Bush and beach: how to combine a safari with Zanzibar without wasting a day

Most Tanzania trips are sold from Arusha with a beach tacked on at the end. Most Zanzibar hotels sell day trips. We are based on the island and plan both halves as one journey, and the way you join them decides whether you get a holiday or a schedule.

Safari first

Start in the bush. Safari days begin before six and involve hours on rough road; they are easier while you are fresh from the flight and still on home time. The beach is where you want to be when the early starts have caught up with you. The one exception is a Kilimanjaro climb, which goes first for the same reason, and is followed by the coast for the same reason.

Fly between the halves

The northern parks and Zanzibar are joined by scheduled flights, about an hour from the island to Arusha and another hour on to the Serengeti airstrips. Our flagship trip flies from Zanzibar over the Ngorongoro Crater straight into the central Serengeti, which turns a two-day drive into a morning. Coming back, a flight from the Serengeti lands you on the coast in time for a swim before dinner.

Driving from Dar es Salaam to the northern circuit takes two full days each way. We do not sell it.

How many nights

Three safari nights is the minimum that feels like a safari rather than a transfer with animals. Six shows you Tarangire, the crater and the Serengeti properly. On the coast, three nights is a rest and five is a holiday; add a Stone Town night at the start or the end if the flights allow, because the old town deserves an evening.

Which coast

After a safari most people want to swim without checking a tide table, which points to Nungwi or Kendwa in the north. Divers and kitesurfers go east. Families like the resorts north of Stone Town for the short transfer. We match the coast to the trip rather than sending everyone to the same hotel.