Straight answers about how 4Drive rents cars in Zanzibar - no deposit, no credit card, permit and insurance included, delivered wherever you are staying.
4Drive is a direct provider on the island, not an agency that hands you off to someone else. There is no rental counter at the airport and no queue at a desk in Stone Town. Instead a car is delivered to you, the driver walks you around it, and you drive off. Most of the questions below come from real guests booking from Nungwi, Paje, Jambiani, Kizimkazi and Stone Town, so we have kept the answers as plain as the drive itself.
On most cars in the fleet, yes - Suzuki Alto, Celerio, and the Jimny are handed over with no security deposit at all. A small cash deposit is only asked on the larger SUVs and the 7-seat Noah, and we tell you the exact amount before you book, never after. What replaces the deposit on the deposit-free cars is a 15-20% prepayment when you reserve, plus photos of the car taken together at handover, so there is no argument about a scratch that was already there.
No. There is no card authorisation or pre-hold on your account. You can pay the booking prepayment online with a debit card, and settle the balance in cash - US dollars or Tanzanian shillings - when the car is delivered. Plenty of guests prefer to avoid credit cards entirely on holiday, and Zanzibar car rental works fine without one.
Your national driving licence from home, plus a Zanzibar visitor driving permit. We arrange the permit for you and its cost is already included in the rental price - it comes with the car at handover, so there is nothing extra to organise on the ground.
Full insurance cover is included on every booking, with no hidden excess sprung on you at return. If something happens, the process is straightforward and does not involve a surprise bill.
US dollars are accepted for the rental itself almost everywhere on the island. Tanzanian shillings are more useful for small day-to-day spending - fuel, snacks, parking - so it is worth changing a little cash once you land.
Free delivery covers Zanzibar Airport (ZNZ) with a meet-and-greet at arrivals, Stone Town hotel entrances, and every beach zone on the island from Nungwi and Kendwa in the north to Jambiani in the south-east, plus Kizimkazi and Fumba. If you can name your hotel, we can get a car there.
For Stone Town and the main tarmac roads, a Suzuki Alto or Celerio is enough and keeps the price low. For the sandy last-mile tracks into beach lodges around Matemwe, Kiwengwa or Jambiani, a Suzuki Jimny or a RAV4/Rush copes far better than a small economy car. Automatic transmission is standard across the fleet, so there is no clutch to worry about in traffic or on sand.
A few days ahead is usually fine, though during the December-February and June-September peak seasons booking a week or two out gives you the better cars and the lower end of the price range. The green seasons - March to May and November - are quieter and cheaper, with short, quick showers rather than constant rain.
Full insurance, the visitor driving permit, and free delivery are always included - there is no separate line item for any of them. Fuel is not included, and stations are concentrated around Stone Town and the main junctions, so it is worth filling up before heading out to Nungwi or the east coast.
Left-hand traffic, a leftover of Zanzibar's British colonial history. If you are used to driving on the right, give yourself the first few kilometres to settle in - roundabouts and junctions take the most getting used to.
Yes, with normal caution. Police checkpoints on the main roads are routine, not something to worry about - keep your permit and licence in the car, slow down, and be polite. The main hazards are dala-dala minibuses that stop abruptly to pick up passengers, pedestrians and bikes sharing the road, and unlit stretches after dark that are best avoided if you do not know the route.
The main axes - airport to Stone Town to Nungwi, and the east coast road - are tarmac and in decent shape. The last few hundred metres into most beach lodges are sandy tracks, which is exactly where a Jimny or SUV earns its keep; an Alto can still get through most of them with a careful, steady hand.
50 km/h through towns and villages, 80 km/h on the open road between them. Zanzibar is small - about 85 by 30 km - so distances are short: 15 minutes from the airport to Stone Town, around 50 minutes to Paje or Jambiani, and roughly 1h15 up to Nungwi.
A car is more comfortable and safer once the sun goes down or the rain comes in, and it is the only sensible option if you are travelling with family, luggage or kitesurfing gear. A scooter can feel freer for very short local hops, but on sandy tracks and unlit roads a car with proper insurance is the more relaxed choice.