Zanzibar travel insurance: the compulsory $44 policy, and what it does not cover
- High medical limit
- Repatriation included
- Search & rescue
A. FruchardCo-Founder & Travel Insurance ExpertLast updated: September 25, 2026What does Zanzibar's compulsory $44 policy actually buy you?
Zanzibar travel insurance means two separate things: a compulsory $44 certificate sold only by the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation, valid for up to 92 days, and the private policy you buy on top of it. Paying one does not exempt you from the other.
The compulsory scheme has been in force since October 1, 2024. The U.S. Embassy in Tanzania set it out in an alert dated September 25, 2024: every foreign non-resident must buy the policy from the state insurer before arrival, and it is required even from travelers who already hold another travel insurance policy. That last clause is the one most people get wrong. The $44 is a condition of entry, not a product you can shop around for.
What it is not is a substitute for a real travel policy. The state certificate is built around emergency care on the islands, with a headline medical limit of $50,000. On September 21, 2026 we priced every plan our comparator can quote for a Tanzanian destination from a United States residence, and read their coverage sheets line by line: the private plans in that panel carry medical ceilings between $250,000 and about $560,000, repatriation at actual cost or up to $1,000,000, and in one case trip cancellation. The state policy carries none of the last item at all.
One thing we cannot do, and will say plainly rather than sell around: HelloSafe does not distribute the Zanzibar state policy. Nobody does except the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation. Everything below is about the coverage you add on top of it, and about reading the compulsory scheme correctly so you are not charged twice or refused at the desk. Last updated September 21, 2026.
Our destination data for Tanzania, refreshed on September 17, 2026, flags year-round malaria transmission as the standing medical risk and puts emergency hospital coverage first among the guarantees to prioritize, with a recommended floor of $250,000. Repatriation comes second at $100,000, because serious cases are moved off the islands to Dar es Salaam or Nairobi. Baggage and third-party liability follow. The $50,000 of the compulsory certificate sits below that first floor, which is the whole argument for adding a private policy.
Every year, our experts audit each plan against its binding policy wording: coverage, limits and exclusions, cross-checked with real customer feedback and live market prices. The analysis is fully independent, with zero paid placements and no insurer able to pay to influence a rating. We compare travel insurance across every country and currency, using the plans, prices and coverage actually offered in your country, not a single guide translated.
Learn moreWho must pay the ZIC fee, and how is it checked on arrival?
Every foreign non-resident entering Zanzibar must hold the compulsory inbound policy, bought before travel from the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation (ZIC) through the government portal, and immigration checks it as a condition of entry. Residents of Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania are outside the scheme.
What applies | Status | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
The fee Adult visitor | $44 per person | A single premium for the stay, paid online before you fly, not a daily rate. |
Children Aged 3 to 17 | $22, half price | Widely reported by tour operators and Tanzanian travel trade as a 50% rate. Infants under 3 are free. We could not open the government portal to confirm the child rates ourselves on September 21, 2026. |
Validity From the date of arrival | Up to 92 days | Covers the whole stay within that window. A longer stay means buying again. |
Your own policy However comprehensive | Does not exempt you | The U.S. Embassy alert is explicit that the purchase is compulsory even for travelers who already hold other travel insurance. |
Proof at the border Certificate and code | Scanned on arrival | You receive a confirmation with a scannable code after payment. Keep it on your phone and printed. |
Who is outside it Residents | Exempt | The requirement is written for foreign non-residents. |
The coverage itself is narrow but real. The official description lists emergency healthcare, emergency medical evacuation, repatriation of remains, loss of baggage, accidents and loss of passport, with the medical line widely quoted at $50,000 including epidemic and pandemic treatment. Trade sources also list personal accident coverage of $10,000, third-party liability of $5,000 and a baggage line of roughly $400. We have flagged those three as trade-reported rather than official, because the only place they are published is the portal we could not open.
Zanzibar is one of a small number of destinations where insurance is genuinely a border condition rather than travel advice. If you are checking a whole itinerary, our list of countries that require travel insurance sets out which rules are written into law and which are simply recommended.
Which Zanzibar travel insurance plans cover what the state policy leaves out?
Five plans quote for a Tanzanian destination from a United States residence. They matter for the three things the $44 certificate does not do well: a medical ceiling above $50,000, an evacuation line that is not capped at a token amount, and, on one plan only, cancellation of a non-refundable beach vacation.
Why Smart Travel Protection leads this shortlist
If something goes wrong on Unguja, what you want is a hospital that treats you without asking for your card first, and a flight out that the insurer organizes and pays for. Go Explore + is the strongest plan we can put in front of you here: about $560,000 of emergency medical care with direct billing and repatriation at actual cost with no ceiling. Go Explore is the cheaper, lighter version for a smaller ceiling. Two honest gaps: neither plan includes named cover for diving or kitesurfing, which matters on an island where half the visitors do one or the other, and neither refunds your prepaid resort nights if illness stops you traveling. Price both separately if either risk is real for your trip: the cards below show today’s price for your own dates.
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Real quotes captured on hellosafe.com on 21 September 2026 for 1 traveler aged 34, a 10-day trip to Zanzibar (20 to 30 November 2026), residence in the United States, shown in US dollars. Only Go Explore and Go Explore + return a calculated quote for this trip. Smart Travel Protection, Atlas International Premium and Atlas International display the partner's fixed starting price per day, which does not change with your dates, your age or the number of travelers; your real premium is worked out on the partner's own site. Go Explore and Go Explore + are priced in euros by the insurer and converted to dollars at the live exchange rate, so their cover limits are shown in dollars too. None of these policies replaces Zanzibar's compulsory $44 state certificate, which can only be bought from the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation.
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How much does the extra cover cost for a couple, a family or a traveler over 65?
Zanzibar travel insurance from a private insurer starts at $64.59 for ten days for a solo traveler in their thirties, and $151.60 for two adults and two children, on top of the compulsory $44 per person. The number of travelers moves the price far more than the length of the stay does.
Who is traveling | Budget | Premium | Key point |
|---|---|---|---|
Solo traveler, 34 10 days on Unguja | $64.59 | $85.68 | Medical costs are met from the first dollar on both plans, with no medical deductible. |
Couple, 34 and 36 10 days, beach and Stone Town | $123.91 | $166.10 | Each traveler carries the full ceiling. It is not a shared pot between the two of you. |
Family, two adults and two children 10 days | $151.60 | $206.96 | Children are priced as travelers in their own right and carry the same ceilings as the adults. |
Traveler aged 68 10 days | $96.23 | $117.32 | Accepted up to age 80. The premium rises with age, the coverage does not shrink. |
Solo traveler, 25 30-day overland trip through East and Southern Africa | $88.32 | $122.59 | Duration is priced in bands, so tripling the trip adds well under half again. |
Real quotes captured on hellosafe.com on September 21, 2026. Residence United States, destination Tanzania, departure November 20, 2026, in US dollars.
Two patterns are worth planning around. Age is gentler than travelers expect: the 68-year-old pays about half as much again as the 34-year-old for the same ten days, and the ceiling is identical, which is not true of every market. Our guide to travel insurance for senior citizens explains how the age caps and medical questionnaires actually work. Party size is the harsh variable, because every traveler is priced individually; family travel insurance sets out where per-family limits exist and where they do not. If you want the wider picture, we keep a separate guide to how much travel insurance costs.
Add the compulsory fee before you compare. A family of two adults and two children aged over three pays $132 in state premiums on arrival, which is very nearly the price of the private ten-day policy sitting next to it in the table.
Where does the state certificate stop, and where does a private policy start?
The compulsory certificate is an emergency medical product with a $50,000 ceiling and no cancellation line. A private policy is where the larger medical ceiling, the uncapped evacuation, the baggage sub-limits and the prepaid-vacation protection live. The table below is the honest split.
Guarantee | Compulsory $44 certificate | Private plans in our panel | The condition that decides the claim |
|---|---|---|---|
Emergency medical Care on the islands | Up to $50,000 | $250,000 to about $560,000 | Our destination data recommends a floor of $250,000 for Tanzania, because a serious case ends in a transfer, not a local ward. |
Medical evacuation The flight out | Included | Actual cost, or up to $1,000,000 | On the private plans the insurer's doctors decide the transport and the destination hospital. A self-organized evacuation is the classic refusal. |
Repatriation of remains | Included | Included | Both sides cover it. This is one of the few lines where the state certificate matches the market. |
Trip cancellation Your prepaid resort nights | Not covered | One plan only | Smart Travel Protection covers up to the value of the trip. Atlas International, Atlas International Premium, Go Explore and Go Explore + carry no cancellation at all. |
Baggage Loss, theft, delay | Trade-reported, around $400 | $280 to $2,000 | Electronics and valuables are sub-limited on the private plans, to about $110 on Go Explore and Go Explore +. Camera kit is effectively uninsured. |
Pre-existing conditions | Reported as excluded | Conditional | Go Explore and Go Explore + exclude anything treated or hospitalized in the six months before departure. Read that against your own last half year. |
Direct billing No money to advance | Not documented publicly | Included on all five | This is the line that decides whether you hand over a credit card at admission or the insurer settles with the clinic. |
- Canceling before you fly: The state certificate has no cancellation guarantee. If illness stops the trip, the $44 is gone with the resort deposit.
- A medical bill above $50,000: The certificate stops there. An intensive care stay plus an air transfer passes that figure quickly.
- Anything before arrival: Coverage runs from entry. A problem during the flight out or at a mainland stopover is outside it.
- A stay longer than 92 days: The policy expires with the window and a new premium is due for the rest of the trip.
- Your own insurer's certificate instead: It is not accepted as a substitute, whatever its limits.
- A medical ceiling of at least $250,000: The floor our Tanzania data recommends, sized for stabilization plus an air transfer to Nairobi or Dar es Salaam.
- Repatriation at actual cost: Prefer an uncapped or seven-figure evacuation line over a fixed sum. This is the expensive part of an island emergency.
- Direct settlement with the clinic: Avoids advancing several thousand dollars on a card while you are unwell.
- Cancellation, if your resort is prepaid: Only one plan in this panel offers it, so it is a deliberate choice rather than a default.
- A named position on diving and kitesurfing: Zanzibar is a watersports destination and most contracts treat extreme sports as an exclusion.
Repatriation is the guarantee that carries the most money on this destination, and the one readers understand least. Our guide to repatriation insurance explains who decides, who pays, and why a self-organized flight home is almost never reimbursed. If the prepaid part of your vacation is the number that worries you, travel cancellation insurance sets out which reasons are genuinely covered.
Does a safari before the islands now need a second $44 policy?
Not yet. Mainland Tanzania published its own inbound insurance regulations on September 4, 2026, also at $44, but no enforcement date has been announced and the requirement is not being checked at the border today. Zanzibar's scheme is separate and is being enforced.
The instrument is The Insurance (Inbound Travel Insurance) Regulations, 2026, published in Government Notice No. 256 on September 4, 2026 and reported by Business Daily Africa on September 16 and by VisasNews on September 18. It sets a $44 premium, validity of up to 92 days from arrival with multiple entry, and a minimum coverage of emergency medical treatment, emergency medical evacuation, emergency repatriation and loss of baggage. Residents of East African Community partner states and of Southern African Development Community member states are excluded.
Zanzibar scheme | Mainland Tanzania regulations | |
|---|---|---|
In force Checked at the border | Yes, since October 1, 2024 | Published September 4, 2026, no rollout date announced |
Premium | $44 per person | $44 per person |
Validity | Up to 92 days | Up to 92 days, multiple entry |
Sold by | Zanzibar Insurance Corporation only | State scheme, administrator not confirmed publicly |
Exemptions | Residents | Residents of EAC and SADC states |
Does one cover the other | No mutual recognition announced | No mutual recognition announced |
No mutual recognition between the Zanzibar scheme and the mainland regulations has been announced. If the mainland requirement is switched on while you are traveling, a classic safari itinerary that flies into Kilimanjaro or Dar es Salaam and then crosses to Zanzibar could mean two separate $44 premiums per person rather than one. Check the current position before you fly, and budget for the possibility rather than assuming a single payment clears both.
The wider East African picture is worth stating clearly, because it is misreported constantly. Zanzibar's rule is real and enforced. Its neighbors' are not: our own check of Rwanda travel insurance found no Rwandan legal instrument requiring insurance to enter, despite dozens of articles saying otherwise. Do not let a copied sentence sell you a policy you do not need, and do not let it make you doubt the Zanzibar rule, which is genuine.
Who pays the clinic before you leave the island?
On Zanzibar the practical question is rarely the size of a ceiling. It is whether a clinic in Stone Town treats you on the insurer's guarantee or asks you to settle the bill first, and then whether an air transfer to Dar es Salaam or Nairobi is organized and paid for you.
All five private plans in our panel include direct billing, which means the assistance network settles with the treating facility instead of leaving you to advance the money and claim it back. That only works inside the network, so the single most useful thing you can do is call the assistance line before you are admitted rather than after. Outside the network you pay and reclaim, and on the two Go Explore plans a cash advance of about $1,100 is the only bridge available.
The evacuation line is where the real money sits. Go Explore and Go Explore + cover repatriation at actual cost with no ceiling, Atlas International and Atlas International Premium go up to $1,000,000, and Smart Travel Protection up to $500,000. Our Tanzania data recommends $100,000 as a working floor precisely because island care is stabilization, not treatment, and the transfer is what costs. One assumption American readers should drop before they fly: domestic health plans, Medicare included, generally do not follow you abroad, and a plan that does pay overseas usually wants you to pay first. Our guide to travel medical insurance sets out that distinction.
Are scuba dives and kitesurfing covered on a Zanzibar trip?
On our panel, only Smart Travel Protection survives the extreme sports filter. Go Explore, Go Explore +, Atlas International and Atlas International Premium all list extreme sports and sport practiced professionally among their exclusions, so a dive or kitesurf injury is where those contracts stop.
That matters more here than on most destinations. Nungwi, Paje and Mnemba are watersports destinations first, and a large share of visitors will dive, kitesurf or take a boat trip at some point in a week. The compulsory state certificate muddies this further: some Tanzanian travel-trade descriptions say kitesurfing and scuba diving are covered by it, while others state plainly that accidents during sports are excluded. Those two claims cannot both be right, and we could not open the government portal on September 21, 2026 to settle it. Treat the state certificate as unproven on watersports and buy accordingly.
- Technical and professional diving: Excluded across the panel, as is any sport practiced for payment. Instructors and divemasters need a different product.
- Diving outside your certification: A standard exclusion, and the claim insurers refuse most readily after an incident.
- Your dive or kite equipment: Sports equipment sits inside the baggage guarantee, sub-limited to about $110 on Go Explore and Go Explore +. Insure serious kit separately.
- Search and rescue on the plans without it: Only Go Explore and Go Explore + name search and rescue fees, at about $5,600 and $6,700.
- The state certificate, on current evidence: Its position on watersports is contradicted by its own trade descriptions and we could not verify it.
If the water is the reason you are going, read our guide to extreme sports travel insurance before you buy: it lists the plans built for named activities rather than the ones that quietly exclude them.
Does the card you paid the hotel with already cover you?
For cancellation, often yes. For medical care on Zanzibar, almost never. Of the nine United States cards in our database that carry any medical coverage abroad, eight cap it at $2,500 per trip, which is two orders of magnitude below the floor our Tanzania data recommends.
Guarantee | Chase Sapphire Reserve, $795 a year | Smart Travel Protection | Why the gap matters on Zanzibar |
|---|---|---|---|
Emergency medical abroad | $2,500, $50 deductible | $250,000 | Card coverage is secondary, so your domestic plan pays first. Without overseas coverage at home, the card may pay nothing at all. |
Medical evacuation | $100,000, pre-authorization mandatory | $500,000 | Any transport arranged without prior approval from the card's service provider is not reimbursed under any circumstances. |
Trip cancellation | $10,000 per person, 13 named reasons | Up to the trip value | The card list is genuinely good, but it is a closed list: anything not named is not covered. |
Scuba diving | Excluded from the medical benefit | Covered | The card wording names scuba, skydiving, rock climbing and hang gliding among its medical exclusions. |
Pre-existing conditions | 60-day lookback, no waiver | Conditional | The card offers no waiver at all, which is the most common reason an otherwise valid claim collapses. |
The honest read: keep the card for what it does well, which is cancellation, baggage and delay, and do not let it stand in for medical coverage on an island where a serious case ends in an air transfer. Our full breakdown of what your credit card really covers goes card by card.
What else do travelers ask before they pay the fee?
Yes. Since October 1, 2024 every foreign non-resident must buy a compulsory inbound travel insurance policy from the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation before arrival, at $44 per adult for up to 92 days. It is checked at immigration and entry can be refused without it.
No. The U.S. Embassy in Tanzania alert of September 25, 2024 states that the purchase is compulsory even for travelers who already hold another travel insurance policy. Your own plan is a complement to the state certificate, never a replacement for it.
Tanzanian tour operators and travel trade consistently report $22 for children aged 3 to 17, half the adult rate, with infants under 3 free. We could not open the government portal on September 21, 2026 to confirm those figures from the official source, so treat the adult $44 as certain and the child rates as trade-reported.
Up to 92 days from the date of arrival. A stay beyond that window needs a fresh policy for the remaining days, and the certificate cannot be extended mid-stay.
Emergency healthcare with a medical line widely quoted at $50,000 including epidemic and pandemic treatment, emergency medical evacuation, repatriation of remains, loss of baggage, accidents and loss of passport. It carries no trip cancellation guarantee of any kind.
Not today. Mainland Tanzania published The Insurance (Inbound Travel Insurance) Regulations, 2026 on September 4, 2026, also at $44 for up to 92 days, but no enforcement date has been announced and the rule is not being applied at the border. No mutual recognition with the Zanzibar scheme has been announced either, so a combined safari and island trip could eventually mean two premiums.
Only on one plan in our panel. Smart Travel Protection is the single plan that clears our extreme sports filter for a Tanzanian destination from a United States residence. The other plans list extreme sports as an exclusion, and the state certificate’s own trade descriptions contradict each other on watersports.
On quotes we captured on September 21, 2026 for a 10-day trip departing November 20, 2026 from a United States residence, a solo traveler aged 34 pays $64.59 on Go Explore and $85.68 on Go Explore +, and a family of two adults and two children pays $151.60 or $206.96. The compulsory $44 per person is on top of that.
For cancellation, often. For medical care, rarely enough. Eight of the nine United States cards in our database with medical coverage abroad cap it at $2,500 per trip, against a recommended floor of $250,000 for Tanzania, and the Chase Sapphire Reserve wording excludes scuba diving from that benefit entirely.
At least $250,000 of emergency hospital coverage and a repatriation line of at least $100,000, which are the floors our Tanzania destination data recommends. Island facilities stabilize rather than treat serious cases, so the transfer to Dar es Salaam or Nairobi is the expensive part.
Only from the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation, through the official government portal, before you travel. No broker, comparator or foreign insurer can sell it, HelloSafe included. You receive a certificate with a scannable code that immigration checks on arrival.
Yes, malaria is a sudden illness and emergency treatment for it falls under the emergency medical guarantee on all five private plans. Our destination data for Tanzania, refreshed on September 17, 2026, flags year-round malaria transmission, especially in lowland areas, as the standing medical risk on this destination.
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