Health
You should consult your doctor about what vaccinations are required for travel to the region and check whether they recommend the use of malarial prophylactics. Please note that a yellow fever certificate is required by the authorities in Tanzania if your international flight has routed through Kenya, Ethiopia, Dubai and a number of other countries. Please check this with us so that we can provide advice depending on your airline.
Tipping
Tipping is very much an integral part of tourism in Tanzania and wages are generally low and are then supplemented by tips. The following guidelines should help you to work out how much to tip, but you should remember that tipping is discretionary and it is up to you whether you tip or not. If you have not received a good service, you do not need to tip whereas if the service has been particularly good, you might want to give more than we suggest.
We have quoted amounts in GBP but it is generally best to tip in either local currency or US dollars.
Concierges – $2-$3 when checking in and checking out
Drivers / Guides – approximately $30 – $35 per day
Housekeeping staff – $2-$5 per day (there will often be a tip box in the hotel reception where you can leave a tip that will be distributed amongst the hotel staff)
Waiters – Most meals are included so you will not be given a bill. However, if purchasing drinks from the bar it would be customary to leave a tip of around 10%
Transport
You will be provided with a custom-made safari vehicle, with an English-speaking driver, throughout your tour.
Drinks
Your tour includes drinking water whilst out on safari. Additional water and drinks can be purchased at your hotels.
Personal Safety
Tanzania is generally a very safe country to travel in. There is petty theft in the major cities (and in Zanzibar) but this is usually targeted either at tourists who are clearly displaying their wealth (with a bulging wallet, expensive camera / watch / jewelry) or who are walking home late at night. If you follow basic precautions and use your common sense, you are very unlikely to have a problem.
There are also some basic rules that you should follow when on safari. Some of these may sound extremely obvious but you would be surprised at some of the stories we hear of other guests so we prefer to err on the side of caution!
Never ever get out of your vehicle when on safari. Even if the vehicle breaks down and you are desperate for the toilet you must remain in the vehicle. Many animals are remarkably camouflaged and you may not see them nearby. Whilst in the jeep you are safe as they just see this as a big target; the moment you get out of the vehicle you may suddenly be seen as prey. All vehicles are counted in and out of the park so if you do break down, the park rangers will soon find you.
If you do need the toilet when on a safari drive, please try to give the driver as much notice as possible. They will find a big open area where they are happy that it is safe for you to stop. Unfortunately, you will usually not be given a bush to hide behind as you never know what else may be behind that bush! The drivers will be respectful and look the other way (or ‘check the tire pressure’ which is the local euphemism for a pee stop!).
Don’t wave anything outside the car or stick your arms out. This can be seen as a sign of aggression and in extreme cases, could cause an elephant to charge the vehicle.
Always follow the instructions of your guide, no matter how strange they may seem. This is particularly important when on a walking or canoeing safari but applies at any time.
If staying in a tented camp, never leave your tent once it is dark without asking for one of the rangers who will be patrolling the property to accompany you. If you are traveling with younger children, you should ensure that one adult is in the tent with them.
Always wear shoes and socks when walking around the bush (rather than flip flops). This provides a level of protection against biting insects, snakes and scorpions.
Photography
You should always ask permission before taking anyone’s photograph. Many of the people in places that receive a steady stream of travellers are used to having their pictures taken and some may ask for money. You can usually tell the people who will ask for money, as they pose for pictures as their ‘job’ and will be standing around looking for tourists, asking if you want to photograph them.
Email
Some hotels may have Wi-Fi, though internet in Tanzania can be notoriously slow. There will usually be a code that you can get from the reception desk and you will most likely have to pay for it.
Background Reading
The Ukimwi Road (by Dervla Murphy)
I Dreamed of Africa (by Kuki Gallman)
A Primate’s Memoir (by Robert Sapolsky)
North of South (by Shiva Naipaul)
The Shadow of the Sun (by Ryszard Kapuscinski)
Food and Drink
The food whilst on safari is both delicious and plentiful.
Breakfast will usually consist of plenty of fresh fruit, yoghurt, bread / toast, jams, cereals and a hot dish such as bacon / sausage, pancakes or omelettes. Both tea and coffee are usually served.
Lunch will depend on whether you are out and about, in which case you will get a lunch box, or in the hotel, in which case you will usually be served an extensive buffet meal which will be similar to dinner.
Lunch boxes usually contain a variation on a theme of sandwich, boiled egg, cold chicken, samosa, fruit, nuts, cake and juice.
Lunch and dinner buffets start with an excellent soup and then offer a main meat (or chicken) dish, together with rice, potatoes or pasta (or all three!). There is usually an extensive salad accompaniment and a vegetable dish as well.
Luggage and What to Pack
Please note that internal flights with Tanzania (to and from the Serengeti and Zanzibar) have a strict luggage allowance of 15kg per person including your hand luggage. They also stipulate that your bag should be soft sided (rather than ‘rigid’) as the luggage space on each aircraft is quite small and will not fit many rigid bags. Note that if you bring a rigid bag the airline will usually agree to carry it, but it may be on a later flight depending on the luggage space. As this can be problematic (it means that your luggage may arrive in your destination several hours after you do) we strongly recommend that you follow the advice and bring a soft sided bag!
Almost all hotels will offer a laundry service where you can get clothes washed easily but this can be relatively expensive so you may not want to have to do this too often.
You might like to consider bringing the following items;
- Day-pack which you can use to carry your water, guide book, binoculars, camera etc during the day
- Binoculars for game viewing
- Head torch
- Pen-knife, so that you can buy (and peel) local fruit
- Light-weight jacket
- Charger for your phone / camera and converter plug so that you can plug it in to the sockets in your hotels
- Sunglasses, sun cream, sun hat and insect repellent. (Do make sure that you wear a hat as the sun is ferocious and there is nothing worse than heat-stroke for ruining your holiday!)
- Small first aid kit. It is not necessary to bring a huge kit as there are pharmacies everywhere, so you only need the basics in case of an emergency.
- Wet-wipes or hand disinfectant – perfect for when you are eating at local restaurants or if you have stopped to buy fruit and have got all sticky.
- Zip-lock plastic bags. These are surprisingly useful to protect things like cameras or iPod from the dust. They can also be useful on the beach to protect from sand.
Haggling
Bargaining is a way of life in much of Tanzania and particularly in the larger markets or tourist shops. Shops and market stalls selling tourist goods don’t have fixed prices so the shop keeper will start with a high price which you are then expected to bargain down until you reach a fair price. Bargaining should always be relaxed and can be a lot of fun but you should remember that it is considered disrespectful to agree a price and then walk away without making the purchase.
It is impossible to give a guideline as to how much you should aim to reduce the price by when haggling as this varies widely from one stall to the next. In some places you would expect to pay as little as 15% of the original asking price whilst in others you might need to pay perhaps 50% of the original price.
Our advice (if you are keen to get the best possible price) is that if you see something that you like, find something similar in a different shop or stall. Ask the price and then tell the shop keeper that this is too expensive and can he bring the price down. When you decide not to purchase the item, you will probably find that the price drops and drops, giving you some idea of what you could expect to pay. You can then return to the original shop to buy the item that you want, with a good idea as to what you should pay.
You could of course do this in the original shop, where you have seen the item that you want to buy, but in our experience the local shopkeepers are extremely adept at reading the interest level of a shopper. If they can tell that you definitely want the item, they are much less likely to drop the price!
Food stuffs and water are generally not something to bargain over.
Voltage and Power Socket
Most of the power outlets in Tanzania have a voltage of 220 which is similar to that in the UK (and Europe) and will not cause any problems with UK (or European) appliances.
Plug sockets in Tanzania are of the UK variety, with three square pins.
Email and Phone
Many lodges will offer email facilities and Wi-Fi although this tends to be quite patchy (and is usually restricted to the main communal area rather than in the rooms). Please do not promise anyone at home that you will be in touch on a particular day as you may find this difficult.
It is possible to use your mobile phone in Tanzania but the reception will be scant when out on safari. There is plenty of reception in Zanzibar. If you have a smartphone, remember to check if you have your data roaming turned on or off, to avoid large phone bills.
Clothing
You don’t need to wear anything special for a safari but you should try to wear clothes in muted colours (greens, browns and khaki) so that you are not too visible and blend in to the surroundings. Very dark colours (navy and black)
can attract biting insects, particularly the tsetse fly, so are best avoided. White is also not ideal as you will tend to get very dusty when on game drives and will therefore look very dirty very quickly! It also reflects light and can startle the animals.
Generally, a safari is a dusty experience so it can be worth keeping one or two separate outfits for the evening.
You will experience quite a range of temperatures so we recommend that you ‘dress like an onion’ with layers that can be added and removed as necessary. Many game drives take place in the early morning or around dusk, when it can be surprisingly chilly and you will be grateful for a fleece or lightweight jacket.
However, once the sun comes up it can quickly get quite warm so you will want to be able to strip back to a lightweight shirt or T-shirt.
Sturdy shoes (with a closed toe) are useful if you go on a bush walk or to help avoid biting insects at night. Trainers are fine but come with thick socks to help keep away the mosquitoes.
You should bring a hat; a wide brimmed safari hat is ideal as it will shield you from the sun, but a normal sunhat or cap will be fine. A lightweight scarf can be useful for all manner of things – warmth in the morning, sun shield when it’s hot, cover up when you are worried about getting burned or when there are insects around, wiping dust off your camera, glasses etc!
You will not need anything particularly formal as most lodges have a very relaxed dress code and are used to people wearing just about anything. The situation is different on Zanzibar, which is predominantly Muslim and has more conservative attitudes towards dress. Here you can wear what you like on the beach but might like to be slightly more covered up when in Stone Town (eg longer shorts or skirts, no vest tops). You will see plenty of tourists ignoring this advice, but the locals are appreciative if you dress more conservatively.
Vegetarians and other dietary requirements
We can cater for almost all dietary requirements but please let us know about these in advance so that we can prepare accordingly.
Guidebooks
As all hotels and most meals and activities have been included, you may find that you don’t need a regular guidebook. Many people enjoy travelling with a book about African wildlife instead. We really like the following;
Field Guide to African Wildlife (National Audubon Society) by Alden, Estes, Schlitter and McBride
Wildlife of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda (Traveller’s Guide) by Hosking and Withers.
Money
The monetary unit in Tanzania is the Tanzanian Shilling (TZS) Approximate exchange rates (as at April 2018 ) are as follows:
$1 = 2,270 TZS
There are ATMs available in the major cities but not at all once you depart on safari. Both Visa and Mastercard are widely accepted at the ATMs.
Once you leave for your safari by far the best option is to carry cash with you. It may be possible to do a cash withdrawal with a Visa or Mastercard at your hotel, but this will usually be at a poor exchange rate and may carry a hefty commission. We therefore advise you to bring cash with you from home or withdraw a good amount at the airport on arrival.
All major currencies can be exchanged but US dollars are the most useful and attract the best exchange rate. Higher denomination notes ($50 or $100 bills) give the best rate although there is not a huge amount in it. Please ensure that all notes are crisp and unblemished as you will find it very difficult to exchange torn or crumpled notes. (Also, if you are given change in dollars whilst on your holiday, insist on being given good quality notes so that you don’t have a problem using them subsequently).
Pounds and euros are also easily exchanged in most places and although the rate may not be quite as good as that for USD, there will not be very much in it.