Travel information: Tanzania

TANZANIA TRAVEL INFORMATION

People: Tanzanians are are friendly in general, but not like you will definitely remember a month later. There are still interesting tribes (like the Masaai). On Zanzibar you will find a completely different world, more Arabic (Moorisch).  Score: 7

Landscape/Nature: beautiful nature and very divers, from the Ngorongoro highlands to the savannahs of The Serengeti to the forests of Mahale to the desolate Selous. And don’t forget the highest single mountain in the world – Kilimanjaro – or the great beaches of Zanzibar? Score: 9

Transport//Infratructure: well, a lot of beautiful things but hard to reach! The main road Dar Es Salaam-Arusha is good, as well as the stretch Dar Es Salaam to the Zambian border, but that’s it. The rest is poor although roadwork are taking place towards Dodoma – since it is the new government town. So a nice 4x4 route – but for many a bit too much. Score: 4

Animals/Fauna: you can’t get any better than this! Tanzania is safari-country number one, I would say the best I know. From rhino’s to cheetahs, from chimps to wild dogs, it’s all there. And “readily available“. Score: 10

Food: nothing special, no local special dishes or specialties, and often hard to get once you have left the big cities. Score: 6

Climate: in general very pleasant. Obviously temperatures are very high in the dry hot periods especially in parks like Tarangire, Katavi and Ruaha, but the Usumbara Mountains, Moshi and Lake Victoria are very pleasant. Score: 8

Culture: the tribes are still reasonable traditional in Tanzania and the Masaai alone are very attractive already. On Zanzibar the Moor culture and architecture are undistinguishable and interesting. Perhaps Tanzania has less flamboyant tribes as Kenya, but still very much worth seeing. Score: 9

Hygiene: this will always be a questionable aspect of Africa: hygiene. Just visit the toilets at Seronera campsite in the Serengeti and you know what I mean. Score: 8

Travelling costs: travelling around eastern Africa is not cheap, especially because one wants to see wildlife and the entry fees for the parks are steep. These prices have recently been increased, especially for Ngorongoro and Serengeti. Officially this was done to limit the impact of tourism on the areas, but I doubt that is fully true. Score: 7

Safety/Stability: Tanzania is quite safe except for cities as Dar and especially Arusha (although we never had any problems). Corruption of course is always present. Score: 7

Excitement/Adventure/Challenge: Tanzania is like a good book without an ending, you can’t get it any better than that. Score 10

Overall score: 8.40

With this score Tanzania WILL be in our shortlist of most attractive countries in the world.

ACCOMMODATION
To be honest, in Tanzania we mostly camped. The quality of campsites are between reasonable to bad (to worse!), and please do not expect first class campsites in the Serengeti just because it is a world renown national park.

On Zanzibar we enjoyed the following accommodation:

Stonetown: Dhow Palace hotel has a very central location which is perfect for a (short) stay in Stonetown. The roof terrace is attractive although the kitchen is not the best we have experienced. They do have a small pool which is convenient with children. Their bigger rooms are the best with traditional Zanzibarian beds and furniture and bathrooms. The prices are a bit steep but we have seen worse.

Bububu: only 10 minutes from Stonetown, Imani Beach Bungalow is a nice alternative if you still would like to have a beach nearby Stonetown. Enthusiastically run by Simon. Most rooms have beautiful Zanzibarian beds, unfortunately we had the oldest room. Enclosed by other buildings and no very quiet when you have a room at the street (like we did). Unfortunately they just opened a new discotheque on the other side, so you are treated for at least 4 nights with heavy dance music until early morning.

Nungwi: Union Bungalows are simple bungalows with cold water showers directly at the beach, just next to Nungwi Village so the fishermen are reparing their nets next to you on the beach. Which is fun. Prices are including breakfast but don’t expect too much. Nungwi (in 2002) was the place to go to for parties etc. Especially the younger crowd and backpackers go there, although the place has changed a lot (as we saw in 2010).

A very pleasant alternative in Nungwi is Mnarani Beach Cottages, next to the lighthouse on the northernmost point of the island. It’s away from Nungwi which is very busy. The beach at low tide is great with lots of interesting pools with fishes and starfish, but be careful for sea urchins. At high tide the beach is not accessible, the waves come up until the rocks. But they also have a pool with hammocks around it etc. They offer 3 types of accommodation, nothing special but fine otherwise.

Jambiani: Casa del Mar is a very pleasant, 2 story guesthouse run by Palestinians. Recently they added a pool which is great for the kids, the more because the sea is not very suitable to swim at Jambiani (lots of rocks and sea urchins). The food is great and is currently run by Wilhelmina whi is very enthusiastic. Prices are reasonable. Higly recommendable!

Paje: just before Paje is Kilima Kidogo, a guesthouse run by South Africans. The building is actually a communal house with 4 rooms and a communal living room in the centre. The restaurant is on the beach with good food. The atmosphere is typical South African which we did not always like. The sea in front of the guesthouse has many rocks, but 500 meters towards Paje it is fantastic. Prices are very reasonable.

Pongwe: Pongwe Beach Hotel is by far our favorite on Zanzibar, especially because of the location. All bungalows are directly at the beach with palm trees for shadow with lots of hammocks. The food is great!

Pwane Mchangani: just south of Matemwe you can find this village, which is very popular with Italians. Some huge and very unattractive all-in resorts are just south of the village, but also Next Paradise run by Italian Stuart. Clearly he has spent time and attention to detail, its just a pity that there is a complete lack of atmosphere which makes the place a bit boring. A briefing is hardly given and many guests did not know what to do or what activities were possible. The rooms are fine, it’s a shame though they are almost all around the pool. The food is outstanding!

Travel guide: during our 2.5 years world travels we used the Foot Print East-Africa for the Tanzania leg. By far it’s the best travel guide we have ever used, bravo Footprint! Forget Lonely Planet and the Bradt, the Footprint really helps you forward!

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