10-Day Tanzania Itinerary: Safari and Zanzibar, 3 Routes Priced for 2026/2027

The best 10-day Tanzania itinerary for a first visit is six days of safari followed by four on Zanzibar. That split fits Tarangire, three nights in the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater before the beach, and it's the one our guests book most. Of the 13 ten-day trips in our catalogue, seven end on the island.

Two other versions work at this length. The same six days can follow the migration instead, with two nights in the northern Serengeti and a flight to the island straight from the Mara River. Ten safari days with no beach suit April and May. Each route below comes with drive distances, the airlines' own flight times and our partner operators' 2026/2027 prices.

Key takeaways

• Seven of the 13 ten-day trips in our catalogue end on Zanzibar, five of them after the northern parks.
• Mid-range trips with the beach cost about $4,100 to $5,800 per person for two people sharing, on our partner operators' 2026/2027 prices. International flights are extra.
• The safari goes first. Flights from the Serengeti reach Zanzibar the same day, most of them by mid-afternoon, and carry 15 to 20 kg of luggage per person.
• April is the month to keep off the beach: Zanzibar averages 408 mm of rain across about 17 days, on World Meteorological Organization normals.
• New from 1 October 2026: mainland Tanzania requires its own $44 inbound travel insurance, and you buy only the policy for wherever you land first.

Three 10-day Tanzania itineraries at a glance

Prices are for two adults sharing, on our partner operators' 2026/2027 rates, and leave out international flights. The cost section further down adds luxury trips, parties of four and the south.

A fourth version swaps the north for the south: Nyerere National Park, then Zanzibar. It has its own section, because it flies and prices differently.

How many days do you need in Tanzania and Zanzibar?

A trip that combines a Tanzania safari with Zanzibar needs about ten days: six for the safari and four for the beach. That's nine nights, six on the mainland and three on the island. With fewer days, one half gets squeezed.

A northern safari that gives the Serengeti two nights takes four days by road, because the park is most of a day's drive from Arusha. Zanzibar needs three nights to be more than a stopover.

The planning form on our site shows the same instinct: a quarter of the people who use it ask for ten days or more. If you have a week, start with our 7-day Tanzania safari itinerary. For every length from two days to ten, see how many days a Tanzania safari needs.

Route 1, day by day: the classic Tanzania and Zanzibar itinerary

Route 1 is the classic first trip: six safari days in northern Tanzania, then four on Zanzibar. The safari half follows the route most seven-day trips take, with Tarangire, three nights in the Serengeti and the crater on the way back. On day seven you fly to the island instead of home.

Tarangire comes first because it's the shortest drive from Arusha, and its elephant herds along the river make an easy first day. Sleeping in Karatu that night shortens day three. The town sits 16 km from the Ngorongoro gate, which the main road to the Serengeti passes through.

Three nights in the central Serengeti give you two full days there. Karlis Auzins, who founded GetSafariTours, tells first-timers to stay at least two nights in the park and three if the trip allows. The drive in and the drive out each take most of a day.

Seronera has resident lions, leopards and cheetahs all year, so this route doesn't depend on where the migration is. From December to March the herds are to the south at Ndutu. From July to October they're in the far north, which is Route 2's job.

The crater takes most of day six. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority charges $70.80 per adult to enter and $295 per vehicle for the descent, so you go down once, on the way back to Karatu. A visit lasts about six hours, and the descent road closes to new vehicles at 16:00.

The road between the crater rim and the Serengeti passes Maasai villages that take visitors, and most itineraries can add a stop. It's optional. Our guide to Tanzania's tribes explains what a respectful visit looks like.

For lodges, these were all rated 4.7 or higher on Tripadvisor when we checked in September 2026: Farm of Dreams Lodge in Karatu, and Kontiki Central Serengeti Camp or Serengeti Classic View Camp near Seronera. Our guide to the best safari lodges in Tanzania has the full list by park.

Three nights on Zanzibar is enough for one coast. Pick Nungwi or Kendwa in the north if you want to swim at any tide, or Paje and Jambiani in the east for the lagoon and the kitesurfing wind. Our guide to the island's beaches explains how the tides differ, and the safari and Zanzibar guide covers where to stay and what to do there.

If the beach matters more to you than a third Serengeti night, drop day five and fly a day earlier. That five-and-five version is in our catalogue as the 10-day safari and Zanzibar island getaway. The six-and-four split is there too, as a wildlife safari and Zanzibar holiday that runs the parks in a different order and adds Lake Manyara.

Route 2, day by day: the Great Migration and Zanzibar

Route 2 is for travellers whose trip is about the Great Migration. From mid-July to October the herds are in the northern Serengeti, crossing the Mara River. The same six safari days get you there with two nights at the river, and you fly to Zanzibar from the north instead of driving back.

The crater moves to day three, on the way in, so the trip never doubles back. The drive from Seronera to Kogatende is only 137 km, but partner itineraries allow six to seven hours for it with game viewing on the way. That's why the north needs two nights.

Nobody can promise a crossing. Herds gather at the river, wait for hours and sometimes turn around. Two nights give you one full day at the river and the late afternoon before it, and our guide to river crossings and calving explains what improves the odds.

From January to March, swap the north for Ndutu, where the herds calve on the southern plains. Ndutu lies between the crater and Seronera, so the route becomes crater, two nights at Ndutu, then two in the central Serengeti. The camps move with the herds: Nyikani Migration Camp stands at Kogatende from 20 May to 20 November and at Ndutu from 1 December to 5 April. Our list of migration camps by month has the rest.

Six days is the tight version of this route. One honeymoon couple in our partners' reviews spent nine days on safari and three on Zanzibar. They called that length right for seeing both the central and the northern Serengeti, and wrote that they could easily have spent five to seven days on the island.

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Route 3, day by day: a 10-day Tanzania safari without the beach

Route 3 spends all ten days on safari. Choose it if you're travelling in April or May, when Zanzibar is at its wettest, or if a week of game drives doesn't sound like enough. With ten days by road, the Serengeti gets four nights and the long drives are split across more days.

Two partner trips follow this line: the 10-day Serengeti migration safari, and a family version that puts a ranger-led walk in Arusha National Park on the first full day. A third trades two of the days for Lake Natron and a morning with the Hadzabe at Lake Eyasi.

April and May are when this route makes most sense. The Serengeti's conservation fee falls from $82.60 to $70.80 a day between 15 March and 15 May. Three camps whose rate sheets we quote in our lodge guide charge 18% to 30% less in low season than at peak. You trade afternoon storms for empty roads and green plains.

The southern alternative: Nyerere and Zanzibar

If you've done the north, or you want a boat safari as well as game drives, start in Dar es Salaam. Our partners run a 10-day Nyerere and Zanzibar trip: one night in Dar es Salaam, four in Nyerere National Park split between two camps on the Rufiji River, then a flight to Zanzibar for a night in Stone Town and three on the beach.

The park's main gates are about 230 km from Dar es Salaam, a drive of six to seven hours with the last stretch on dirt. From the park's airstrips, Auric Air leaves at 12:35 and lands on Zanzibar at 14:20, for $265 one way. Coastal Aviation leaves at 12:50 and arrives at 14:50 via Dar es Salaam, for $290 with taxes.

The draw is the river: boat safaris among hippos and crocodiles, which the Serengeti can't offer. Our Nyerere guide covers the park. Both camps on this trip, Selous River Camp and Selous Impala Camp, were rated 4.8 and 4.9 on Tripadvisor in September 2026.

Our partner prices this trip at about $4,960 per person for two people sharing. One family in our partners' reviews took the route with a two-year-old and a five-month-old baby, and gave it four stars out of five. Auric's flights from the park stop from 15 March to 31 May for the wet season, so plan it for June to early March.

How do you get from the Serengeti to Zanzibar?

You get from the Serengeti to Zanzibar by light aircraft, and you arrive the same day. Three airlines run scheduled flights from the Serengeti's airstrips to the island, most of them with a stop in Arusha. The times below come from each airline's current timetable.

Fares include taxes. Coastal's come from its timetable as updated in July 2026, and Auric's from its rate sheet of 25 August 2026. Auric runs its Serengeti flights once two seats are booked.

On Route 1 you don't fly from the Serengeti at all. Auric Air leaves Lake Manyara airstrip at 12:00 and lands at 14:35, for $347. From Arusha the flight takes just over an hour, and Flightlink alone has five direct departures between 10:00 and 18:30.

Pack for the small plane, because its limits are lower than a long-haul allowance. Coastal allows 15 kg per person including hand luggage, and recommends a soft bag of up to 40 by 40 by 80 cm. Auric allows 20 kg including hand luggage, and Flightlink 20 kg in the hold plus 5 kg in the cabin.

Our partner operators book Flightlink most often on this leg. Schedules do move: three guests in our partners' reviews had a flight to Zanzibar delayed or cancelled, and each time the operator rearranged it.

Zanzibar has its own international airport, so the trip can end on the island. If your ticket home leaves from Dar es Salaam, the hop takes 20 minutes and runs several times a day. If it leaves from Kilimanjaro, Flightlink's 08:15 flight from Zanzibar gets there in an hour.

Stone Town is 637 km from Seronera in a straight line but only 74 km from Dar es Salaam, which is why the leg to the island is nearly always a flight. Our guide to where Zanzibar is maps the islands with the ferry and flight times from the mainland.

What does a 10-day Tanzania trip cost?

A 10-day Tanzania itinerary with Zanzibar costs about $4,100 to $5,800 per person at mid-range level, for two people sharing. Ten days of safari without the beach cost about $4,550 to $5,150. These are our partner operators' 2026/2027 prices for the ten-day trips in our catalogue.

In the first row, the lower figure is the five-and-five trip. The upper one is the six-and-four trip, whose operator charges the same per person for any party size. Route 2 isn't a fixed trip in our catalogue, so we quote it to order. Expect it to come out above Route 1, because the flight from Kogatende costs $575 to $775 against $182 to $500 from Arusha or Lake Manyara.

These prices cover the hotels, meals and transfers in the programme, national park fees, a 4x4 safari vehicle and an English-speaking guide. They leave out international flights, visa fees, tips and travel insurance, which now includes the $44 inbound policy. Ask whether the flight to Zanzibar is inside the quote: one luxury trip in our catalogue lists it as an extra. A balloon flight over the Serengeti adds $549 to $749 per person.

Group size matters more than most people expect, because the vehicle and guide cost the same whether two people sit in it or six. On the five-and-five trip the price falls from about $4,140 each for two travellers to $3,600 for four and $3,410 for six. A solo traveller pays about $6,350.

Park fees are a large fixed part of every price. Tanzania National Parks charges $82.60 per adult for each 24 hours in the Serengeti, tax included, and a night inside the park adds a concession fee of $59.00 to $70.80. Our Tanzania park fees guide adds them up for a real route, and what a Tanzania safari costs breaks down the rest. For your own dates and party size, the safari cost calculator gives a quick estimate.

Which month suits which route?

The herds and the rain decide which 10-day Tanzania itinerary fits your dates. This table puts the Serengeti's calendar next to Zanzibar's weather, using the World Meteorological Organization's 1991 to 2020 climate normals for Zanzibar City.

February and September are the two months when a safari and a beach are both at their best. In February the herds are calving at Ndutu and Zanzibar has its fewest rainy days of the year. In September the crossings are still running in the north, and the island is dry and quieter than in July and August.

Every other month has a catch, and the table shows which half of the trip carries it. For the detail behind each column, see our month-by-month guides to the Serengeti and to Zanzibar's weather.

What guests say about ten days

Our partner operators have 4,569 guest reviews on the site. At least nine of them describe a ten-day trip that combined a safari with Zanzibar, one of them in the south. All but one gave five stars.

Three of the nine state the split. One couple spent five days on safari through Tarangire, the Serengeti and Ngorongoro. A group of seven finished with four days on the island. A first-time safari-goer wrote that a couple of days of rest on Zanzibar after several days of safari was perfect.

The warnings in these reviews are about the road. The honeymoon couple on the nine-day safari told future guests to expect a lot of time in the car on bumpy, remote roads. A reviewer on a twelve-day trip called the early mornings and rough rides exhausting, and worth it.

Before you book

A few things sit outside every itinerary and still need sorting. One of them is new this month.

• Visa. Most visitors need one. It costs $50 for a single entry, and US citizens must buy the $100 multiple-entry visa. Our Tanzania visa guide compares applying online with paying on arrival.
• Insurance, now compulsory. From 1 October 2026 every foreign visitor entering mainland Tanzania must buy the government's inbound travel insurance from the National Insurance Corporation: $44 per visitor, valid for up to 92 days. Zanzibar has required its own $44 policy since October 2024. The Ministry of Finance's notice says visitors who enter through the mainland buy the mainland policy, and that its insurer then serves them anywhere in Tanzania. The UK Foreign Office confirmed on 1 October that you buy only one: "You only need to buy insurance for your first port of entry, either mainland Tanzania or Zanzibar." Our guide to whether Zanzibar is safe covers the island's other entry rules.
• Health. Antimalarials are advised for the mainland and for Zanzibar. See vaccinations and malaria.
• Tips. They aren't in the price. Our tipping guide gives the amounts.
• Private or shared. Shared group departures run for two to five days, so a ten-day trip is a private one. Private versus group safaris explains the difference in price.
• The operator. Ask for the lodges by name and the park fees as separate lines. Our guide to choosing a Tanzania safari company lists what else to check.

Fix the month, and the route follows

If your dates are set, the table of months has already picked your route. April means ten days of safari. August means the northern Serengeti before the beach, and almost any other month suits the classic route.

If your dates are open, start from what you most want to see. Calving points to February and river crossings to September, and both months leave Zanzibar dry.

Tell us your dates and party size on our planning form. We'll send back the route that fits, with the lodges named and the fees listed line by line.