How safe is Tanzania for travelers?

Crime

• Bag snatching and armed robbery are the realistic risks, concentrated in Dar es Salaam - the city centre, Masaki, Oysterbay and Toure Drive - and in Stone Town and the Zanzibar beach areas.
• Express kidnapping happens: victims are held briefly and forced to withdraw cash at ATMs or make transfers, in amounts running to thousands.
• Use ATMs inside bank branches, in daylight, and never one on a quiet street at night.
• Do not walk on the beach after dark, on Zanzibar particularly.
• Carry a decoy amount of cash and leave passports, spare cards and the bulk of your money in a hotel safe.
• Phone snatching from tuk-tuks and open car windows is common in traffic. Keep it out of sight in a jam.

Zanzibar's rules

• Dress modestly away from resorts, and especially in Stone Town. Shoulders and knees covered.
• Fines are real and large - reported at several hundred dollars for inappropriate clothing, more for a guide who allowed it.
• Swimwear is for the beach and the hotel, not the village or the ferry.
• This is a Muslim island and the courtesy costs nothing.

Laws

• Same-sex sexual activity is illegal in Tanzania, Zanzibar included, with severe penalties. Public affection risks arrest.
• Drug penalties are severe and include long prison sentences for possession.
• Photographing protests, police or the military is illegal, as is sharing such footage. People have been detained over social media posts.
• Plastic bags are banned.

Where not to go

• The FCDO advises against all but essential travel to parts of Mtwara region bordering Mozambique, where the Cabo Delgado insurgency spills over.
• The general election of 29 October 2025 triggered protests and a security response causing deaths and injuries across mainland Tanzania. Avoid demonstrations entirely and expect a heavy police presence around political dates.
• Border areas with Burundi and the DRC need checking before travelling.

Roads and wildlife

• Road accidents are the most likely serious harm to come to you here. Buses and taxis have poor safety standards and fatal crashes are frequent.
• Do not drive or travel by road outside major towns at night.
• Refuse a boda boda motorcycle taxi, or at least refuse one without a helmet.
• On safari, stay in the vehicle unless your guide says otherwise, and do not stand up through the roof near predators.
• In camp, do not walk between tents after dark without an escort. Unfenced camps have hippos and buffalo wandering through, and hippos kill more people in Africa than lions.