Reference

Know Tanzania

The questions people ask about Tanzania, answered properly: what to sort out before you travel, how the country works, and what's worth knowing about it. Each page lists the official and published sources it was checked against.

01Plan your trip

The best time to visit Tanzania
June to October is the short answer, and for most people the right one. But Tanzania does not have one rainy season — it has two different patterns, and which one applies depends on where you are going. Month by month, region by region, and what it costs you to come at the wrong one.
Getting around Tanzania
Tanzania is a big country, and the distances shape every trip. How to cover them, from the new electric train to Dodoma and the fast ferries to Zanzibar to the buses, dala-dalas and small planes, with the timetables, fares and rules as they stood in September 2026.
Money in Tanzania: currency, cards and cash
The currency is the Tanzanian shilling, and since March 2025 the law requires prices inside the country to be quoted and paid in shillings. What that means in practice, whether you can still use dollars, how to get cash, why the parks are cashless, and what mobile money does that a card cannot.
Tanzania visa requirements
Who needs a visa, what it costs, how to apply online through the government portal, and the three other things checked at the border: your passport, a yellow fever certificate if you need one, and Zanzibar's own travel insurance.

02Wildlife

The Great Migration, month by month
Where the wildebeest herds are through the year, why they move, how many there really are, and where in Tanzania to watch each stage, from calving on the southern plains to the Mara River crossings.

03Know Tanzania

Public holidays in Tanzania
Tanzania observes sixteen public holidays a year. The full 2027 list with the day of the week, the years to 2030, which holidays are actually written into the Public Holidays Act and which are proclaimed each year, and the rule almost nobody publishes: what happens when a holiday lands on a weekend.

Every region All national parks World Heritage Sites

The best time to visit Tanzania

Getting around Tanzania

Money in Tanzania: currency, cards and cash

Tanzania visa requirements

The Great Migration, month by month

Public holidays in Tanzania