Work out your own number
Pick how you travel, how long you are staying and which season. The total is per person and covers everything on the island. It deliberately leaves out the flight, because a reader in Dubai and a reader in Sydney are not paying remotely the same fare, and folding that in would give both of them a wrong answer.
How you travel
A small hotel on the sand, private trips, restaurants
Season
On the island, per person, flights excluded
$1,293
Bed$82 a day
$574
Boutique hotel or small resort with its feet in the water
Food$33 a day
$231
Hotel restaurants and the places along the beach
Doing things$38 a day
$266
Safari Blue, Mnemba, Stone Town with a guide
Getting about$16 a day
$112
Taxis and private transfers
Visa and insuranceone off
$110
E-visa, ZIC cover and proper travel insurance
Per person, on 2026 prices seen on the island, and it does not include getting here. Two people share the room, so a couple works out at about $2,012 rather than double.
The bar that dominates every profile is the bed. That is the real lesson of a Zanzibar budget: the room sets your spending level and the rest follows it, which is why moving one notch down on accommodation saves more than economising on everything else combined.
Then add the flight
Zanzibar has no long haul direct routes outside the Gulf and a handful of African hubs, so almost everyone connects. These are return economy fares, booked a couple of months out.
| From | Low season | High season |
|---|---|---|
| LondonOne stop through Doha, Dubai, Istanbul or Nairobi | $650 to $850 | $1,000 to $1,400 |
| Other European hubsEthiopian through Addis is usually the cheapest routing | $600 to $800 | $950 to $1,300 |
| New YorkTwo stops, and often a long overnight in the Gulf | $1,000 to $1,300 | $1,500 to $2,000 |
| Dubai or DohaDirect, and the reason Gulf residents come here for long weekends | $400 to $550 | $650 to $900 |
| JohannesburgDirect on some days, otherwise through Nairobi or Dar | $450 to $650 | $700 to $1,000 |
| SydneyTwo or three stops, and a very long way | $1,300 to $1,700 | $1,900 to $2,600 |
The five costs nobody budgets for
None of these is large on its own. Together they add a couple of hundred dollars to a trip that people thought they had costed, and three of them are payable in cash on arrival.
The compulsory insurance
$44 for up to 92 daysZanzibar requires every foreign visitor to hold its own travel insurance, bought through the ZIC scheme. It is not optional and it does not replace your own policy, which you still want for anything serious.
The infrastructure tax
$1 per person per nightCollected by hotels, in cash, on top of the room rate. Small, but it appears at checkout and surprises people who thought they had prepaid everything.
The visa
$50, or $100 for US passportsUS citizens pay double for a multiple entry visa, which is the only one available to them. Worth knowing before you build a budget from someone else's blog.
Getting from the airport
$15 to $60 each wayPer vehicle, not per person, and it doubles if you are staying in the north and going back to the airport at the end.
Cash withdrawal fees
$4 to $8 per withdrawalLocal machines charge on top of whatever your bank takes, and cap each withdrawal at around 400,000 shillings. On a long trip this quietly adds up.
Where the money actually goes, and where it does not
Accommodation swallows roughly half of a comfortable budget and two thirds of a luxury one. Everything else is secondary, and most of it is cheap by international standards.
Eating outside your hotel is the single easiest saving on the island. A plate of rice, beans and fish at a local place runs three to five dollars. The same evening inside a beach resort is twenty five before drinks, and the drinks are where resorts make their money.
The one place not to economise is the boat trips. A cheap Safari Blue is cheap because the boat is overloaded, the snorkelling stop is shorter and the lunch is thinner. This is a day you are buying, and twenty dollars separates a good one from a poor one.
What things actually cost, line by line
A plate of grilled fish with rice at a local place, three to five dollars. The same dinner inside a beach resort, twenty to twenty five before drinks. That single ratio explains most of a Zanzibar budget.
A large beer is two dollars in a village bar and five on a hotel terrace. Bottled water is fifty cents in a shop and two dollars from the minibar.
A taxi within a village, two to three dollars. Across the island, forty to sixty. A driver for a full day, fifty to ninety. A dala dala anywhere, under a dollar.
A boat trip, thirty five to seventy five dollars. A dive, fifty to seventy five. A spice tour, twenty to forty. Jozani, ten. Entry to the slave market site, ten.
Where a week goes wrong on money
Eating every meal in the hotel. On the east coast there is often little choice, which is an argument for checking what is walkable before booking rather than after.
Booking excursions through the hotel rather than a shop or a platform. The markup is twenty to thirty per cent for the same boat.
Taking cash out in small amounts. Each withdrawal carries a local fee of four to eight dollars on top of your bank's, and the machines cap each one. The money page covers the mechanics.
Not checking whether the transfer is included. A return airport run to the north is a hundred dollars that people routinely forget to count.
The costs nobody puts in the spreadsheet
Six lines that are genuinely compulsory and that almost every budget guide to this island leaves out. Where to sleep for less is a separate question, answered in cheap places to stay.
- The visa, $50, or $100 on a US passport. Per person, and non-negotiable. See the visa page.
- Compulsory ZIC insurance, $44 a head. Introduced in October 2024, checked at immigration, and separate from your own travel insurance.
- Airport transfers, $30 to $60 each way. Per car, and the north coast is the expensive end.
- Marine conservation fees, $10 an adult. Since September 2025, on Mnemba, Menai Bay, Chumbe and Changuu. Collected in cash on the boat.
- Tipping, roughly $5 to $10 a day. Guides, drivers, boat crew and hotel staff. It is expected and wages assume it.
- Card surcharges, 3 to 5 per cent. Where cards work at all. Cash is genuinely cheaper here.
Questions people ask
How much does a week in Zanzibar cost?
On the island, per person, excluding flights: around $450 backpacking, around $1,300 at a comfortable small hotel, and $3,000 upwards at the top end. Add the flight, which is the single biggest variable and depends entirely on where you start.
Is Zanzibar expensive?
It is two economies side by side. A meal in a local canteen costs three dollars and the same meal in a beach resort costs twenty five. Accommodation is where the money goes, and it is priced for international visitors. Food, transport and local activities are cheap if you step outside the resort.
How much cash should I bring to Zanzibar?
Enough US dollars for the visa, the airport transfer and the first day, so around two hundred. After that, draw shillings from a machine as you need them. Cards work in resorts and almost nowhere else.
What is the cheapest month to visit Zanzibar?
April and May, because it is the long rains and demand collapses. The honest budget answer is November, which is cheap for a real reason but a much smaller one.