Money in Tanzania

In terms of cash, I recommend TSH all the way. If you attempt to use American Dollars in my experience you always end up negotiating an unfair exchange rate at every transaction or overpaying on things, as they have a price in TSH and American Dollars which are way pricier. Use Mastercard or Visa when you get to an ATM, taking out 100, 000 TSH, about $100 which should see you a long way. Change a few of 10,000 notes for 1,000, 2,000 and 500 TSH notes for tipping and day to day use and count and hide the 10,000 notes in a few places in your luggage. Pay for flights using card to avoid carrying large amounts of cash about and becoming a potential scam or theivery target. I took $250 cash for three months and still came home with change... although I was mostly in a village during that time. Hope this helps! Have fun!

Cobby - Tsh 100,000 will not see you a long way if you are paying for tourist accomodation, tips for Safari / Kili and the like - totally different to staying locally in a village.
Still, I agree with the above in that I wouldn't bother carrying large amounts of $ as most things can be paid in Tsh, even though the prices may originally be quoted in $. It's really only the entrance fees for National parks that must be paid in $.

I agree, but what I meant was I wouldn't carry more than with me at any one time. Usually that amount of TSH could see you a few days before you need to get back to an ATM. It's simply unwise to be carrying much more than that because if God forbid you were robbed you could risk loosing alot of hard earned cash.

Thanks for the advice. I had assumed that you had to use USD to pay for everything like tips and hotels because they are quoted in dollars. I'll take some, then get cash out as you suggest with my ATM card.