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Tanzania6 dive sites
Tanzania is a major diving destination for whale sharks, which live year-round in the Mafia Island channel. From October to March, they rise to the surface, and you swim with them ten minutes away by boat. In Zanzibar, green turtles live on Mnemba Atoll, and spinner dolphins often cross your path.
Whale sharks feed at the surface off Mafia Island from October to March. The reefs of Zanzibar and Pemba have their best visibility from July to October, so in October you get both. The long rains of April and May cloud the sea, and in May, several Pemba dive centers close.
Two dives cost US$90 to US$120 in Nungwi, in the north of Zanzibar. To add Mafia Island, the flight from Zanzibar goes through Dar es Salaam and costs US$209 one way. On Mafia, marine park entry, TZS 54,280 a day, or about US$23.60, can only be paid by card.
Air France flies direct from Paris to Zanzibar, and a small plane takes you on to Pemba, or to Mafia Island via Dar es Salaam. You get the visa, US$50, online or on arrival. Zanzibar and Pemba require US$44 travel insurance, and Mafia also requires the mainland one, at the same price.
TanzaniaPassFundu Gap is a channel between Fundo Island and the reef, on the west coast of Pemba, with coral walls that drop past 40 meters and Napoleon wrasse, eagle rays and trevallies holding in...
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.
TanzaniaPelagicLeven Bank is an isolated seamount in the Pemba Channel, about ten kilometers from Nungwi, with a plateau rising to 14 meters from 200 meters of water.
TanzaniaPelagicThe Mafia Island whale sharks feed at the surface off Kilindoni from October to March, ten minutes by boat from the beach.
TanzaniaReefMisali is a reserve island of less than one square kilometer in the Pemba Channel, 10 kilometers from Chake Chake, with coral gardens that start at the beach, a wall rising from 80 to...
TanzaniaReefMnemba Atoll is an oval reef around a private islet, 3 kilometers off the northeast coast of Zanzibar, in a marine protected area, home to green turtles, dolphins and some 600 fish species from...
The whale sharks of Mafia Island pass a few meters from swimmers, and you join them with fins, mask and snorkel, no certification needed. They are juveniles of 4 to 10 meters, and the Mafia channel has some 200 of them, identified since 2012. They stay there year-round, but out of season they keep too deep to be seen.
Scuba diving, for its part, happens in the Mafia marine park. When the current flows into Kinasi Pass, schools of jacks and barracudas block out the light. On Pemba, visibility reaches 40 meters along the walls. The island has only a few lodges, and you rarely see another boat.
The dive centers in Zanzibar are mostly in the north, in Nungwi and Kendwa. From there, you reach Leven Bank, a seamount where tuna hunt in the current. Mnemba Atoll gets the most divers on the island, and its coral slopes run from 2 to 30 meters. Stay in Matemwe instead, twenty minutes away by boat, because from Nungwi the trip takes all day.
West of Pemba, the walls drop straight into the channel, and the current is strong. In the north, you drift at Fundu Gap, a pass where Napoleon wrasse and eagle rays cruise along the wall. You need Advanced, dive insurance and drift experience. In the south, 20 minutes from Fundu Lagoon lodge, you see turtles on every dive around Misali Island.
On Mafia Island, you stay in Utende, on the shore of Chole Bay. The drift through Kinasi Pass runs along two walls, and a big potato grouper lives at the entrance. The boat for the whale sharks leaves from Kilindoni, on the other coast.
With Open Water, you can dive Mnemba, the coral gardens of Misali and Kinasi Pass in mild current. If the current picks up, the pass calls for Advanced or previous drift experience. The wall and deep sites of Misali require Advanced, as does Leven Bank, which also demands experience with current and depth.
You see the most whale sharks from mid-December to late January. In October and November, the water is clearer, but there are fewer of them. The plankton that feeds them also clouds the sea, and visibility rarely exceeds 15 meters around them.
From April to September, Mafia's exposed sites stay closed, and you dive in Chole Bay. From the boat, you can spot humpback whales off Mnemba from July to September, and at Mafia until October.
The tide sets the dive times in the passes, on Pemba as on Mafia. Dive centers dive them on the rising tide, when the current pushes ocean water inward, and the departure time changes every day.
Zanzibar is the cheapest, but from Nungwi, each trip to Mnemba costs US$30 to US$50 more. In Matemwe, across from the atoll, two dives cost US$120, gear included. The Mnemba entrance fee, US$10 a day, is not in every package, so ask when you book.
Pemba is more expensive. In Makangale, two dives also cost US$120, but without gear, and at Swahili Divers, the distant sites go up to US$200. As at Mnemba, the Pemba marine areas charge US$10 a day, paid at the dive center. A half day with the Mafia whale sharks costs US$85 to US$100, gear and transfer included.
Buy both entry insurances before you leave, since the mainland one has been required for Mafia since October 2026. These islands are remote, so add dive insurance that covers evacuation.
A DSMB is mandatory at Leven Bank and in the passes of Pemba and Mafia. Leven Bank also requires a signal light, because you surface in open water.
With the whale sharks, you swim without a tank, ten people at most per boat. You stay to the side, at least 3 meters from their body and 4 meters from their tail. Nobody swims in front of their mouth or above them. Flash and touching are banned.
At Mnemba, the marine area requires mineral sunscreen, and it bans chasing dolphins and touching or resting on the coral.
Hotels, apartments and rooms around Matemwe, the starting point for dives at Mnemba Atoll, with current prices.