Air Travel to Tanzania
What route did most of you take to get to Tanzania? Did you go through Kenya? Do we need a special visa for Kenya? Does Tauck take care of all the details? Do you have to overnight it anywhere? Our travels will start in the U.S. Thanks!
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People take different routes depending on whether you book your own and airline booked, or use Tauck air. Some routing by some carriers may include an overnight. Tauck will transport you from the airport upon arrival to the hotel in Arusha and from the last hotel to the airport at the end of the tour. Unless you booked air thru Tauck, you are responsible for all flight arrangements. Regardless of flight arrangements, you are responsible for obtaining a passport and appropriate visas. In simple terms Tauck does not handle any other pre- or post-tour transportation details.
When we took this tour years ago, we used Delta and then KLM in Amsterdam. That is the flight that often your bags don’t make it into the plane in Amsterdam. Just one flight a day, so you get them 24 hours
These days we use Qatar to Doha and on to Arusha. This is what we are doing when we go in a couple of months. I do not recommend going via Nairobi, became you will need a Kenya visa if you do that.
British, Very helpful recommendation, thank you. We checked Qatar, which I have used for work, and the flights worked out perfectly. Thank you, again.
A few years ago we flew DC to Addis Ababa to Arusha going over then Nairobi to Addis Ababa to DC coming home via Ethiopian Airlines.
AlanS, We saw Ethiopian as an option, how was it? Did you fly business, coach?
We were satisfied with KLM with a connection in Amsterdam. We chose to spend one night in Amsterdam at an airport hotel, in order to reduce the likelihood of a luggage mishap and to break up the journey. It is easy to take the train into the City and enjoy some sightseeing.
We flew in business. Good service. They have a mix of aircraft and have a bunch of newer wide body Boeing 787- 8 and 9 and Airbus A350-900. Addis Ababa can be a little eye opening but not too bad. It is the airline’s HQ in the capital. Not a place I would want to overnight. ET has a somewhat of a checkered past- e.g. 737 Max crash.
Lotusgirl, We saw that as an option, we like the idea of flying KLM, but loathed the thought of having to overnight it somewhere. It appears that Qatar airlines has the best of all around options, low(er) price, no overnighters along the route, and straight into Tanzania. An added bonus...I spoke with Tauck this morning, and they contract with Qatar. I am very familiar with the airport in Doha, so the lengthy delay will not be an issue. Thanks for the input.
AlanS, thank you. Something to consider.
@Hulka - we are flying on Qatar this July as well. I know you are looking for no overnight layovers, but be sure to consider 2 points.
If you fly Qatar (advertised and operated by Qatar) - certain flights and and certain classes are eligible for a complimentary overnight stay in a hotel. Stopover for the Purpose of Connection. The first set of criteria listed are that N class tickets and above costing USD 400 each way qualify, and that there are only 4 economy ticket fare buckets that never qualify for free STPC (out of 14 economy fare buckets in total), and those are O, Q, T and W. The second criteria needed is that the stopover must be 8 hours or more and there could not have been a shorter connection that was available. From what I have read people have been put up in the Oryx Garden, Oryx (standard), and Warwick (20 min outside the Airport).
We specifically chose a longer layover (flying with younger kids), booked via American (codeshare) for the loyalty points, and economy seats (hey, it's what we can afford - but I like that AA status lets me pick premiums economy seats), so we weren't going to be eligible anyway. That said, you can still book your own room and the Oryx Airport hotel is an excellent value if you want to crash for the night, wake up refreshed and continue on your journey. For our family of 4 it was an excellent option and we booked the hotel both ways. You never even leave the airport so you don't have to clear security or worry about getting a Qatar transit visa.
My in-laws are flying Biz on Ethiopian Air through Addis Ababa - pricing was the best for them coming out of Chicago, O'Hare. Since we are out of Boston, Qatar was a no brainer.
Dogdoctor, Thank you for that detailed explanation. I was just discussing the possibility of an overnight stay, if we must. I have a favorite hotel in Doha, away from the airport, but still...staying at the hotel has it's advantages. The dates are still out of the range of both Tauck and Qatar, so it's a guessing game for now. I wouldn't mind staying the night in Doha, what a vibrant city.
We are going through Istanbul.
Hi Hulka! We are flying Los Angeles to Doha to Kilimanjaro/Arusha. Our layover is 7 hours, so we may look into the airport hotel. Kind of amazed to have only a single connection to get there, and the return to the US from Rwanda (Kigali to Doha to LA).
Toriliz, Those are the flights we took on our K, T and Rwanda tour. I recall there was a limo bus to take the business class passengers to the plane.A nice little airport and a beautiful country I would like to see more of.