Tanzania and Zanzibar — The best of them in 2 weeks?

Squashie

Am to be visiting Tanzania in a couple of months and have absolutely nothing planned, except with an intention of boating to Zanzibar island for a few days (or the entire two weeks if it turns out to be as lovely as I expect). Has anybody been and have and recommendations on where to stay or things to do in Tanzania? I fly into Dar es Salaam and guess I'll be booking accommodation here too so any recommendations would have to be accessible from here. Thank you

bamboozle

you cant go to Tanzania without hitting the Serengeti & Ngorogoro Crater.
if i'd 2 weeks i'd do 7 days safari (more if i had the cash) then fly over to Zanzibar, 2 nights in Stone Town then do final 5 nights in Fundu lagoon in Pemba island off Zanzibar http://www.fundulagoon.com

dont want to put you off but Zanzibar wasnt as nice as i expected. Pemba island was incredible though.

Penny Dreadful

bamboozle wrote: »

you cant go to Tanzania without hitting the Serengeti & Ngorogoro Crater.
if i'd 2 weeks i'd do 7 days safari (more if i had the cash) then fly over to Zanzibar, 2 nights in Stone Town then do final 5 nights in Fundu lagoon in Pemba island off Zanzibar http://www.fundulagoon.com

dont want to put you off but Zanzibar wasnt as nice as i expected. Pemba island was incredible though.

Totally agree. I'm going there on my honeymoon in 32 days!!! (not counting or anything:D) and we're taking in the above.
We're doing a 5 night 6 day safari in the Serengei, then to the Crater. Then off to Zanzibar for a few days of beach and relaxation, Stonetown and then back to Nariobi and home. We're going to be there for 3 weeks in total.
We used a company called African Travel Resource for booking a lot of the stuff and got accomodation suggestions etc from them. They were really helpful and only cost (in total) €70 more to book with them than by ourselves. For the ease of travel, etc we thought it was worth the little extra.

bungaro79

would totally agree with the above two, if you're in tanzania then the serengeti and ngorongoro are a must! we stayed in matemwe in the northeast of the island which was nice but as bamboozle mentioned above there was something about zanzibar that i found a bit off-putting. saying that the beach resort was lovely and i did like bits of stone town but i thought 2 days was more than enough.
we used basecamp tanzania for all of our trip and i would definitely recommend them. in case you haven't gotten it already make sure you have your yellow fever cert!

Penny Dreadful

bungaro79 wrote: »

would totally agree with the above two, if you're in tanzania then the serengeti and ngorongoro are a must! we stayed in matemwe in the northeast of the island which was nice but as bamboozle mentioned above there was something about zanzibar that i found a bit off-putting. saying that the beach resort was lovely and i did like bits of stone town but i thought 2 days was more than enough.
we used basecamp tanzania for all of our trip and i would definitely recommend them. in case you haven't gotten it already make sure you have your yellow fever cert![/QUOTE]

For sure ^^ you won't get into the country without it.

bamboozle

bungaro79 wrote: »

would totally agree with the above two, if you're in tanzania then the serengeti and ngorongoro are a must! we stayed in matemwe in the northeast of the island which was nice but as bamboozle mentioned above there was something about zanzibar that i found a bit off-putting. saying that the beach resort was lovely and i did like bits of stone town but i thought 2 days was more than enough.
we used basecamp tanzania for all of our trip and i would definitely recommend them. in case you haven't gotten it already make sure you have your yellow fever cert!

glad i'm not the only one, we were staying in the honeymoon suite of a fancy hotel in stonetown, however we had stuff stolen from room and every night about 3am i'd be awake 'politely' asking the cleaners to stop polishing the floors outside our room, they'd be talking out loud to each other while whacking the buffer machine against the bedroom door.

Pemba Island was so much nicer than Zanzibar.

hawkwind23

i would also recommend pemba.
was a very unique experience.
Zanzibar is lovely too , Kendwa Beach is worth visiting for the full moon party.
the spice tours are a must.
stone town is ok , i very nearly got killed there so have mixed opinions of it.
but the night market is a must see!
as is freddie mecurys place
i found a dirt bike was a great way to get about as a lot of the roads are not tarmaced , esp to the more remote areas but you do need a bike license or pay a senior official a few dollars to waive your restriction.
also the visa fee on an irish passport was a whopping amount of money!
you mention sailing , i took a boat from funzi island on the border of kenya to pemba , was an experience ill never forget.

as for tanzania , my two cents would be to spend as little time as possible in Dar. its a dump!
the crater is awesome but very expensive , from memory you have to spend a night in the park too and that adds to the costs.
id be tempted to try a round trip to do the parks then maybe cross into kenya and spend a few days down the coast , very easy to travel and very touristy.
say , lamu to malindi to mombassa to diani and then try get a boat to take you to pemba and then onto zanzibar and back to Dar.
maybe a bit much in two weeks , can you not get a month
i might go back soon myself , i hear emirates are flying from dublin to dubai which should make it cheaper.
have a great time and enjoy a few bottles of kili beer