For every exotic trip a “pre-study” about the location, development, climate and disease is required. This is an easy step that always provides comfortable travelling because you are informed and you can enjoy the place without being unpleasantly surprised.

For our trip to Central Africa – Tanzania, island Zanzibar, we start preparing in advance. We booked our tickets a lot earlier – 6 months before and the hotel about 3 months before the trip. 2 months were enough to read about our new destination in details and now I am very happy to share with you what you should know before considering a great trip to Zanzibar (which I strongly recommend).

Seasons

Here in Tanzania and on the island Zanzibar, there is winter and summer.

The winter is April, June, July, August, September. The summer is October, November, December, January, February, March.

Here there are two periods: dry and wet.

The dry period is characterized with 33°C average temperature, low humidity, no frequent rainfalls – this period is during the winter months.

The wet period is characterized with 35°C average temperature, high humidity and daily rainfalls during the lunch hours. Locals say that during the wet period some days they go to sleep on the beach.  Because of the high humidity sometimes they feel like they cannot breathe. It’s good to have it in mind that during the summer there are many more mosquitoes compared with winter months. Our trip was during the winter because of that.

Indian Ocean: Ebbs and flows

There are ebbs and flows on every 6 hours and the water moves with at least 50 meters which is a lot! The tides in Life can be represented by the ocean movements. The body of the Indian ocean rises and falls in its own rhythm. It is so beautiful and so dynamic.

The local super market can be reached walking on the beach, so when you want to go shopping you should wait for the ebb 🙂

Below one picture when the water is going back to the ocean heart.

Water

The tap water is not good for drinking on the Island Zanzibar, Tanzania ( not sure how is in the whole Tanzania). The tap water is good for teeth washing, you can wash your face and your body; good for dishwashing and other house activities.

Repellents

As I said already, during the winter there aren’t so many mosquitoes but still in the night hours you can see some. During the summer local say there are plenty of them. It is a must to have repellents. Our repellents were bought in Austria and were a little bit more expensive but there are some repellents which cost 5 EUR. In Africa you can also find in their shops some sprays against mosquitoes. Always when you are in the heart of the island Zanzibar or during the night it is a must to be protected by repellents. We didn’t have any problems while being there, no bites by mosquitoes at all. I can say our repellents were very effective. Here are how they look like:

But in general I think no matter what repellent you’ll use, it will work good for you. Just don’t miss to buy one. After some researches we were advised when buying repellent to check for “deet” – a substance contained in the repellent.

In my next article I will share with you my experience with vaccines and pills against malaria.

Let’s keep motivated to travel in Africa!

Kisses.