 I have a long list of tips and recommendations before you travel to the beautiful country of Tanzania. We will break down these tips to categories. We'll talk about requirements for the pandemic. We'll talk about passport and visa. We'll talk about health in Tanzania. We'll talk about the language, internet electricity and water. We'll talk about cash. We'll talk about transportation in Tanzania. And finally, we'll add some unclassified considerations and a few questions that I've received over the past month. Race yourself, this is going to be so packed with valuable information. So let's dive right into it. Requirements for the pandemic. If you're traveling to Tanzania, whether you are vaccinated or not, you do need negative results of the PCR test. And you also need to fill a health surveillance form 24 hours before arriving to Tanzania. Now, once you arrive in Tanzania, there will be a health check. They are going to check your temperature and there is a mandatory rapid test that you have to take at the airport. So this is the summary of it. But if you want to see a detailed video in which I talk about all of the detailed requirements about traveling to Tanzania during the pandemic, you can check the video up here. I will also have links in the description box and in the comments with where you can find the health surveillance form and where you can pay for the rapid test that is mandatory at the airport. Now let's move to talk about passport and visa for Tanzania. You obviously want to make sure that your passport is valid for six months and then you need two empty pages on your passport for the visa stamp. This is usually for people who travel a whole lot and they probably are running out of space on their passports, which is amazing. Tanzania requires a visa upon arrival for a lot of nationalities around the world. So you just want to make sure that you are researching online based on what country you are a citizen of to understand whether you need a visa or not for American citizens, you do need a visa before you enter Tanzania. And there are two different ways you can do this. You can either arrive in Tanzania and then at the airport in Tanzania, you can apply for a visa right there. There will be a line that you can go to and then you basically just provide them with the required documents. You will pay for your visa application fee, which is $100 for American citizens. It's different pricing for different countries, which is amazing. But $100 for American citizens, you apply for your visa right there at the airport. You get your visa and you're good to go. But if you want to save up some time and avoid all of that hassle at the airport, and that's exactly what I did and I think it was a great idea, you can apply for an e-visa online before traveling to Tanzania. Also, the link to apply for the e-visa, you can find it in the description box and in a comment. It's super straightforward. You go to the website and they are going to ask you about your passport. They are going to ask for a photo of yourself, which if you have a decent camera on your phone or an actual camera, you can take that photo on your own. They're going to ask for a copy of your passport and they are going to ask for your return ticket and you will also pay $100. Submit your application online and I think within 24 hours to 48 hours, they are going to send you an email with the visa approval and it's going to be in a PDF format. So you wanna make sure that you either print it or you save your document to your phone so that when you arrive in Tanzania, if they ask you for that document, you can show it to them. So that is how you can handle the visa for Tanzania. Before you travel to Tanzania, I highly recommend that you talk to your doctors about any health concerns that you might have and to also understand if your doctor has any suggestions as far as vaccines go. So this is how we went about doing the whole thing. We met with a health organization called Passport Health. I really was just curious to know what services they provide. So with Passport Health, you go and you meet with them one-on-one and then you basically tell them what country you are traveling to in our case, Tanzania and then they give you a list of valuable information about required vaccines and things that you should keep in mind and information about the consulate of the US in Tanzania and things like that. And so usually a lot of people think that there is a required vaccine to get to Tanzania. That is not the case. So basically when we talk to Passport Health and also I talk to my own doctor, you really can skip the whole Passport Health. It's not mandatory. And by the way, I think I paid them around $150 for that one-on-one appointment for one hour. I think it was valuable, but you don't really have to do that. You can just go straight to your doctor and what your doctor would do, he would go to the website from the CDC and search for the country that you are traveling to and then he will give you recommendations based on that. So Passport Health and our doctor, two travel to Tanzania, they asked us whether we have HEPA and HEPB, which we already had. So again, this is going to be different from one person to the other. So HEPA, HEPB, they are not required, but it's just precautionary, I would say. And then they recommended that we take the Phaifuid vaccine just in case we are exposed to contaminated water or food. So we took the Phaifuid vaccine and then we were suggested to take the malaria pills. So it's definitely something that you want to talk to your doctor about if you're traveling to Tanzania. There are different pills for malaria. Some of them are daily, some of them are weekly. I'm not going to talk much about this. This is something that your doctor can advise you on. And then a lot of people think that yellow fever vaccine is required to travel to Tanzania. That is not always true. If you're traveling from the United States to Tanzania, you don't need the yellow fever vaccine. But if you are traveling from a country that's endemic for the yellow fever, like Kenya, for example, you do need the yellow fever vaccine if you're traveling from Kenya to Tanzania as an example. So it's not really required if you're traveling from the United States. So definitely take some time to talk to your doctor about any health concerns. So for us, for example, just to summarize what kind of pills and vaccines we had to take, we ended up taking the Phaifuid vaccine, malaria pills. And also because we were climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, we needed some help with the elevation and just limited oxygen at the elevation. So we went for diamox pills. So really it's important to take some time, talk to your doctor about any health concerns that you have. Also in Tanzania, it's recommended to avoid drinking tap water and to stick to just drinking bottled water. I mean, you will see the locals drinking tap water, no problem, but they are accustomed and used to that specific type of water with the bacteria in the water. It might not be the case for you as a tourist or as a foreigner. So try to stick to the bottles instead. A lot of people even suggest that you don't even get ice for your drinks because that's water coming from the tap water as well. So that's just something to keep in mind. And then also I suggest that you take some water purifier tablets just in case you find yourself in remote areas where you don't have access to bottled water or filtered water so that you can use them as a backup. I will leave a link in the description box to the ones that I took with me. I didn't really have to use them, but it was just a backup in case I need them one day. And then finally for health in Tanzania is to consider travel insurance in Tanzania. Your health insurance here in the US is not going to cover for your expenses and bills if you get sick in Tanzania. If you're climbing the mountain, if you need to be rescued from the mountain, it's not something that your insurance is gonna cover for. So make sure that you do have travel insurance cover. We went with word nomads and I will leave a link in the description box if it's something that you are interested in. Next, moving on to language in Tanzania. In Tanzania, there are more than 100 tribes, which is amazing. And every tribe speaks a different language. We even met with the Hadzabi tribe and they have their unique language. We call it the click language. They literally talk like, and that is a language which is pretty impressive. But the common language that kind of brings all of these tribes and people together is the Swahili. And Swahili is the official language in Tanzania. So pretty much everyone is gonna speak Swahili. For English, if you are in remote areas, not a lot of people speak English, but it really depends on what type of experiences you're going for. If you're climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, for example, your guide, your assistant guides, and even some porters will speak English. If you're going on a safari, your guide will speak English. Some locals do speak English as well. You really don't have to speak Swahili but it's also good to know some words before you travel to any country, not just Tanzania. And the locals really appreciate it when they see that you are putting some time and effort into learning new words. So I'm gonna share with you a few words that I think are important to know before you travel to Tanzania. Starting with number one, jumbo. So jumbo is how you greet each other and how you say hello. Asante. Asante is how you say thank you. If you wanna say thank you so much, you say asante sana. Asante sana. Third word is karibu. So if you say asante sana to someone, they will reply karibu. And karibu means you are welcome or you are welcome to our house. So even if you go to a hotel and you're just going for the first time, you're entering, they will tell you karibu, like welcome to the hotel. Next word is habari gani. Habari gani is what's the news or how are you? If you wanna ask someone how are you, you can say jumbo, hello, habari gani. Like how's it going? And then they will usually reply to you, say nzuri. Nzuri means good, nzuri. Or if you want to say very good, you would say nzuri sana, like asante sana. Asante sana is thank you so much. Nzuri sana is very good. And then if you want to say please, you say tafadali. Tafadali and it's very similar to Arabic. So please is tafadali. And if you wanna say sorry, you say samahani, samahani. And then the other phrase that you will hear a lot is hakuna matata. Hakuna matata means no problem, no worries. If you ask your guide or the porters for something, they will say no worries, hakuna matata. So these are some of the words that you can keep in mind. What Alex and I did before traveling to Tanzania, we use this mobile application Duolingo and they do have Swahili as a language. So you can go in, it's a free mobile application. I will leave the link in the description box as well. You can download it to your phone and then you can just spend a few minutes every day to pick up new words. And I think it really helped us to pick some Swahili words and it helped us to communicate with the locals who don't really speak English, especially with the tribes that we got to meet. Before you travel to Tanzania, make sure that you have a UK plug adapter. Although when we went to Zanzibar, I noticed that the hotel in Zanzibar had a European plug. So to avoid all of this, you can just go to Amazon and get one of those adapters that work for UK plug, US plug, European plug, it's just amazing. And I will leave a link to that in the description box. You want to make sure that you do have something that you can use, an adapter that you can use to charge your electronics and your phone. It's the most frustrating thing. If you get to the hotel, we get to do your destination and you cannot charge your electronics. I just hate that personally. The internet is not the best in Tanzania, to be honest, even if you have roaming on your phone or wifi sometimes in hotels and restaurants, it's not the most reliable. There were many days where we are at the hotel and they have an access point, but there's just no internet. Also if the weather is bad outside, if there's a storm or if it's raining, chances are the internet is not going to work. So just keep that in mind. A lot of people asked me if you are climbing the mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro in particular, how do you stay in touch with your family? And I think that was a great question. Many companies and at least the company that we hike the mountain with, they do share updates on a daily basis to their Facebook page, this way your family can go in and at least make sure that you are safe and you made it to Camp Safe. So this is one way to do this. As the internet goes, it's not the fastest internet. In some places it was just great when we were in Darustanam at the Hilton. I think it was the Hilton, the internet was great. Our hotel in Zanzibar, it was so, so. So I don't really know if it's something that you can predict or do anything about it really, but it is what it is. The motto in Tanzania is pole, pole, which is slowly, slowly. So you will notice that a lot of things, even the pace of life and how things are moving is kind of slow. And so even Hakuna Matata, no worries. So everything's kind of chill and relaxed. Don't worry about the wifi. I know it can get frustrating if you have some work to do. There was one night where I was working on this video. I need to get it up and upload it to YouTube and I was just struggling a little bit with that. But situation with water, especially for showers, don't expect your showers to be always warm and the pressure to be great. We stayed in some hotels and lodges where it was just a struggle. There were times where the water won't stay hot for a long period of time. So I kind of had to time my showers and I remember staying in one of the hotels in Lake Iasi where the water was so very hot that I can't, there was no cold water. So it was so scalding hot that I couldn't take a shower. Also, if you are traveling in remote areas and if you're going on safaris, the Serengeti and such, we stayed in some lodges where resources were limited. The people who are working at the lodge, they have to go and fetch the water and boil the water and put it in the container for you to shower. And usually some of their buckets is just 10 liters. And if you are expecting a long, warm shower, it probably may not be happening. For me, I remember one of the times with my hair being so long, I had to wash it during the safari and it was just not enough water. It was a little bit frustrating, but I kind of got used to it with time. I suggest that you pack with you some wet wipes. They call them the shower wipes. These are body wipes that I packed with me on the mountain from Mount Kilimanjaro because we're not showering for seven days. So you want to have something to clean yourself with. I would say, even if you are just traveling in general in Tanzania, it doesn't have to be just the mountain, pack some of those shower wipes with you so that if you are in a situation where you don't have water, you can still keep yourself clean. Now, cash in Tanzania. The currency in Tanzania is Tanzanian chillings. And once you arrive to the airport, you can exchange your dollars to Tanzanian chillings. I talked to a friend who traveled to Tanzania right before me and she said to me, you will need more money than you think you do. And I did not really listen to her advice, but I really needed some Tanzanian chillings at some point. There are times where you can use, well, you can actually use your dollar bills. That's not a problem, but I suggest that you have Tanzanian chillings with you too, especially for tipping. So tipping is going to be a big deal. And we spent a lot of money on tipping just because a lot of the people that you're gonna be, when you're gonna hike the mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, the porters, the guides, the assistant guides, they do rely heavily on tipping. I mean, that's how they make their living. The companies that they work with, they don't pay them great amount of money. So they're gonna rely on you and your tips to make a living. So you really want to be considerate and generous with how much money you are tipping. So for tipping the porters and tipping the guides on the mountain, you can tip in dollars. But if you are traveling, other than climbing the mountain like the safari, or when we were just traveling in Zanzibar, there will be a lot of people who will help you with your luggage and people who will help you around the hotel or people who will help you with this and that. And you wanna make sure that you have bills too, to pay them as a way to say thank you. I mean, a lot of people right now in Tanzania and all around the world are really hurting because of the pandemic. So when we were in Tanzania, people were so happy to see tourists. It stimulates the business and economy in the area. So what I'm trying to get to is, when you have Tanzanian chillings with you, especially 5,000 bills and 2,000 bills, it makes it easier for you to handle tippings and just tip people who help you every now and then. 100 American dollars is probably around 200,000 chillings. So when you're gonna convert your money because of inflation, obviously, you're gonna get a lot of bills, a lot of Tanzanian chillings. So keep that in mind. You will have to do a lot of counting, but that's what it is. So convert some money. There won't be a lot of ATMs all over the place. If you are on a safari, you don't expect that there will be an ATM on the mountain, no ATM really. But even when we were in Zanzibar, we had to travel for one hour north from where we were to find an ATM and get some cash out of the ATM. So there will be probably situations where you won't have easy access to cash. So definitely make sure you have Tanzanian chillings with you. Make sure you have dollar bills with you and then make sure that you spot the ATMs that are around you in case you need them. Transportation in Tanzania, there are different means of transportation in Tanzania. There are plenty of airports. There's the Kilimanjaro International Airport. That's the airport that a lot of people would fly to if they are planning on climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. There is the major airport in Dar es Salaam, which is the largest city in Tanzania. There are trains, there are buses, which by the way, we did consider taking a bus from Arusha to Dar es Salaam just for the experience, but we were pretty tired and exhausted after our safari. So we just decided not to do it. But there are some buses and there are some good companies that I'm also going to leave the link for in the description box because I had to ask some of our guys and local people to suggest the right companies for buses. Other than that, there are some local means of transportation that I'm very excited to share with you. Obviously taxis, you can arrange transportation with taxi with either the hotel or the lodge that you are staying at or you can use the tuk-tuk. They have a lot of tuk-tuks around that I at least saw around Arusha. I saw them around Moshe and I think I saw them in Zanzibar as well. So the tuk-tuk is definitely a lot more affordable compared to the taxis. There is the Dala Dala bus, which the local people use to get to and from places. And the name Dala Dala is actually dollar, dollar. When these Dala Dala buses came to life or to existence, they would want to, whoever works in the Dala Dala, they would want to grab attention for passerbys and they would say Dala Dala. And they say so fast that it sounds like Dala Dala. So that's another mean of transportation if you are looking for something cheap or really just for the experience of being in a Dala Dala with locals and such. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to try that. There is also another mode of transportation on the scooter. They are called border, border. So this is usually a scooter that someone owns and then you go talk to them and they set a rate for you and then you join them on the ride. They drive you to your destination in the scooter and they call it border, border. And obviously you can rent your own scooter if it's something that you are interested in. I will talk more about that when I make a video about traveling in Zanzibar because that's where we rented the scooter to explore around the island. But so many different modes of transportation. There is the ferry also from Zanzibar to Dar es Sala which I think is a great experience if it's something that you have the time for. Although the waters were so choppy and I was not having a great time but it was still a good experience to take the ferry across the Indian Ocean. So that is it for transportation. I have, I think one more thing under unclassified considerations and that is single use plastic. It's banned in Africa. In some countries in Africa, there's actually a group of countries in Africa that came together I think 2016 probably. And then there is this ban on plastic single use bags even in Morocco. But I feel like the law or the rule is more enforced in Tanzania. So even if you are, when you are traveling to Tanzania, you wanna make sure that you are not packing any single use plastic bags with you in your luggage because you can get in trouble. I usually like to pack trash bags for laundry and I just find that they can come in handy in some situations. Wet clothes for example, but I couldn't pack them with me because of this rule. Also when you are climbing in the mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, you're not allowed to take plastic water bottles with you. You have to have your own nalgene bottle or hydroflask or your hydration pack. So keep that in mind and make sure that you're not breaking the rules. So this is it for this video today. I have so many other tips coming up about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, tips for the safari and tips for traveling in the island of Zanzibar. If you guys have any more questions, please do let me know in the comments. My name's Habiba. This is Tracking Pals and I will see you very soon on a new adventure. And don't forget to give this video a like and subscribe to our channel for more videos about traveling in the beautiful country of Tanzania.