How to get to Tanzania

A journey or a safari as the Swahili people call it, can be an adventure. It allows you to take in the sights and sounds of the lands or seas that you travel through. To see the long grass slide past the train window or whales breaching beside the dhow. Rather sadly getting to Pemba is much less of an adventure than it used to be. Even for a small island off the continental shelf of Africa we're not that off the beaten track.

Our closest world class airport is Dar es Salaam. Many airlines serve this city. At this time, the list is long. From Europe we recommend Swiss Airlines, as they have superb connections.  If you are leaving from anywhere from Dublin all the way to Istanbul, Swiss get you to Dar es Salaam faster and at the right price. www.swiss.com. We also recommend Qatar Airways www.flyqatar.com - tickets are easily changed and prices are competitive.

And on to Pemba ….

In the 1950’s and 60’s East African Airways put Pemba on the map with their Dar es Salaam – Zanzibar – Pemba –Tanga -Momb - Nairobi route. Regular flights kept the once very prosperous Island linked with the world via Nairobi, but when East African collapsed and Air Tanzania took over, Pemba dropped off the radar. As recently as the late 1980’s, reaching Dar es Salaam was the start of your problems. You had to find  a Dhow that was calling at Pemba. Bad winds, storms, and the whim of the owner often changed the vessel's course. The journey would never take less than four days and often stretched to two weeks. Happily things have changed quite a bit since then. There are now thrice daily flights by two reputable and excellent foreign owned air companies - Zanair and Coastal Airlines - to Chake Chake airport in Pemba .

Both Airlines also offer connections from Zanzibar and Arusha.

www.zanair.com

Should you encounter difficulty in booking, we can make these domestic bookings for you. You can simply pay at the airport on arrival in Dar es Salaam.