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Aerial view of a sandbank off Zanzibar, with visitors standing on the sand and small boats moored in turquoise water

Zanzibar · airport guide

Zanzibar Airport guide

Zanzibar changed its entry rules in 2024, and they are stricter than most island destinations. We cannot file any of that for you, but we can fix the price of the drive before you fly, track the flight, and include the meet and greet at ZNZ arrivals.

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What Zanzibar asks for at the border

Three documents decide whether your holiday starts on time, and two of them are newer than most guidebooks. You need a Tanzania visa, an inbound travel insurance policy issued by Zanzibar's own national insurer, and a yellow fever certificate if you are arriving from a country where the risk is listed. Each has its own section further down this page.

The one that catches people out is the insurance. It is not the travel cover you already have and not the policy attached to your credit card. It is a separate certificate from Zanzibar's national insurer, compulsory since 1 October 2024, and checked when you arrive.

Tanzania's immigration guidelines add a fourth item that is easy to overlook because the whole booking lives in an app: visitors must show a return ticket on arrival.

Last checked September 2026.

Zanzibar Airport terminals

Zanzibar Airport is Abeid Amani Karume International, named in 2010 after the island's first president and known before that as Kisauni and then Zanzibar International. It is run by the Zanzibar Airports Authority, the government body established under Act No. 8 of 2011, and it sits about five kilometres south of Zanzibar City, close enough that Stone Town is the shortest transfer on the island.

There are three terminal buildings and you will almost certainly use the newest. Terminal 3 was inaugurated in September 2020, went into service in early 2021 and handles international flights, with a design capacity of up to one and a half million passengers a year. Terminal 2 takes domestic flights and some international services. Terminal 1 dates from the protectorate and is not a passenger terminal at all now; it houses airport offices.

The airport is busier than that capacity figure suggests. It handled just under 2.7 million passengers in 2025, well beyond what the new building was drawn for, and the pinch shows in the arrival waves of the European winter and the July to October season. It is the single best reason to have the paperwork finished before you land rather than in a queue.

You do not choose your terminal and there is nothing to decide here. Your airline decides, it is printed on your boarding pass, and an international arrival from Europe, the Gulf or Nairobi comes into Terminal 3.

Last checked September 2026.

Arriving at Zanzibar Airport step by step

The order is entry checks, then immigration, then baggage, then the doors. What makes Zanzibar different from most beach arrivals is that there are three documents in play rather than one, and a missing one is dealt with before you get to a passport desk rather than after.

Have these ready, in this order of usefulness: your visa or visa grant notice, your Zanzibar inbound insurance certificate, and your yellow fever certificate if you are arriving from a country where it applies. Tanzania's immigration guidelines add one more that people forget because the whole booking lives in an app: visitors must show a return ticket on arrival.

After immigration you collect your bags and pass customs, where cases are commonly scanned. Then the doors, and the kerb, which is where the difference between a ride you arranged and a ride you are about to negotiate starts to matter.

None of the three documents is something we can do for you. The fourth thing waiting outside is.

Aerial view of the white sand beach at Kendwa on Zanzibar's north coast, with catamarans and small boats drawn up on the sand

Last checked September 2026.

The drive is the one part of this you can settle from home.Book your ZNZ transfer

Your Tanzania visa: online or on arrival

One visa covers both Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar. Immigration's own guidance is to pick your first destination on the form and then move between the two without applying again, so there is no separate Zanzibar visa to hunt for.

There are two ways in. You can apply online in advance through the Tanzania Immigration Services portal, which the department itself recommends, or you can obtain a single entry visa on arrival at an official entry point. The difference worth knowing before you choose: a multiple entry visa cannot be issued on arrival. Most visitors travelling for tourism apply for an Ordinary Visa, and United States passport holders are the stated exception, required to apply for a Multiple Visa whatever the purpose or length of stay.

Two rules from the same guidance decide more applications than anything else. Your passport needs at least six months of validity and at least one unused visa page. And every passport holder submits their own application, including children who used to be written into a parent's form.

Online applications are processed within ten days, so this is not a night-before job. Immigration also asks that applications go through its official site and no other online link, which is worth reading twice given how well the lookalike visa sites rank.

Last checked September 2026.

Zanzibar's compulsory travel insurance

This is the requirement that catches people out, because it is not the travel insurance you already have. Since 1 October 2024 every foreign non-resident visiting Zanzibar has had to hold Inbound Travel Insurance issued by the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation, the national insurer, for the duration of the stay, up to 92 days.

The Foreign Office states the important part plainly: other international travel insurance policies will not be accepted. A comprehensive annual policy from home does not replace it. Neither does the cover attached to a credit card or bundled with a package. It is a separate certificate, and it is checked.

Buy it before you travel. The advice from the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar and from the United States embassy is to purchase prior to arrival, and the insurer confirms there is no waiting period, so the cover runs from the moment you land. The policy documents arrive by email and the insurer asks you to keep a copy with you.

One line from the insurer is worth repeating, because the search results for this are a thicket of lookalikes. Its portal states that it is the only official website to apply for Zanzibar travel insurance and tells travellers to avoid third-party sites. The premium is set by the corporation and shown as you apply. We are not printing a figure here, because the one place it is authoritative is the government portal, and it is listed in our sources below.

Last checked September 2026.

Do you need a yellow fever certificate for Zanzibar?

Only if you are arriving from a country listed as a yellow fever transmission risk. That is the Foreign Office wording and it is the rule applied at the border.

For a direct flight from the United Kingdom or most of Europe, the answer is no. It becomes yes for a great many people anyway, because the convenient routings into Zanzibar connect through east and central African hubs and a connection can bring you inside the rule. If your itinerary touches one, carry the certificate rather than discuss it at six in the morning.

The document is the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis, the yellow booklet, and it is checked alongside your visa and your insurance. One piece of good news: since the amended International Health Regulations took effect on 11 July 2016, a yellow fever certificate is valid for the life of the person vaccinated, so an old one still counts and no booster is needed for entry.

Last checked September 2026.

Taxis at Zanzibar Airport

Zanzibar taxis do not have meters. The fare is agreed before you get in, which means the price of your transfer is a negotiation you conduct at the kerb, in the heat, at the end of a long flight and usually in front of your family.

That is genuinely the whole system. There is no tariff to appeal to and no meter to point at, so what you pay depends on how the conversation goes and on how well you already know what the run to your hotel is worth. It is a weak position to negotiate from, and it is weakest on exactly the longest and most expensive journeys, the ones to the north and east coasts.

We are not going to print a taxi fare on this page. Rates move, they vary by how far up or across the island you are going, and a number here would be stale before it was useful. Ours is fixed for the whole vehicle and shown before you pay anything.

Last checked September 2026.

Settle the price now and skip the kerbside negotiation.Price my ZNZ transfer

Can you use Uber or Bolt in Zanzibar?

Uber, no. It publishes no city in Tanzania at all, so there is nothing to open when you land and no point installing it for this trip.

Bolt, partly. Bolt does list Zanzibar among its cities and offers its standard car category here, which makes it a real option once you are on the island and moving around Stone Town. What it is not is a plan for the transfer itself. The runs to Nungwi, Kendwa and the east coast are an hour or more each way, and whether a driver accepts one at the moment your flight lands is not something the app can tell you in advance.

So the honest position is that an app is useful after you arrive and a poor way to arrange the ride that gets you there. The airport leg is the one worth fixing before you fly.

Last checked September 2026.

The airport run is the leg to arrange in advance.Book your ZNZ transfer

Your options from Zanzibar Airport, side by side

Four ways out of Zanzibar Airport, and the differences that start to matter once the doors open. Our column is built from this destination's own inclusions and vehicle tiers. The other three are what we could verify from the operators and the authorities, and where a fact genuinely varies we say so rather than guess.

 Private transfer (us)Airport taxiUber or appShared shuttle
Price known before you fly?Yes. One fixed price for the whole vehicle.No. Agreed at the kerb, after you land.A Bolt estimate, once you are through and have signal.Usually, when booked online in advance.
When you payOnline when you book. Free cancellation up to 24h before pickup.On the day, to the driver.In the app.Varies by operator.
Waits if your flight is late?Flight tracking, delays covered at no extra chargeVaries.No. You request after you are through, whenever that is.Varies by operator.
Meets you at arrivals?Meet & greet at ZNZ arrivalsNo. You go out to the rank.No.Varies by operator.
Luggage space guaranteed?Yes. You book the whole vehicle, in tiers up to 25 passengers and 25 bags.Varies with the car that is next on the rank.Varies with the car that accepts.A shared van with an allowance per person. Varies.
Available at the terminal?Booked before you fly, not bought at the airport.Yes. A rank outside the terminal.Bolt lists Zanzibar; Uber lists no city in Tanzania.Varies.
One price, agreed before you fly, for the whole vehicle.Get your Zanzibar Airport price

Last checked September 2026.

Getting from Zanzibar Airport to your hotel

Where you are staying decides the shape of the day. Stone Town is the short hop, minutes from the terminal. The north west coast is a little further along the same side of the island. Nungwi and Kendwa, at the northern tip, are the long run, and the east and south east coasts are a proper cross-island drive on roads that are better than they were and still not quick.

Each route page below carries the real distance, the drive time we schedule, a price per vehicle for one way and round trip, and a description of the road itself.

A dhow under sail off a long Zanzibar beach, with palms and low resort buildings along the shore

Popular routes from Zanzibar Airport

Leaving Zanzibar? Book your ride to Zanzibar Airport.

Sources