Getting there
How to get to and from Tanzania
Depending on where you call home, there are quite a few different options to get to Tanzania these days. A lot of which carrier you use is down to a few important factors....where you would like to go when there...what your budget is....where you are coming from...how long are you happy to travel for. As we are a UK based operator we tend to skew the information we provide towards those departing from the UK, but the below also applies to those departing from Europe and even our cousins flying in from the US of A!
Since the removal of the British Airways flight into Dar es Salaam (in January, 2013), there are now the same rough options for heading to the northern parks as for heading to the southern....
For the north...the main starting point for your northern itinerary is the city of Arusha, and the international airport of Kilimanjaro. There are a few carriers to consider in order to get here and they fall into three categories, routing via Nairobi, routing via the Middle East, and routing via Europe.
Of the carriers that route via Nairobi the most convenient from a timing point of view is definitely Kenya Airways. They operate a daily, overnight route from London that arrives into Nairobi and connects smoothly through to JRO arriving at around 0920 the following morning. Another potential for many is the British Airways day flight into Nairobi but, as this requires and overnight stay in Nairobi, and, in my opinion Kenyan are certainly as good these days, I would recommend the first.
For those carriers that route through the Middle East, you have the option of either Qatar Airlines or Emirates. Both are very good carriers and the routing adds around 3 hours onto the total journey time (approx 14 hours with QR versus 11 with Kenyan) They both operate an overnight flight in both directions but, on certain days, the connection on the way back can be very long. The main benefit is that they tend to come in around £2/300 less than the two mentioned above.
The final routing is through Europe. The two airlines that are worth consideration are KLM and Turkish Airlines. With direct flights into Kilimanjaro from Amsterdam, the KLM flight is usually a good option and, while it is a day flight, it puts you in the right spot to get on with the safari the following morning. The Turkish routing is simply down to price. With flights that arrive in the middle of the night, you will need tricky transfers and overnights in either Nairobi or Dar es Salaam...but the savings can be very good.
For the south...pretty much the same rules as above apply for getting into the south and the main city of Dar es Salaam. Definitely the preferred option at the moment is either Kenyan, via Nairobi, or Qatar, via Doha. Both connect well into and out of the city and it usually comes down to price as to which clients opt for.
Based on season, the prices for any of the options above range from £550-950 in the lower season and £750-1,300 in the peak months of July and August.
******Please note that the routings and timings for airlines are changing rapidly at the moment due to the global situation and so the recommendations mentioned above are only as a guideline. All our consultants are trained with flights and routings and so will offer you the best options available to you relevant to your potential itinerary.******