in the evening.

Going by boat from Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar Town or back you have much choices. There are ferries, catamarans, hydrofoils or you can even go by dhow or governmental boat. There are different prices depending on which boat you take (10 -35 dollar). The boattrip will take 90 minutes at the fast boats and 6 hours at the slowest ones.

From Stone Town back to Dar es Salaam we took the fast catamaran called MV ''Seabus'' of Azam Marine, two departures a day.

But there are also other good companies. Check the fares and times at the company offices, before buying your ticket.

There are several flights everyday to Zanzibar Town from Dar es Salaam, Mombasa and Arusha and maybe more towns.

We came from Arusha with Precisionair. We decided to fly, to have more time at Zanzibar at the end of our overland trip. We booked the flight two days ahead and had a lot of choice in airlines and flighttimes.

From the office of Precisionair in the centre of Arusha we had a free shuttlebus to the airport 8 KM outside of town, departing exactly in the right minute. Also the pleasant flight -with a marvellous view at the Klimanjaro- was exactly in time. The flight time was one hour.

Zanzibar number plates are still easy to decode - the lower the number on the plate, the nearer the car is to the first ever on the island. Lowest we got to was around the 2,500 mark. This mini was definitely the most decrepit, though!!!

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The best way to explore Stone Town is by foot. The area is not very big.
Although you will most probably get lost at some stage in Central Stone Town – it is part of the experience.