Long post, but felt compelled to write an honest review of my experience after reading through Reddit prior to my own trip.

Just finished up a 4 week trip to Tanzania and Zanzibar (Travelling as a solo 30M in Tanzania with my wife joining me as a 32F in Zanzibar for about 10 days)

Before travelling to Tanzania I was reading a lot of Reddit threads regarding people’s experiences in Tanzania/Zanzibar in which I have to say, made me nervous about what I was about to experience.

In my experience after 4 weeks, some of the comments, upon reflection, are overinflated and in my opinion are far from the truth.

To give context, I arrived in Moshi for 2 days before taking on the 7-day Lemosho Route climb of Kilimanjaro. Firstly, I booked this expedition with Altezza Travel and have to say, they are 100% worth the money you pay to take on the climb with them. The porters are some of the friendliest people I’ve met, who tend to your every need whilst on the trek - you are fed and watered more than you would expect and they endeavour to make the trip as comfortable for you as they possibly can. The environment and atmosphere they create around the climb keeps you positive throughout and I’m so glad I booked that experience with Altezza. 110% recommend them for your climb if you are to do so.

Disclaimer: they are the most expensive, but in my experience you get what you pay for, especially if you want to climb in a larger group as a solo traveller.

Following the climb, I travelled to Arusha after a couple days to relax in Moshi, to do the safari in the Serengeti. As most have said, this experience is 10/10 and should be on everyone’s bucket list.

My provider was Serengeti Wild Tours, who again, I 100% recommend. I went for a “joining tour”’which essentially means you have one guide, set up by different tour providers. This means you can customise your stays to the larger group - in my case I chose to do the lodging stays after camping for 7 days. Some of the lodges I stayed in such as the Serena Lodge in Ngorogoro was one of the best hotel stays I’ve ever experienced.

Our tour guide was amazing and Serengeti Wild Tours always made sure to check up on me throughout and ensure my needs were being served - they were extremely attentive, and good value in comparison to some of the other providers.

After a day in Arusha, I flew to Zanzibar via Kilimanjaro airport. Airport is small but despite flying with Precision Air which I was extremely worried about, my flight took off on time, so no issues there.

Zanzibar for the last 10 days has been amazing - relaxed, island vibe, weather has been fantastic, people have been amazing, the hotels are fantastic quality - the food is really exceptional. We stayed at Samawa Living - unbelievable experience with them and highly recommend the staff there in particular.

We stayed in Paje which weather wise was the best decision - you don’t get caught with the mainland weather and it had similarities to Bali in the town.

As some point out, there isn’t a huge amount to do, so do bare that in mind, but for me and my wife, chilling in the sun, eating great food and walking along the beach was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Now, onto some myth busting. Again, this is my experience only, but I do want to challenge some of the rhetoric on this channel.

People:

Some on Reddit will have you believe you’re harassed and hassled as soon as you get off the plane to when you return to the airport - that has not been my experience at all.

The Tanzanian locals have been some of the friendliest and nicest locals I’ve met travelling. Their customer experience, in particular, the porters I met on my climb and the hotel and restaraunt staff in Zanzibar, was really 10/10, and yes they’re working for tips, but are fully deserved of those tips, and do not pressure you into giving them.

Compare that to the likes of Mexico for example where tips are customary, the experience you receive is far far less desirable than Tanzania.

Weather

We travelled in early October in which the weather forecasts were horrendous due to El Niño.

However despite some slight rain in mainland Tanzania, the Serengeti and Zanzibar has not had a single drop of rain during our time here. Clouds are more prominent in the morning, but very quickly clear up around 11am ish.

I’d advise to bring a fleece for the evenings if you’re staying in Moshi or Arusha for a prologued period of time in October.

Danger (Driving, Harassment, Scamming)

My experience has had little to no exposure to danger.

For context, we were walking from our hotel to Paje Town in the dark, we walked along the beach and through the markets in the day and the evening etc, and did not feel unsafe at all. Of course you keep your bearings and don’t do anything stupid, but we did not feel unsafe whatsoever.

Lots of people say how crazy the driving is here - I thought it was pretty standard for anyone who’s travelled to a third world country before. The driving in Bali and Egypt was way worse in my opinion. We organised our transfers from the airport to the where we stayed before which I recommend for peace of mind.

Lots of discourse around scamming and harassment as well - I would say one time out of a full week, and we were walking around in Paje town quite a bit, did I have someone who walked with me for 5 minutes trying to sell excursions. Other than that you say no and they took that no for an answer. I genuinely don’t understand the discourse around being harassed here, in my experience. For example, in Turkey I felt way more harassed when looking through shops and stalls.

Conclusion

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Tanzania/Zanzibar and 100% recommend the trip for once in a lifetime experiences such as Kilimanjaro, Serengeti, Bluest of seas and whitest sand beaches.

Don’t believe everything you read on Reddit - if you’ve travelled to other third world countries you’ll come with the right expectations, but embracing the people here will make a world of difference to your trip - honestly, that is the biggest highlight for me.

Been like 5 months in Moshi and today I was on a boda when the rider spotted a dollar note flying across the road just past Mahakama kuu ya Tanzania.

Dude just jumped off to grab it, all i heard was shikilia and the next thing I know the bike and me hit the ground.

Bruised my left knee, nothing serious, thankfully and my laptop is not damaged.

But it just got me thinking about young riders here and Arusha. A lot of them ride pretty recklessly and I just seem to have bad experience with them compared to older looking riders.

For people in Moshi/Arusha:

- How do you pick a safe rider? Do you stick to regulars or use apps like Bolt?

- Are tuktuks better for transport?

- Is there any training or licensing that's actually enforced?

I am in Dar getting ready to go out tonight. Anyone wanna join in...?

I am Kenyan (M) visiting Dar

Heyyyy, Need a piñata for a birthday party. Anyone know where I can get one in Dar?

Hi, guys we are flying to tanzania and from tanzania over to zanzibar, we have a 4-5hr layover and looking at all the lounges available won't be able to use them as we fly from terminal 2 and need to gather our luggage and check them in again for the 30min flight to zanzibar.

Does any 1 know of lounges at the airport we can use, we are landing in the early morning around 1am.

Thanks!

This is tz😭😭😭

To preface, our safari guide miscalculated the time needed to get to the airport, so when we alighted and made our way to the entrance, we were 10min away from check in closure. This was def the fault of the company/guide, not the airport.

1.First thing through JRO’s entrance, is a bag and luggage check where an officer requested our passports and our tickets. We told him that we have the reservation but we don’t have our tickets yet because we haven’t checked in (the airline website didn’t allow online checkin).

He flat out told us that we were not allowed into the airport, and had to go to one of the offices in another building. We were confused, we had never encountered anything like this before in all the 40+ countries we’ve been to.

We thought it might be a misunderstanding and explained that we already paid and reserved the tickets for the flight, even showed the email. It was just that we hadn’t checked in and so didn’t have the actual tickets, and also explained that the check in for the flight we booked was closing soon.

He was very rude and unempathetic, disallowing us from entering and insisted that we had to go to another building to resolve this. I even explicitly asked him if the check in counters were inside – he said no, only boarding (????).

At this point I really thought the check-in counters and the boarding gates were in separate buildings. So we went on a wild goose chase to this other office, and when we got there, was a small ticketing office. They were so confused why we were even there and then told us that we were definitely fine to enter the airport…..

1. So we went back to the entrance of JRO airport and now there is a long line. Aaaand of course, there had been also a shift change, so a different person was there now. We had to explain the whole situation to him, and our guide helped to ask if we could possibly go to the front to scan our bags, since check in is closing soon.

This second officer said okay - but did not escort us or explain this to the travellers in the line.

So we had to very awkwardly cut the line ourselves and profusely apologise to the people who understandably were not happy. (Tbf, I wouldn’t be happy if people who were late tried to cut the line!)

Some tried to push their way ahead of us, putting their things on top of ours, etc. I felt sooo bad and really hated the whole thing. Also, there weren’t any clear signs or any instructions from the officers, and the whole area was congested because confused people had to keep backtracking because some had to take off shoes/belt and some didn’t which just made the whole process much more unpleasant.

1. After we got through the body scanner, an airline staff approached us and asked if we were on flight X (which we were) and was clearly pissed at us. She said in a very annoyed tone that they were all waiting for us to check in. Again, I apologised, said that there was some confusion at the bag check, but we are heading over asap.

Then, one of our bags got flagged. We emptied and opened everything of course. Then they told us it’s the wrong bag and it’s our other bag …… So we did same thing again, but nothing was amiss.

And this whole time, the airline lady was literally rushing us, saying things like “excuse me, we are all waiting for you” “hurry up” “can you be faster” like as if we were hasten the process any further 😭😭

after we were done, my partner started wearing his shoes (he didn’t get the chance to wear his boots because he had to assist with the bag inspection) and the lady started rushing us to the counter saying “what are you doing you are already late hurry up” ?????? Anyway at that point, I felt so bad and all I could do was apologise to them for waiting.

—
Anyway, we reached the gate on time, which was a relief. But the whole experience was really stressful and unpleasant for us. We have been to many airports, including small, domestic ones, and while many are slow and not as efficient, none have ever been so rude.

Everyone we met during our time here – people in the hospitality/service industry as well as locals – had been very friendly (and we only stayed in budget/mid-tier places, too), so we were definitely surprised that our experience in JRO turned out as such.

We do understand that it’s not their fault we arrived pretty close to the closing time, though we hope that officers could be better trained wrt airport procedures (so that they don’t send travellers on unnecessary wild goose chases) and perhaps more understanding when certain things are out of our control.

Nimeikuta zizini.

Haya sasa watu wa mazingira, nina jambo la kudiscuss with you guys!

Recently, I noticed something interesting in Germany. You rarely see plastic bottles littering the streets, and one thing that seems to help is a system called Pfand.

For those who haven't heard of it, here's how it works: when you buy a drink, you pay a small deposit for the bottle or can. In Germany, it's usually €0.25 (25 cents) for single-use plastic bottles and cans, while some reusable bottles have a deposit of around €0.08 (8 cents).

Once you finish your drink, you can return the empty bottle to a machine at a supermarket and get your money back.

Instead of throwing it away, you have a reason to return it. You'll even find people collecting empty bottles from public places to get the deposit money.

Now, this got me thinking... what if we had something like this in Tanzania?

Imagine if returning your empty soda or water bottle meant getting some money back. It could help kupunguza uchafuzi wa mazingira, keep our streets and mitaro cleaner, and create opportunities for people to earn money by collecting bottles.

Of course, implementing it wouldn't be that simple. We'd need collection points, recycling infrastructure, and shops willing to participate.

But for watu wanaojali mazingira, do you think a system like this could work in Tanzania? What would it take to make it happen, and what challenges would we need to solve?

Let's discuss this. Maybe there are people here who have worked on waste management or environmental projects and have interesting perspectives.

Just bought it. I plan to bring it without trying to hide / disassemble it. Is this a risky move?

We are 3 weeks away from our first safari trip. We had to cancel this once before due to family illness…now we are concerned about the pending rains from the El Nino being predicted. How much should we worry about it? Our safari company (local Tanzanian) so far is saying it will be OK. I don’t want to have to rebook all this again and risk losing money but I don’t want to be stuck in the mud in the rain somewhere miserable. Thoughts please? Thank you…

Just curious as to whether it’s more of a tourist vibe

US citizens traveling to Tanzania at the end of this month. We’re landing around 2AM on a Sunday.

I’ve read differing things but most say getting Visa on arrival is much quicker. But is that still the case on a weekend and in the early morning?

Thanks for any advice!

Edit: flying into JRO

So, just to mention that this safari in the Serengeti/Ngorongoro wasn’t my first safari. I have experiences with other guides and companies.

Throughout the entire trip, there were issues with communication. We never received any communication beforehand. We always had to ask multiple questions, like “Where is my driver?”, “What is his name?”, “What is the car plate?”, “Where am I going to find this or that?”, and we always had to wait. The company was never proactive and never communicated anything to us.

Now, here comes the issue with our guide that met us in the Seronera. We spent four days in his company and ended up seeing the animals on our wishlist. The lodges were also nice, but we chose them ourselves, the safari company only booked them for us.

The rest of the things were just frustrating. The safari guide:
\-Didn’t tell us a single thing about the animals or the area unless we asked him to. When we asked him, the explanations were very dry.
\-He just kept talking on the phone all the time. Imagine a scene: we’re parked by a pride of lions enjoying their meals, we’re in total silence, and our driver is, in the meantime, talking on the phone. The same thing happened every day.
\-He never warned us when he decided to move abruptly from a spot. I tripped a couple of times because I would be standing up with my binoculars, and he would get started with no warning.
\-We booked a very nice hotel on our last day, with a view of the Ngorongoro Crater. We had our flight at 16:00 and had agreed with the tour company that we would be brought to Arusha Airport 2h before the flight. The night before, the driver started insisting that we had to wake up at 6:00, have breakfast at 6:30, and leave the hotel at 7:00. We argued that we wanted to enjoy the hotel longer and didn’t want to arrive at the airport with too much time to spare. We also don’t enjoy eating breakfast at 6:30, unless we really have to. Then the guy started telling us a bunch of things like, “You never know what happens on the roads, so it’s best if we leave 10 hours before,” and “Arusha Airport has three-hour waiting lines,” etc. The thing is, I’ve been to Arusha plenty of times before, and I know that the airport is sometimes busy, but to require four hours in advance for a domestic flight? Then we argued again, and the driver started offering us the Maasai experience for $50. We refused, as we find these things inauthentic, and we have also seen Maasai-related things before. Then the guide just texted us a message literally saying, “There’s no alternative. Please pack your bags, have your breakfast, and make sure you’re ready by 7:00.”

We were shocked. This has spoilt our last day of the trip, and we also ended up getting to the airport 4.5 hours before our flight. This, together with waking up at 5:45 that day, four hours on a bumpy road, and four hours of waiting, only to be followed by a 2h flight, made things extremely tiring.. Were we somehow in the wrong? Am I failing to see anything? Should we still tip them? Can they go after me for not tipping as this seems to be really expected of us?

And sorry for the many words!

UPD: the company is See Endless Adventures

Hi folks, I'm looking to get in a taster, one-day hike before an upcoming safari trip, but am having trouble sorting through the hundreds of tours advertised and getting clear details on the actual conditions of the routes.

In the U.S., I'm experienced in solo hiking pretty rugged trails (lots of big boulders, roots, scrambly sections), typically 10-12mi (16-19km) gaining upwards of 914m elevation. In terms of pace, I'm not trail runner, but I'm also not a total turtle. Ideally, I'd like a similar somewhat challenging day hike - it looks like this isn't really possible for day hikes, though?

Has anyone done a one-day hike on Kili or Mt. Meru, and if so, can you share some details about the route/s?

Thank you!

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for advice from people in Tanzania, particularly anyone familiar with NMB Bank or international wire transfers.
I initiated an international wire transfer from TD Canada Trust in Canada to a beneficiary’s account at NMB Bank in Tanzania for a legitimate travel-related payment. Several weeks later, the funds remain unaccounted for.
TD has advised me that the intermediary bank, Citibank, received the funds and forwarded them to NMB Bank. However, NMB has indicated that it has not received the payment to my safari operator.
I have shared the intermediary bank’s reference information with NMB and contacted both banks repeatedly. Unfortunately, I have not received a satisfactory resolution. My attempts to follow up with NMB have largely gone unanswered.My safari operator is also not being particularly helpful.At this point, I am frustrated by both the missing funds and the lack of accountability and communication from the banks involved.
I would appreciate advice on a few questions:
NMB Bank: What is the most effective way to escalate a missing international wire when customer care is not responding? Is there a specific complaints department or senior office that can help?
Bank of Tanzania: Has anyone successfully lodged a complaint with the Bank of Tanzania regarding an unresolved banking transaction? What is the process like?
TD/Citibank: Should TD be able to initiate a formal SWIFT trace and recall through Citibank, even if NMB is not responding?
Practical experience: Has anyone experienced a similar situation involving an international transfer to Tanzania, and how was it eventually resolved?
I am not looking to name or blame the beneficiary or any business publicly. I simply want to understand the appropriate escalation channels and how to get the funds traced and returned if they have not reached the intended recipient.
Any advice based on actual experience would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

We have a safaris for mid December doing the northern circuit in Tanzania. Any experiences with doing the safari during el niño ,how we should prepare, and how we may be affected? TYIA

What do you think of Mwalimu? How is his legacy panning out today?

My safari company has just cancelled our safari (due to El Niño) that was going to happen in the 2nd week of November 2026. They are cancelling all of their trips from mid October through the end of November. We had already known about El Niño but hadn’t been too worried based on everything we read and heard.

Has anyone else’s tour company also cancelled or is mine being overly cautious??

Would really like to hear about others plans for November as we now need to decide whether to rebook with a different company in Tanzania, or if we can do a last minute booking to a different country that may be less impacted by the rain.

I'll be in Tanzania (a week in Dar es Salaam and 3 weeks in Morogoro) this November. I train boxing & Muay Thai and I'd like to keep it up while I'm in TZ.

Any good gym/coach recommendations (esp Morogoro)?

Thank you/asante in advance!

I’m looking for recommendations for any shops or online services that rent out good quality -30c sleeping bags and jackets.

Ideally, I’m looking for somewhere that offers delivery and collection after the rental period, so I wouldn’t have to worry about going to the shop myself.

I’d really appreciate any recommendations or advice. If you could let me know name and contact info of reputable businesses that’d be great.
Thanks🙂