How many days for safari and Zanzibar

Counting usable days in Tanzania — not the flying ones — the ratio that works best is two thirds safari, one third beach. The safari is what you cannot do anywhere else; the beach is the rest that finishes it off.

And the order is not up for debate: savannah first, island afterwards. A safari means 5am starts, hours on dirt tracks and a change of accommodation every second night. After four days on a beach, the body does not want that.

Below eight usable days the sums do not work. You can do the safari alone, and do it very well, but forcing Zanzibar in turns the trip into one continuous transfer.

• Dropping the Serengeti to gain beach days. The Serengeti is the reason to come to Tanzania. If something has to be cut, cut the island.
• Two nights on Zanzibar. Between the flight, the transfer and the departure day, you are left with a few real hours on the sand. Either four nights or none.
• One night per park. Distances in the north are long and the tracks are slow. Two nights in the Serengeti are worth more than four parks taken at a run.

From June to October both halves are at their best at the same time: it is the dry season in the savannah, with wildlife concentrated around water, and on Zanzibar there is less humidity and a calm sea. January and February work too, with the wildebeest calving in the southern Serengeti and heat on the island.

Although Zanzibar is Tanzania, it has its own administration and some paperwork of its own. Since 2024 it has required a specific compulsory travel insurance, arranged online, which does not replace your normal travel insurance.