Tima Tours and Safaris

A very unpleasant experience

Our experience with Tima Tours was unpleasant from start to finish.

Firstly, the driver did not meet us at the airport due to a "technical issue" and we received no communication from Tima Tours to alert us of this. We instead had to wait at the airport for almost an hour and eventually had to enlist the help of another touring company to transfer us to our hotel.

When we met Samul, the managing director, after eventually arriving at the hotel much later than planned, he convinced us to take a Stone Town and Spice Farm tour the following day (5th August 2026). When we asked what the price would be he told us that the guide would tell us on the day, but we were not told.

The next day, we went along with the tour without knowing the price since we felt obliged to as the guide and driver were already there with us (which, in hindsight, we know we shouldn't have done). The tours themselves felt very rushed, with our guide having seemingly little patience whenever we would stop to take photos. The guide seemed agitated with my partner for taking photos with the stone town doors (which are some of the main attractions/themes in the town). We also felt rushed to go to the Spice Farm and were not given the opportunity to have lunch. When we pointed this out to the guide, he said that we can't since the driver was already waiting.

The price and payment of the tours remained undiscussed throughout the remainder of our time in Zanzibar until we were being transferred to the airport (8th August, three days after the tour). What followed was one of the most stressful experiences that we've ever been subjected to by a tour operator. As we arrived at the airport, with the existing stress of having to ensure we made our flight on time, Samul called demanding that we pay what we felt was a ridiculous price of $80 per person for the Stone Town and Spice Farm tour. Any quick check on websites such as TripAdvisor or GetYourGuide will tell you that this was AT LEAST DOUBLE the going rate! We strongly felt that Samul was trying to force us to pay an overly high price due to the fact that the price was not told to us before taking the tour and that we were in a rush to check-in at the airport. Samul came across as very aggressive on the phone and we felt that the driver would not have allowed us to leave without paying. After expressing our astonishment at this price, Samul agreed to give a "discount" of $15 per person, which we felt he expected us to be grateful for. He also didn't provide an explanation or breakdown of the price he was demanding, which would've helped us to at least understand where such a price was coming from. The transfer between the stone town and spice farm was already included in the cost of the transfer to the hotel (which we had already paid for as part of our original tour package) since the spice farm was on the way to the hotel. This made it even more baffling to us that the cost was so high.

Due to being stuck in this situation, and with less than two hours until our international flight, we reluctantly had to take money out of the ATM to pay the driver the demanded fee.

However, after this, our primary tour operator from the mainland stepped in to handle the situation for us, which resulted in Tima Tours giving us the money back so that they could instead settle the cost between themselves.

We were truly appalled by the conduct of Tima Tours, and Samul in particular (however, we do not wish to say any bad words about the drivers who were friendly and respectful throughout). We feel that this practice can unfortunately give a bad image of Tanzanian/Zanzibari tourism industry, which we otherwise found to be very pleasant, professional and transparent to deal with.

Based on our experiences, we strongly advise any potential customers to avoid Tima Tours and use an operator who are more transparent and communicative about their prices (which you may also notice are not disclosed on their website for the Stone Town and Spice Farm tours!).