Flights to Kilimanjaro and Tanzania

Flights to Tanzania - the options

Tanzania has three major international airports: Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar and Kilimanjaro. The latter, as you may expect, is the most convenient for Kilimanjaro, standing only 42km away from the mountain town of Moshi and 50km from Arusha.

Unfortunately, the lack of airlines flying into KIA (the acronym for Kilimanjaro International Airport, though the three-letter international airport code more commonly used is JRO) - KLM, Ethiopian and Air Kenya being the major ones - results in airfares from Europe and elsewhere being rather inflated; this, combined with the fact that many trekkers will want a few days on a beach at the start or end of their holiday, means that some Kili climbers fly to one of the other two airports.

Of the two, Zanzibar is often, surprisingly, the cheaper destination. It is, however, rather inconveniently located for Kilimanjaro, being around 40km off the Tanzanian coast, and as such those flying out for the specific purpose of climbing the mountain should really discard this option and look instead at flights to Dar es Salaam.

From the UK

A cheap flight to Kilimanjaro from London with KLM via Amsterdam will set you back a minimum of £500 (though can rise to £1000), while for Dar the determined may be able to find one from around £420. You have to add on to these places departure taxes from both the UK and Tanzania (both are now usually included as part of the ticket price).

The larger and more famous travel agent names include STA Travel, Flight Centre and Trailfinders. All have branches around the country. A couple of online agencies to recommend, too, are Airline Network, Lastminute.com and Expedia.

In addition to the travel agencies, net-heads may also like to check out the Cheap Flights website, which gives a summary of the flight offers to your destination from a number of different agents.

From North America

In the US and Canada, check out Air Brokers International of San Francisco, Travel Cuts and STA Travel.

From Australia and New Zealand

In Australia and New Zealand try Flight Centre, Trailfinders and STA Travel.

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