TANZANIA........anybody been ?????

[PADI-Paddy]

I am fiddling with the idea of going to Tanzania in July August time. Has anyone been ?

Can you tell me the following:

How do I get there
How much
Is it safe ???
Internal Flights

I need to fly to DAR my mate left early FEB and is trying to set up a dive centre there, Im still waiting for him to contact me, I want to go out there for a month once he gets some property and help him with the setup. any information would be appreciated


cheers

[samkin]

Well I went last Oct, but not to the coastal areas. I was there to climb Kili and go on Safari in the Parks near Kili.

Getting there - Kenya Airways fly from Heathrow to Nairobi from where there are flights to Kili, Dar and Zanzibar.
The alternative is KLM from Heathrow to Holland (can't remember the airport) from there it is a direct flight into Kili followed by a short hop (in the same aircraft) to Dar. Direct back from Dar to Holland (they do it this way as they can't take off from Kili with a full fuel load)

Cost, can't be sure as flights were included, but was somewhere around £600 via KA.

Safety - We had no problems, but were on an organised trip (ok, all 8 of us) and spent much of the time on the mountain or in the parks. The FCO website suggests that there can be occasional issues and that Zannzibar is worse due to the less stable political situation there than on the mainland

Internal flights - the bush airlines seem to go everywhere. They'll be small turboprops' or piston's from what we saw. There was a crash that occured just after we got back that killed 4 passengers and the pilot coming out of one of the remote parks in the south that hit the news here. Can't comment on safety anymore or cost. If I go back (as I want to) I would expect to use them as you have to to get to some of the parks.

hth

[PADI-Paddy]

Thanks for the info

green on the way mate

[the goat]

Not personally, but my brother -in-law spent 9 months there whilst working for the VSO. Said it was a beautiful if a little unstable.Although never feeling unduly worried himself due to the type of work he was doing there for the villages he did mention an "undercurrent" or an atmosphere around the bigger cities. He also mentioned that any westerners are perceived to be wealthy and this could mark them out to the locals.
He dived whilst there and said it was very good, not sure of the exact location, but that he d heard Zanzibar was a far better diving area than the mainland.
As an aside he also said getting a drink could be a right pain
This was all about 3 years ago and on drunken occasions he does wish himself back there .
HTH