When to go to Dar es Salaam

Best Time To Visit Dar Es Salaam Tanzania | When To Go To Dar Es Salaam

When going on holiday to Tanzania the chances are the aim of the trip is to either go for a safari, or to the beach or both. If you are in Dar es Salaam, you could either be hopping over to The Selous or Ruaha for a safari, or heading for some R&R on the tropical Zanzibar Archipelago. As a general rule of thumb, the best time to be in Tanzania (and especially the southern parks of Selous and Ruaha) on safari and at the beach is in the dry season from July – October when the weather is dry and sunny. As the wildlife parks dry out, the bushes become less dense and the animals are easier to spot because of this, but also because they are forced to congregate to the remaining water holes. With the beach, this is the only time of year which is pretty much guaranteed not to rain. There are short rains in November (which sometimes trickle through into December, January and March) before the long rains which come in April and May.

Dar es Salaam is pretty hot all year round with temperatures averaging at around 30 degrees. Interestingly, the most rainy months tend to be January, March, April (the peak), May and December. Give or take a day or two, and with April as the rainiest by a long way, this indicates that the rainy season almost carries on through from November the whole way through until the end of May, with only one relief in February where there is only an average of 4 rainy days in the month. Generally though, the rainfall is consistent with the classic wet seasons of November short rains, and then becoming very wet in March, April and May. Another interesting observation is that November actually has less overall rainfall than December – of course though, this could be because the rains can be late in November and thus carry on into December. Something to think about if you are planning an (expensive) beach break over the Christmas period though…