Travel Costs Breakdown: Zanzibar

What does it cost to visit Zanzibar on a budget?

As usual, this breakdown is based solely on my experience with planning for a trip I made in the month of September, 2016. This is intended only for the purpose of trip planning and to present a fair idea of how much to budget.

All prices stated here are either approximate values or exact values at the time of this writing.

Visa and Transportation Details

Visa is given on arrival at Zanzibar International Airport to Nigerian citizens and costs $50. You can also obtain your visa before traveling at the Tanzanian embassy in Abuja. You would typically want to get it before hand to skip the immigration queue but if you aren’t able to do so, you can just show up at the airport.

An economy class ticket to Zanzibar would cost you anything from N100,000 – N150,000, depending on when you book or your travel time.

Edit: a recent check put flight costs within the N220,000 – N250,000 range.

Taxis from the airport can be arranged by the hotel you choose to stay at. Budget $35 for a trip to Stone Town, $55-75 for a trip to Kiwengwa, Paje and Jambiani and $65-85 for a trip to Nungwi.

Accommodation

We stayed in a bungalow at The Reef & Beach, Jambiani which we booked using the Booking.com app. This cost us $230 for 6 nights (plus breakfast). We found accommodation in Stone Town (for the time period we travelled in) to be slightly cheaper generally, higher in places like Nungwi and pretty much same in the Paje area.

Food & Drinks

We spent about $120 on feeding for the entire 6 days. Breakfast came with the room while our lunch and dinner were quite basic and cheap. (Except for the last day when we had a fancy 4-course meal)

Entertainment

We took a day trip to Stone Town and Prison Island with a Spice Tour en route. This was organized by the hotel and it cost us $50 each. This was basically the only thing we did in Zanzibar. A snorkeling experience was underway but we wound up cancelling. The price for that was about $60.

Total Budget for 2 travellers (based ONLY on our experience): $1,200 (or $1,500 see: edit)

Hope you find this information useful and don’t forget, prices could be higher or lower depending on how early you plan, travel periods (peak or otherwise) and your own personal preferences.