Less than two months left until we fly to Tanzania! I'm both excited and nervous and starting to obsess! I can't believe it's so close, having planned this vacation for a year now. For so long it felt so far away. But now it's just around the corner. I've been hiking and doing yoga and TRX and even a little swimming! Hopefully it will be enough to get me to the summit of Africa's tallest mountain!
We managed to get a really good deal on our airfare. A friend from my TRX class mentioned she flies home to Nairobi often and usually pays around $1100 for the flight. I'd been seeing prices around $2200 directly to Kilimanjaro, which seemed outrageous! When I checked the flights to Nairobi, sure enough, they were $1000 cheaper! It's only one country away, why was the price so different?? But then I couldn't find a flight from Nairobi to TZ that worked without having to stay the night in Kenya. This wasn't really a good idea since there would then be complications to get into Tanzania.
After months of looking, hoping prices would drop or times would line up better, it finally dawned on me to check out flying into Dar Es Salaam, the capital city. Jackpot! $1285 on Emirates to Dar Es Salaam! And the flight to Kilimanjaro from Dar Es Salaam was only another $50! I couldn't believe our good fortune. I called Amy and, in a jumble of words, told her about the flights and booked them then and there.
We were also able to finally find a flight from Kilimanjaro to Zanzibar that didn't break the bank, left late enough in the day for us to finish our safari, and didn't have us overnight somewhere else. It's a direct flight and only cost $176. Compared to the $300+ flights I'd been seeing, this was a great deal! In the end, for all flights we spent $1632.40, which is so much better than I ever expected. It really pays off to be vigilant about tracking fares and looking at different cities/times.
Breakout of all flight costs:
Seattle > Dar Es Salaam - $1285
Dar Es Salaam > Kilimanjaro - $48
Kilimanjaro > Zanzibar - $176.64
Zanzibar > Dar Es Salaam - $98.76
Total - $1632.40
We managed to get a really good deal on our airfare. A friend from my TRX class mentioned she flies home to Nairobi often and usually pays around $1100 for the flight. I'd been seeing prices around $2200 directly to Kilimanjaro, which seemed outrageous! When I checked the flights to Nairobi, sure enough, they were $1000 cheaper! It's only one country away, why was the price so different?? But then I couldn't find a flight from Nairobi to TZ that worked without having to stay the night in Kenya. This wasn't really a good idea since there would then be complications to get into Tanzania.
After months of looking, hoping prices would drop or times would line up better, it finally dawned on me to check out flying into Dar Es Salaam, the capital city. Jackpot! $1285 on Emirates to Dar Es Salaam! And the flight to Kilimanjaro from Dar Es Salaam was only another $50! I couldn't believe our good fortune. I called Amy and, in a jumble of words, told her about the flights and booked them then and there.
We were also able to finally find a flight from Kilimanjaro to Zanzibar that didn't break the bank, left late enough in the day for us to finish our safari, and didn't have us overnight somewhere else. It's a direct flight and only cost $176. Compared to the $300+ flights I'd been seeing, this was a great deal! In the end, for all flights we spent $1632.40, which is so much better than I ever expected. It really pays off to be vigilant about tracking fares and looking at different cities/times.
Breakout of all flight costs:
Seattle > Dar Es Salaam - $1285
Dar Es Salaam > Kilimanjaro - $48
Kilimanjaro > Zanzibar - $176.64
Zanzibar > Dar Es Salaam - $98.76
Total - $1632.40
