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Photo by Anton Zelenov, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Zanzibar in May
ok · worth considering
The year in Zanzibar
Tap a month for its page
- JanJZanzibar in January: good, busy
- FebFZanzibar in February: good, busy
- MarMZanzibar in March: good
- AprAZanzibar in April: avoid
- MayMZanzibar in May: ok
- JunJZanzibar in June: sweet spot
- JulJZanzibar in July: sweet spot
- AugAZanzibar in August: sweet spot
- SepSZanzibar in September: sweet spot
- OctOZanzibar in October: sweet spot
- NovNZanzibar in November: sweet spot
- DecDZanzibar in December: good, busy
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Plan this trip
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Where to stay
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Mobile data (eSIM)
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Renting a pocket Wi-Fi is the other common way to stay connected.
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The numbers
| Daily high | 28°C |
|---|---|
| Nightly low | 24°C |
| Feels like, afternoon | 32°C |
| Rainy days, 1 mm or more | 11 · 200 mm |
| Humidity | 83% |
| Sunshine | 9.6 h/day |
| Daylight | 11.8 h/day |
| Crowds | 80 / 100, higher is quieter |
Ten-year averages for this calendar month. A rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts it. The model these figures come from drizzles more than a rain gauge, the more so the warmer the month, so its days count from 2 mm, rising to 5 mm in the hottest.
Weather read at Stone Town, 8 km from the airport (ZNZ): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
How busy it gets
Public holidays in May
Holidays crowd a place out and push fares up around them; they count toward the crowd score above.
Zanzibar in pictures
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Wegmann, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Kent MacElwee, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Dr. Ondřej Havelka (cestovatel), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What to pack
- Summer clothes by day, highs around 28°C.
- A packable rain jacket for the 11 or so rainy days.
- Sun protection: about 10 hours of sunshine a day.
- Humidity averages 83%; breathable fabrics dry faster.
Each line is a threshold over the ten-year figures above, not advice from anywhere else.
Before you go
| Cost of living | very cheap — prices run about 29% of the United States' (World Bank, 2025) |
|---|---|
| Currency | Tanzanian shilling |
| Languages | Swahili, English |
| Plugs | Type G, 230 V |
| Driving | On the left |
| Calling code | +255 |
| Travel advice | avoid all but essential travel to parts — UK Foreign Office, updated 2026-10-06 Exercise a high degree of caution (with regional advisories) — Global Affairs Canada, updated 2026-10-01 Level 3: Reconsider Travel — US State Department, updated 2025-10-31 |
| Health | UK Foreign Office health advice |
Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank, refreshed 2026-10-07. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.Travel advice for American readers is the US State Department's (public domain), and for Canadian readers Global Affairs Canada's (Open Government Licence - Canada), each in its own words and written for its own citizens; entry rules depend on your passport.
On arrival in Zanzibar: the apps, paying, getting around, tipping and the emergency numbers.
May elsewhere
In May from
The other months at Zanzibar
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