World Tours And Safaris Tanzania Holiday In $Usd

It is my understanding that Tanzania Shillings (TZS) are legal tender in Tanzania, this is the law but the government of Tanzania itself does not accept TZS for payment ranging from park and conservation fees, to working permits and residents permits.

This is because machines to check counterfeit money are in USD$!!!!

World Tours And Safaris Tanzania Holiday In $Usd

This forces many operators to quote and accept travel safari payments etc, only in USD and for those of us accepting TZS, exchange rate might be higher than you expected and we strongly advice you buy your own dollars.

Please note exchange rates in Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar etc… are high better come with $USD cash from your home country.

World Tours And Safaris Tanzania Holiday In $Usd

Our advice is that you come along to Tanzania in USD$ which is acceptable everywhere, get yourselves different nominations of $1, $5, 10, $20, $50 and $100.- USD notes preferable not older than the year 2006.

Exchange rate for the smaller notes of $1.- USD, $5.- USD, $10.- USD and $20.- USD always get less than the larger notes of $50.- USD or $100.- USD

World Tours And Safaris Tanzania Holiday In $Usd

Many places do not accept the older notes and/or they may only give you a worse rate.

Further more for instance for the Ngorongoro Crater they only accept prepaid credit cards paid in USD in Arusha at their headquarters or at banks such as in Karatu.

You may pay to enter the park with your credit card, but no cash is accepted at the entry points.

World Tours And Safaris Tanzania Holiday In $Usd

The United States dollar (sign: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US $ and referred to as the U.S. dollar, American dollar or US Dollar) is the official currency of the United States and its overseas territories.

It is a Federal Reserve Note and consists of 100 smaller cent units.

The U.S. dollar is fiat money. It is the currency most used in international transactions and is the world’s most dominant reserve currency.

Several countries use it as their official currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency.

Besides the United States, it is also used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories: the British Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos islands.

Money in Tanzania Tanzanian currency
The Tanzanian shilling (Ts) is the national currency. It’s fairly stable.

Local currency cannot be imported except by residents of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, and cannot be exported. For the current rates of exchange visit the xe.com

Cash, travellers’ cheques or credit cards in Tanzania?
The question therefore is: in what form should you carry your money to Tanzania, ie: should you bring travellers’ cheques, cash, or rely solely on your credit card and use that to get money out of cashpoints in Tanzania?

Travellers’ cheques in Tanzania
Travellers’ cheques are no longer acceptable in Tanzania so don’t bring these.

Bringing cash to Tanzania
Foreign currency can be imported and exported without limit to and from Tanzania. Dollars and, to a lesser extent, sterling and euros are the best currencies to bring.

Cash is very useful for those occasions when the Tanzanian shilling is not accepted, such as when paying for upmarket hotel rooms and air tickets, both of which, officially at least, must be paid for in hard currency.

The disadvantage with cash is that it is the riskiest way to carry money.

Credit cards in Tanzania
The other option is credit/debit cards, which are the easiest, lightest and most invisible to carry around.

There are now plenty of banks in Tanzania with ATMs that take foreign cards – making the task of getting Tanzanian shillings now very simple.

Credit cards are also accepted in major tourist hotels, restaurants, gift shops and airline offices and their usefulness is growing every day.

Visa is probably the more useful card in that you can withdraw money from more ATMs than with MasterCard.

You do, of course, run the risk that the cash machines will reject them or, worse, swallow them, leaving you stuck in Africa with no means of support.

So for this reason we recommend bringing a couple of cards (assuming you have a couple of bank accounts!) just in case you lose one.

We advocate bringing credit/debit cards (preferably one Visa and one MasterCard, to increase your chances of being able to withdraw cash from an ATM), with a few hundred dollars in cash as back-up in case something happens to your card.

Actually use cards as backup and cash as guaranteed plan A.

How many dollars you bring, of course, depends on how much you’ve paid for in advance, how long you are staying in the region, and what you hope to do while you are there.

Changing money in Tanzania is not a problem in most populated areas.

Hotels usually have a worse rate than banks, so you should go to a Forex office (aka Bureau de Change) or bank if possible. You may have to wait in line for a bit.

Banks in Tanzania are just like banks in the US or the UK.

ATMs (cash points) are located in almost all banks with 24-hour access and give the same exchange rate as the bank.
They may require a Visa card.

ATM only delivers Tanzania Shillings……
Also make sure that your notes are clean, no rips or tears or pieces missing.

Also don’t accept old TZ shillings if ripped as only banks will exchange them and the line ups here are long.

The markets are the worst with low denomination TZ shillings bills being in pretty poor repair.

Sometimes you have to say No and get a newer bill.

This is an African lament though and not restricted to the East of the continent.