BootsnAll Travel Community

Hey, I'm going to be volunteering for one month Feb/08 in Zanzibar where I'll have a place to stay and my food taken care of. However, in the beginning of March, I will have about a month off to travel and do my own thing. If I were to stay in hostels, stay as budget as possible with food and travel. How much would I need to subsist off. I have seen so many differences in the costs of living so I'm not sure how much would be prudent to bring.
Thanks and Cheers!! JB

The cheapest rooms in Stonetown can be had for around 12USD. If visiting beach places expect to pay 15USD upwards. I recommend you adjust your budget so you have a margin for error in not always paying rock bottom prices. I went to Nungwi which is probably among the cheapest beach destinations in Zanzibar, and the cheapest I could find was about 15USD.
Generally Zanzibar is not really a backpacker destination. It´s not very expensive, but not very cheap either.

If you have a whole month you might as well go to the mainland and see the Serengeti or something or even climb the Kilimanjaro, but that of course would cost you big time (especially Kili)...
Zanzibar is mainly for beach-bumming and seeing some old buildings and doing the spice tour (which is 10USD by the way.
Any more questions, fire away!

Thanks a lot, I expected it to be much more expensive. I will be volunteering in Jambiani where much of my expenses are covered. The rest of the time I'll be in Dar, Moshi and Arusha. Any reccomendations for nice and inexpensive places to stay. Thanks! Asante Sana!

Hey. i just got back from a year in tz!
In Dar you can find cheap accomodation at places like YMCA and YWCA for about 10,000tsh/night (about US$9) but these are pretty basic - just a bed, fan, mosquito net and shared bathroom but breakfast is included. These are both right near the post office and main dalladalla stand so very convenient. There are also a couple of backpackers places - Jambo Inn, Safari Inn and Econolodge which are all around the same area and will cost about US$15/night and econolodge is bit more expensive but pretty nice!
I don't have much experience with Arusha and Moshi.
Eating in TZ is pretty cheap if you eat local food in small local eateries (shouldnt be more than 2000tsh or US$1.70 for a plate of rice/beans/peas/meat/chicken) but if you want western food expect similar prices to back home. Transport within towns is cheap if you use dalladalla's (250tsh - US$0.22) and taxi's within the city centre in Dar are about 2000-5000tsh but to places like the Msasani Peninsula (where all the wazungu live) they will charge more.

Also if you want to climb a mountain but cant afford Kili you can do Mt Meru for a LOT cheaper and apparently this is considered a harder climb!

anyway..have an awesome time. I'm super jealous of you!!
p.s. learn some basic swahili before you go - kamusiproject.org because it is worth it! the locals appreciate it a lot and it will help stop you from being ripped off.

Hi I am female RN who will be traveling in Tanzania in the month of march 2008 on my own also. it would be great to connect with other solo travelers to make the trip a little smoother so to speak. I am looking to tour the northern Tanzania circut along with possible one week in Rwanda to check out the gorillas. it would be a lot cheaper to have another traveler to go with given there's single supplement charges through the travel tours and/or room/vehical expenses for one can be easily split for two....let me know what you think?

Travelby from Vancouver BC Canada

Thanks for the Dar info! Its nice to know ball park figures. At this rate, I should do okay! I've got 2 weeks to go, and just really want to get there now!

A year in Tanz! That's pretty amazing, I can only wish, 2 months was all I could muster at this time.