I just arrived in Zanzibar. Entry to the country was very easy. I had to show my vaccination certificate and my online health form for Tanzania. Best is to print out both forms. You can get visa on arrival. You have to fill in 2 forms , visit 3 seperate kiosks and pay 50 Us is cash. I saw Visa card terminals but I think it is better to pay in cash. The more upfront in the airplane the quicker you are outside. For us it was 30 minutes. We had row 14 on our QR flight.

Thx. This is very helpful. We head to Zanzibar in late summer.

Usd or local currency for the $50? Just clarifying… not going to Africa soon but want to

I used a 50 US dollar note. Make sure it is a new one without cracks

Are you going to scuba dive in Zanzibar? We plan to go in June and would like to do so. Any advice appreciated.

I was fishing in Zanzibar last year, but what I learnt to do to save money regarding water-based hobbies (and assuming you are already competent at your hobby and ideally have your own equipment) is that it is best to avoid tour companies offering packages for your hobby. I did a number of expeditions with tour companies and they were fine. But then I met a boat captain (who claimed he was a keen fisherman) on the beach and with him built my own expeditions. In Nungwi and Stone Town are two boat yards where traditional boats are built and where licensed Zanzibari seafarers can hire all manner of boats from (ngalawas, dhows, fibreglass etc). If you can directly contract a boat captain you can arrange trips far more cheaply as this is all the tour companies do (along with providing some refreshments and an itinerary). The captain I contracted gave me an hourly and daily rate for each type of boat and I arranged all supplies. Worked out much cheaper and I was completely free to go anywhere and he knew the area inside out and took me to some great spots....

Considering to go to Zanzibar. I read on Timatic that if originating from the UK we will be tested on arrival. Is this correct? I can't seem to find anything in this regard and the TZ gov websites aren't particularly helpful. This is the timatic text:

We went diving with Divepoint. We stayed in Matemwe and enjoyed it

We just got back from a few wonderful days in Zanzibar. We originally arrived in TZ at JRO, where we had to show our visa and vaccine status. The entry stamp from there was all we needed to get into ZNZ when we flew from ARK.

We dove with Spanish Dancer in Nungwi, which was recommended by our hotel, and we were very satisfied. The shop was well organized, clean and efficient. The staff was multilingual, enthusiastic, and very competent. We took a refresher course that was succinct and confidence building. Our guide was very attentive, and even pointed out a leaf fish I would've never noticed. My only complaint is I thought the boat was too small for the group size and choppiness of the water (my wife and son got seasick, even with the Dramamine they provided). I didn't see any boats around any bigger so I don't think we could've done better elsewhere. It was big enough to carry a spare BCD to replace the one with which I had problems. Overall a nice experience.

For those of you who have dived in Zanzibar, what location do you find it comparable to? Indonesia? Polynesia? Trying to figure out if it's worth spending a precious day of vacation.

The fee must differ by country. The fee for Americans is $100. I encourage everyone to research what it is from their home country.

U.S. citizens may also obtain a tourist visa upon arrival at the airport in Tanzania. The cost is $100 USD. Be prepared to pay in cash in case connectivity issues make electronic transactions impossible.

https://travel.state.gov/content/tra.../Tanzania.html

Is there any advantage in getting a visa in advance?

https://www.onlinevisa.com/tanzania-visa/american/

Correct, it is either free or USD 50 for everyone except Americans.
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We agreed to dive the Tumbatu Island area because it was easy and we are not very experienced (7 dive trips the past 7 years). Once underwater it didn't look much different than any other shallow (~10m/30ft) reef dive we've done, but I did enjoy the dives. There are many other, very diverse dive sites so you may want to look into which ones might interest you, compared to all the interesting things to do in Zanzibar.

I sat next to a guy who claimed he averaged 3 dive trips a year for 30 yrs and he found Zanzibar worthwhile, and was very jealous he didn't get to see the leaf fish. OTOH, my kids were very disappointed we didn't see any turtles.


I don't think so. We got it in advance, which was a surprisingly tedious, unintuitive online process. When we arrive in JRO, most of our plane (very full A350) got into the advance visa lines so that took a long time. The visa on arrival line was way shorter, but seemed to take longer so those people didn't seem to be done sooner. Your call.

Allow me to clarify: Strictly speaking "Zanzibar" is not one island, but a bunch of islands. The one everyone commonly refer to as Zanzibar is actually Unguja Island, but there are other islands such as Pemba (further north) and Mafia Island (down south).
It should be worth noticing that generally the resident scuba-diving community in the capital Dar es Salaam usually prefer Mafia first for diving, then Pemba and lastly Unguja (what is likely here referred to).
From Mafia you can also catch the whale-shark migration and dive with them at certain times of the year.

I myself haven't been diving off Unguja or Mafia, but have many friends that have. I did Pemba island though, up north. Was amazing with a massive ridge along the coast line with a wall dropping from 4-6m down to 50-60m the length of the coast and crystal clear water.
Not saying Zanzibar (Unguja) isnt worth diving, just saying I would pick Mafia any day if I could.

Another advice: If you want to do deep-sea fishing, check out Mombasa instead. Much more commercialised and professional. And better chance of getting home with the priced sailfish or even to land a marlin, if you are lucky.