Health, vaccinations and yellow fever

Yellow fever: an entry rule, not health advice

This is the only vaccination that functions as an entry requirement, and it is conditional. If you are arriving from — or have transited through — a country where yellow fever is present, you must show a valid vaccination certificate.

If you fly in directly from a country where it is not present, you are generally not asked for one. The trap is transit: a long layover in an affected country can bring the requirement into play on a journey you thought was exempt. Check your whole routing, not just where you started.

What a travel clinic will usually raise

Routine vaccinations kept current, and typically a conversation about hepatitis A, typhoid and tetanus. Rabies comes up for longer or more remote trips.

We are a tour operator, not a clinic. Book an appointment six to eight weeks before you fly — some courses need more than one dose, and that lead time is the actual constraint.

Malaria

Tanzania is a malaria area, including the northern parks and Zanzibar. Prophylaxis is a decision for you and your doctor; there are several options and they suit different people.

What is not a decision is the practical side, and it matters more than travellers expect: cover up at dusk, use repellent, and sleep under the net that is already on the bed. The mosquito that carries malaria bites at night.

Altitude, if you are climbing

Kilimanjaro's risk is altitude, not fitness. Altitude sickness does not respect how well you trained, and the single most effective thing you can do about it is choose a longer route — more days means more acclimatisation.

Our climbing teams monitor you daily and will turn you around if you need turning around. That is not a formality. A guide who will not make that call is a danger, and the summit is never worth a life.

Travel insurance

Not optional on any journey we run. It should cover medical evacuation, which is the expensive part — and for Kilimanjaro it must explicitly cover trekking to the altitude you are attempting, because many standard policies stop well below the summit.

Read that clause specifically. It is the most common gap we see.