Zanzibar Abeid Amani Karume (ZNZ) Airport Guide 2026 — Mandatory Insurance, Visa & Beach Transfers

Zanzibar (ZNZ) — The Complete 2026 Airport Guide

Zanzibar’s airport is small, close to Stone Town and easy to walk out of — but it has one trap that catches thousands of honeymooners a year. Since 2024, every foreign visitor must buy the government’s mandatory travel insurance online before arriving, and you show it before you even reach the visa counter. Sort that, your Tanzania visa and — if you’re transiting Nairobi or Addis — your yellow-fever card, and the spice islands are a 15-minute taxi away.

Last verified: July 2026. Visa fees, the mandatory-insurance rule and entry requirements for Tanzania and Zanzibar change often — confirm the specifics on the official government sites and at signage before you travel. Never buy insurance or a visa through a lookalike site.

Quick reference

The one thing everyone forgets: Zanzibar’s mandatory insurance

This is the single most important line in this guide, so read it before you book anything else. Since October 2024, Zanzibar’s semi-autonomous government has required every foreign visitor to hold its own mandatory inbound travel insurance, run by the state-owned Zanzibar Insurance Corporation (ZIC). It costs around US$44 for an adult (roughly US$22 for a child), is valid for up to 92 days from arrival, and must be bought online before you fly at the official portal — you cannot reliably buy it at the airport counter.

Three details trip people up:

• It applies to all arrivals, by air or by sea — including travellers who fly into mainland Tanzania first (Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro) and then hop over to Zanzibar. Crossing from the mainland does not exempt you.
• It’s in addition to your own travel insurance, not instead of it. Your existing policy from home does not satisfy the requirement; this is a separate government product you must hold on top.
• You show it before the visa desk. On arrival at Terminal 3 you present the QR code from your ZIC policy first, then proceed to immigration and the visa counter. No QR, and you’re sent to sort it out on the spot — a slow, stressful start to a beach holiday.

Terminals: international in T3, safari hops in T2

Zanzibar is a small airport that has grown up fast. There are three buildings, but for a visitor the split is simple:

• Terminal 3 is the modern glass terminal that opened in 2020, and it handles all international flights — your charter or scheduled service from Europe, the Gulf or Nairobi lands and departs here. It’s where the visa desks, the mandatory-insurance check and the international lounges are.
• Terminal 2 is the older building used for domestic and regional flights — the light-aircraft hops to Dar es Salaam, Arusha, the Serengeti airstrips and Pemba Island.
• Terminal 1 is inactive and used as airport offices; you won’t pass through it.

The reason the terminal split matters is the classic Zanzibar itinerary: beach on the island, then a safari on the mainland (or the reverse). If you fly in internationally to T3 and then connect onward to a domestic flight in T2, the two buildings are separate — you collect your bags, exit T3, and walk about five minutes (or take a one-minute buggy or taxi) to T2 to check in again. It is not an airside transfer, so treat a T3-to-T2 connection like leaving and re-entering the airport, and give yourself a comfortable buffer.

Getting to Stone Town and the beaches

Here’s the good news after all that paperwork: the airport is only about 6 km from Stone Town, so your transfer is short and cheap by island standards. Almost every hotel and resort offers a pre-arranged transfer, and taking it is the norm — the driver waits with your name, the fare is fixed, and you skip the arrivals-hall haggle. If you’d rather grab an airport taxi, that’s fine too, but agree the price and the currency before you get in — there are no meters, and there is no reliable Uber or Bolt pickup from the airport.

The figures above are the pre-booked, agreed-in-advance rates. Walk up to a taxi at the airport with no reference and the Nungwi run alone can be quoted at US$60–80 — 30–80% over the going rate. Book your transfer through your hotel or a reputable operator by WhatsApp or online before you fly and you lock the price in.

Entry: visa, insurance and yellow fever

Zanzibar is part of the United Republic of Tanzania but semi-autonomous, so you clear Tanzanian immigration and use the Tanzanian visa — there is no separate “Zanzibar visa.” Three things must line up: your insurance (above), your visa, and, for some routings, a yellow-fever certificate.

The Tanzania visa

You have two routes, and both are legitimate:

• e-Visa in advance — apply on the official government portal at visa.immigration.go.tz, upload your details and pay online, and travel with the approval. This is the smoother option and the one to use if a queue at the end of a long flight fills you with dread.
• Visa on arrival at ZNZ — available to most nationalities. You fill in a short arrival form, have your photo taken on-site (no printed photo needed) and pay at a separate counter. The standard single-entry tourist visa is about US$50. Expect a wait of anywhere from 15 minutes to over an hour in the July–August and December–January peaks.

US citizens are the big exception. Under long-standing reciprocity, Americans are issued a multiple-entry visa costing about US$100 for tourism, not the US$50 single-entry. Because visa-on-arrival doesn’t always issue the multiple-entry type cleanly, US travellers are generally better off applying for the e-Visa online in advance. A handful of nationalities need a referral (pre-approved) visa rather than visa-on-arrival — check the portal if you’re unsure.

Yellow fever — only for some routings

Tanzania is a low-risk country for yellow fever, so most visitors flying direct from Europe or North America do not need the vaccine or a certificate. The rule bites on your routing: you need a valid yellow-fever certificate if you are arriving from, or transiting for 12 hours or more through, a country with yellow-fever risk. That squarely includes Kenya (Nairobi) and Ethiopia (Addis Ababa), the two most common African connection points — but a normal short layover of a couple of hours there does not trigger the requirement; the 12-hour threshold does. Travellers coming from mainland Tanzania to Zanzibar are not asked for it.

Lounges

Terminal 3 is comfortable but not vast, and lounge options are limited compared with a big hub. The reliable, verifiable option is the Marhaba Lounge in Terminal 3: it accepts Priority Pass and sells walk-in access from around US$39–45 per person. It sits airside after passport control, near Gates 1–2, and operates a maximum stay of around three hours — enough to see out a delayed charter with a drink and a seat away from the crowd.

You may see other lounge names advertised for Zanzibar online; availability and Priority Pass status here change frequently, so confirm what’s open and what your card gets you at the desk on the day rather than trusting a saved link. If you’re flying a premium cabin on Emirates, Qatar or a similar carrier, you’ll be directed to whichever contract lounge that airline uses at the time.

Money, SIM, Wi-Fi and practicalities

Money: as above, US dollars are widely accepted from tourists and shillings are the local currency. Bank kiosks in Terminal 3 handle Visa and Mastercard, but this is a small island airport — carry some cash as a backup in case a card machine or the network is down, and decline any ATM that offers to bill you in your home currency (choose shillings for a better rate). Change or draw cash in town rather than relying solely on the airport.

SIM & data: local prepaid SIMs (Airtel, Vodacom, Zantel/Tigo) are cheap and give good coverage across the island; you can buy one in the arrivals area with your passport, or arrange an eSIM before you land for the least hassle. Registration is required, so keep your passport handy.

Wi-Fi: Terminal 3 offers a limited slice of free “ZNZ-Airport” Wi-Fi (around 30 minutes); beyond that you’ll want a local SIM or a lounge. Don’t count on airport Wi-Fi for anything long.

Departure tip: for international departures, get to T3 in good time — check-in and security here can be slow when several wide-body charters leave in the same window, and the terminal gets warm and busy at peak. There’s a modest selection of cafés and shops airside, but it’s not a place to rely on for a long, comfortable wait.

Connections: beach-and-safari itineraries

Most people don’t “connect” at Zanzibar in the airline sense — they arrive and go to the beach. The connection that does matter is the beach-plus-safari combination, where you pair Zanzibar with a mainland or Serengeti leg.

Because an international arrival lands in T3 and domestic flights leave from T2, and the transfer is landside (bags out, short walk to the other building, check in again), you should treat a same-day link like a fresh airport visit. If you’re on separate tickets — an international flight and a domestic bush flight bought independently — build in a generous cushion of at least a few hours, or better, an overnight in Stone Town, because a missed domestic flight is entirely on you. If a single airline or tour operator ticketed the whole journey, follow their minimum connection guidance. Bush-flight schedules can also shift with the light and the weather, so keep the day loose.

Frequently asked questions

At a glance

Before you fly

• 📊 Check what a good fare to Zanzibar looks like — our price-check tool shows the typical deal range so you know a bargain when you see one.
• 🧳 Baggage checker — confirm your airline’s carry-on and checked allowance before you pack, charter carriers included.
• 🏝️ Zanzibar travel guide — Stone Town, the beaches, when to go and how to plan your days.