visiting Tanzania

Hi,

I'm a postgraduate student who is comming to Tanzania for the first time in January. I will be based in Dar es Salaam for 3 months. I am coming to learn Kiswahili, and I would like to rent a room with a family in the city whilst I am there. Also I would like to know about the cost of living in Dar, how much would it cost to rent a room? How much should I allow for basic living costs - I don't want to live an extravagant life, but enough for an occasional beer etc, also I don't want to always shop in a supermarket as I think it would be better for my language learning if I shopped in the markets!

IT DEPENDS ON THE TYPE OF A HOUSE YOU NEED, YOU CAN GET FOR $200 UP TO $500, DEPENDING ON LOCATION AND SECURITY OF THE AREA IT SELF.WOULD YOU MIND TO STAY IN TOWN,

Hi Claire,
I'm not sure about renting a room, I guess it all depends where -and with which family- you want to stay.
I'll try to ask around.
Life in dar is quite expensive, I imagine you could hardly do with less than 150 or 200,000 Tz Sh per months (about 150 to 200$). But that really is a minimum. A meal in a local restaurant will cost about 2$ to 3$, but if you want to eat western food it jumps to 10-15$.
Taxis are expensive (3 to 5$ a ride), bus dala-dala are not but not very practical.
Food in supermarkets is expensive (+30% compared to Europe), but relatively cheap in local markets.
Hope this helps,
Gilles