Transportation in & around Kilimanjaro

For transportation information from Kilimanjaro International Airport into Moshi see the Airport page.

If you book your Kilimanjaro climb before you arrive in country you’ll be picked up at the airport and all further transfers will also be handled by the tour operator. But if you are arriving in Tanzania for a DIY climb or safari you’ll need to get yourself around the area.

Getting Around Moshi or Arusha

Moshi is small enough that everything is within walking distance for anyone fit enough to even look up at Kilimanjaro, much less climb it, but there are taxis around town if you need one. It takes about 15 minutes to walk from one side of town to the other. A taxi should cost at the most $3 to go pretty much anywhere in the city limits.

Buses

The cheapest way to get around is with the scheduled bus services through the area. You can get to Moshi from Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Mbyeya, Mwanza, Tanga, and Nairobi, Kenya. With the exception of the first-class buses that are in limited service on the Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Moshi route, the buses in Tanzania are basic and often quite crowded. Typically the buses leaves when they are full and stop along the way to pick up people, animals, vegetables and anything else you can imagine.

Prices are low by Western standards. Buses between Moshi, Arusha, and Marangu run several times per hour and the 30-40 minute trip will cost around US$1.

Taxis

They usually sit and wait for a fare rather than roam the streets so you have to find them rather than the other way around. Any trip within Moshi should only cost a few dollars at most, but it’s important to negotiate a fare before you get in. There are more taxis than are needed in this cities and typically they all hang out with each other. If you feel like you are getting ripped off, walk over to the next taxi, and tell him the price the last taxi gave you. Typically they will drop the price about 500 shillings.

Dalla-Dallas

The minibuses serve as shared taxis that run on set routes in towns and between nearby towns. They are cheap and often very crowded. In theory you can get out anywhere along the route, but that sometimes requires you to crawl over other passengers to pull it off in between stops. Price is typical around 30 to 50 cents to get anywhere.

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