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Tanzania2 dive sites
Whale shark season runs from October to March, with a peak from November to February: it is the best time to come, and the only time the sites outside the bay open. The water is then at 27 to 29 °C. Sheltered Chole Bay can be dived year-round.
At Big Blu, in Utende, two dives cost US$90 and ten dives US$380. Marine park entry comes on top, about US$23.60 a day, payable by card. A whale shark trip costs US$85 to US$100 for a half day.
Mafia is a 30 minute flight from Dar es Salaam, twice a day, for US$146 plus US$24 in taxes. The Nyamisati ferry takes 4 hours 30 minutes. The Tanzanian visa costs US$50, and the mainland insurance, mandatory since October 1, 2026, US$44.
TanzaniaPassKinasi Pass opens Chole Bay to the ocean, in Mafia Island Marine Park, and you drift it along two walls where schools of trevallies and barracudas cross paths with potato groupers.
TanzaniaPelagicThe Mafia Island whale sharks feed at the surface off Kilindoni from October to March, ten minutes by boat from the beach.
Mafia, Chole Shamba to its people, is a Tanzanian island of 435 square kilometers, 49 kilometers long and 17 wide, lying off the Rufiji delta, south of Dar es Salaam. It has sixty-six thousand inhabitants and a small-town capital, Kilindoni, on the west coast, with the airstrip and the port. To the east lies Chole Bay, a deep anchorage closed off by the islands of Chole, Juani and Jibondo. That is where, around Utende, you find the dive lodges and the entrance to the marine park, the first in Tanzania, created in 1995 over 822 square kilometers. No big beaches and no big hotels: Mafia is a fishing island that has kept its own pace, and that is exactly what you come for.
There are two programs. In Chole Bay and its passes, you dive coral year-round: Kinasi Pass, from 8 to 26 meters, as a drift around slack tide, with its potato groupers, eagle rays and reef sharks; the Dindini walls, from 8 to 30 meters, the island's only true rocky wall; Jina, Milimani and Kinasi Pinnacle. More than 400 species of fish and some fifty genera of coral live in the bay. Outside the bay, the exposed sites can only be dived from October to March. And on the other side of the island, off Kilindoni, are the whale sharks. They are around year-round, but rise to feed at the surface from October to March, and you join them snorkeling, ten minutes by boat from the beach.
For the whale sharks, come from October to March, with the peak from November to February. For diving, the same season is the best: water at 27 to 29 °C, calm seas, and visibility of 10 to 30 meters in the bay depending on the tide, ideally on the rising tide. The long rains fall from March to May, and the dry season runs from July to October, with water at 26 °C.
Coastal Aviation flies from Dar es Salaam every day at 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., a 30 minute flight, for US$146 one way plus US$24 in taxes. Auric Air flies there too. From Zanzibar, the Coastal flight goes through Dar, for US$209. The ferry from Nyamisati, on the mainland, leaves at 4 p.m. and takes four and a half hours. Entry to the marine park, paid at the Utende gate and by card only, costs TZS 54,280 per day for each non-East African adult, about US$23.60, and half for ages 5 to 15. At Big Blu, in Utende, a boat dive costs US$50, two dives US$90, ten dives US$380, and gear US$20 a day. A whale shark trip costs US$85 to US$100 for a half day, US$50 for a child. The Tanzanian visa costs US$50 and, since October 1, 2026, the mandatory mainland insurance US$44.
Hotels, apartments and rooms around Utende, the starting point for dives at Kinasi Pass, with current prices.