Join us on a trip to Tanzania where we will connect with the incredible nature of the country and meet its fascinating people! After we shared our favorite things to do in Zanzibar, now it’s time for our favorite things to do in Tanzania, all under the slogan “Hakuna Matata”.

Stay at banana and coffee farm

Tanzania’s economy has a significant share of coffee production. As the country has huge arable land which is being cultivated to grow maize, rice, wheat, beans, potatoes, bananas, coffee, tea, and many other crops. And visiting small family-run plantations is the perfect way to get introduced to the country! We stayed at the eco-hotel of a banana and coffee farm, where we could walk around the plants, meet the family, and taste the production. We even kindly received a pack of freshly-baked coffee beans as a gift. We suggest such an experience anywhere in your Tanzania itinerary, to reconnect with nature, meet the locals and get to know about their lives, and appreciate the gifts of Mother Nature.

Find what’s hiding in the trees of Lake Manyara National Park

Lake Manyara Park is one of the less-visited wildlife sanctuaries, but it should definitely be more visited. Due to its lush vegetation and the natural water source of the lake, it has so many fauna inhabitants that all you need is a jeep to go around and a safari guide to help you spot them. You get welcomed to the party by a plethora of birds, then you have small talk with baboons and blue monkeys, you nod your head to antelopes, gnus, giraffes, elephants, and at the end you meet the majestic hosts – two lionesses gently hanging on a tree. The majestic hostesses were keeping an eye on the prey, i.e. the party guests.

The king of safari – Serengeti National Park

Serengeti is one of the most world-known wildlife parks. Plenty of people head to the park, especially during June and July, to observe the great wildebeest migration. While we haven’t had the chance to observe the migration neither in Serengeti nor in its brother from the other side of the border – Masai Mara in Kenya, we believe a safari like that should go with a grande occasion. So if this is your dream trip to Africa and Tanzania, if you’re celebrating a special event – don’t hesitate to visit Serengeti National Park and even splurge on an experience like a hot air balloon flight.

Go camping in the wild

Camping in the wild has quite the literal meaning in Tanzania and we can’t recommend it highly enough. While campsites in the country vary by amenities and accommodation options, you can choose whatever will fit your traveling style and budget best. We went for pitched basic tents and had to walk about 100 meters for the restrooms and showers and to wash and hang our clothes. Our dinner was cooked in the special kitchen facilities and served on a wooden table with benches. Our neighbors stayed in super fancy glamping houses with private bathrooms. We all had this great view of the valley below us, enjoyed purple sunsets, and socialized in the restaurant-pool area. And don’t worry about security in the wild. There are 24/7 Masai guards who make sure no wild animal will come to visit you in your tent.

Explore the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area and its ecosystem

Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area was a highlight of our trip to Tanzania. The 2-million-years old crater is not only the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera, but it is home to a unique ecosystem that is separated from the rest of the world by the edge of the crater. Wildlife spottings are easy because of the flat bottom of the crater and the closed system. As you ride around, you’ll be surrounded by herds of elephants, antelopes, gnus, gazelles, zebras, giraffes, buffalos, beasts. Lonely secretary birds and ostriches say hello, while muddy rhinos and hippos are set for their daily baths. We hit the lion’s lazy siesta time which provoked curious zebras to get in dangerous proximity to the predators.

If you decided to go to Serengeti by car, you will pass by Ngorongoro Crater. We advise you to stop by and spend a few hours getting to know the inhabitants of this most fascinating ecosystem. On the way, you will also meet some beautiful humans – Masai kids and Masai shepherds, some looking to connect to the environment, others looking to connect with you in their own way.

Hunt and gather with the Hadzabe tribe

The Hadzabe tribe is one of Lake Eyasi’s best well-kept secrets. Along with your safari guide, you’ll have a designated guide from the Lake Eyasi Community to help you actually find the tribe and communicate with the people. Meeting people who live in such a relationship with nature as we, all humans on the planet, are supposed to live, is simply mesmerizing. Activities with the Hadzabe tribe include trying to speak their specific clicking language, following them to dig up roots and gather fruits, and even hunting with them.

Highlights of our time with the Hadzabe were the wise words of an old lady (the self-proclaimed witch) of the tribe and the process they use to produce arrows. The Hadza ethnic indigenous group consists of about 1300 people, a third of which still survives on the traditional means of foraging and hunting.

Cast iron and some spells with the Datoga tribe

Another of Lake Eyasi’s tribes that don’t move so much and has managed to cultivate crops and keep domestic stock is the Datoga tribe. Datoga people are almost 90 thousand and are spread into different regions of Tanzania. Spending time with them was nothing short of fascinating as we could observe them in their everyday activities like grinding corn between stones and casting iron into beautiful jewelry and tools.

With some translation help from our local guide, we managed to go into a deeper conversation with some of the ladies of the village. We discussed different customs and lifestyles in their tribe and in our tribe. We knew we had met beautiful souls when we reached the topic of happiness. As we figured together with our new Datoga friends, happiness is a mindset and an attitude to life and it doesn’t matter if you live near Lake Eyasi or you live in a foreign village that one has to walk a thousand days to get to (flying is out of the equation).

Read more about meeting Hadzabe and Datoga tribes.

Have lunch at an art gallery

If you go for a safari and camping in Tanzania, you’ll be spoiled for lunches and dinners right in the wild, in the open-air, on designated spots right in the national parks. What we didn’t expect was a lunch that we had on the way back to Arusha. Our chef had prepared the food in containers, we stopped by an art gallery and souvenir shop and set up a table right in the middle of one of the halls. The event was like our inner art buffs meet the gourmands in the most unexpected way. So be ready for culinary and art surprises in Tanzania!

Get lost on the streets of Arusha

They say the best way to get to know a town is to get lost on its streets. That’s what happened for us in Arusha. We decided to leave the hotel and just walk in the neighborhood and we feel that was when we actually started seeing Arusha. People running all sorts of errands, street sellers always ready to chat with you (even when it’s clear you’re not going to buy anything from them), locals hustling to get home before dark, friends chatting and laughing as if there’s not a single care in their world. We lost track of time, sense of direction, and we decided to get two freshly-grilled corns and just go with the flow. What a better way to get lost and discover a new place!

Ride with a motorbike taxi

We knew motorbike taxis are a big thing in Tanzania but the pure need empowered us to actually use one to get from A to B within the city. Having grown up with the perception that motorcycles are dangerous vehicles that only bad boys and girls ride, it was a huge shift for us to actually recognize motorbike taxis as a means for transportation. Riding the bike with an experienced local driver, with the fresh breeze in your hair, avoiding jams, and passing different neighborhoods – it was just wow, how have we missed that feeling for most of our lives?

Go shopping at the open-air market

It’s true that you can always go shopping for your favоrite brands, to the shopping centers with inviting windows, and to the well-known stores. But you’ll be missing out if you head out shopping and not visit one of the open-air markets with makeshift stands and stalls in Tanzania. The places where service-oriented merchants are willing to satisfy our every whim.

When we had to go shopping in Arusha, we asked for the local market and what a service we received! First, you don’t need to walk around in search of the right size, model, or anything. The first shop you go to will actually have someone running between all the other shops and stalls to find exactly what you’re looking for. You just have to say yes or no until you find whatever you’re looking for. There’s no competition in the market, there’s only collaboration! Another thing to love about Tanzania!

Try to exchange dollar bills that are older than 2009

Even something that seems like a simple errand can turn into an adventure in Tanzania! They left us with a couple of older than 2009 one-hundred-dollar bills in Bulgaria so we were having a hard time to actually use them. Pretty much nobody wants them in Tanzania. So we spent a decent amount of time on the mission “exchange old bills for new ones”. The adventure started with trying not to fall into huge potholes on the way to a super fancy shiny bank office.

We met a couple of dressed-up ladies who were taking their donkeys for a walk and passed a place for what seemed to be a market for prohibited items. When we were losing hope that we’ll find the bank in the middle of the city and at the same time, in the middle of a desert, we saw a big sign. Convincing the bank employee that the bills are not fake was semi-hard, but carrying a couple of hundred new US dollars on the way back was really hard. We hate having lots of cash.

Give away your clothes and make someone happy

A practice we want to encourage in more travelers is to give away things they love but don’t use anymore. We have all those clothes that we constantly give to friends and family, charities, and sometimes even strangers. Your clothes can have a second life and can make someone really happy. That’s why we always have a bag of old clothes in good condition when we travel. Sometimes when we give away clothes, we also get clothes and other gifts in return and this action is more than an exchange of stuff – it’s also an exchange of emotions, stories, kindness, and love.

So in Tanzania, you can make someone very happy by giving them new additions to their wardrobe. We left our bags of clothes and shoes in one of our hotel rooms and a few maids were so excited about the new stuff, they even tried some of them over the uniforms. You never know where your gift will end up, but giving it to local people is the best way to reach those who really need it.

Meet with social entrepreneurs

To complete a lovely trip to Tanzania, you will want to meet with the people directly working towards the better future of the country. We wanted to connect with fellow entrepreneurs and so before our trip, we got in touch with some organizations. Twende Social Innovations Center warmly responded to our request and even proposed including us in one of the presentations they do in schools to attract students.

So here we were, in a secondary school in Tanzania, talking to students about dreams, change, science, entrepreneurship. It was amazing to test some simple ideas, exchange thoughts, play games, even do yoga. We hope the kids got inspired to join the Twende workshop and prototype their ideas to help their communities. So if you really want to know a place, know the people who are working for it to become a better place – there are a few opportunities to take part in such initiatives and projects in Tanzania.

Help build a school

Our firm belief is that education is the key to the success and improvement of our communities and our world. So we were excited when the Learn to Serve Community of Tanzania (LESCOTA) organization got in touch with us to share the fundraising project for building a school and a library in Ruvuma. If you share the same belief, we would invite you to find any campaign that works for better education and join it any way you can – by physically take part in volunteering in the construction process, by making a donation, or just by sharing about it.

Climb Mount Kilimandjaro

Mount Kilimanjaro is still a dream for us and many, a dream that we see in beautiful photos, a dream that says hi when our plane is landing, a dream that even elephants gaze at every morning, eating grass in the nearby flat plain. We wonder how many times we will return to Tanzania to finally climb the mountain and feel on top of Africa! If the mountain with three volcanic cones and five climate zone is calling you, you should answer. Hakuna Matata, Kilimanjaro!

Where to stay in Tanzania

Apart from our safari package, we booked all our accommodations ourselves via booking.com. We are so happy because we found some unbelievable places for pennies, most of them with lovely hosts! Here are all the accommodations we stayed at in Tanzania and Zanzibar. We tried to avoid hotels and resorts and to stay at guesthouses, small hotels, bungalows, and hostels.

• Banana Farm Eco Hostel in Arusha – lovely setting inside a banana farm. They prepared a late dinner for us and said goodbye with a pack of homemade coffee! Highly recommend!
• Migombani Campsite – amazing place in the wild for camping or glamping with majestic views towards Lake Manyara, a cool swimming pool, and Maasai security guards.
• Green Mountain Hotel in Arusha – if you need a place near Arusha downtown, with super clean rooms, a swimming pool, and conference facilities – that’s the place for you. The staff was awesome and attentive.
• Mpole Bungalows in Michamwi, Zanzibar – friends of ours recommended us the bungalows in a tiny calm village on the East coast of the island. The atmosphere, the friendly team, the beach is 50 meters away – we could have easily stayed longer!
• Green’s Guesthouse Nungwi, Zanzibar – it’s not only the fresh green theme that runs around the guesthouse premises that makes the place special. It’s the super accommodating owner who even gives you a tour around Nungwi. And the breakfast is plentiful and super delicious! We couldn’t even finish half of it!
• Stonetown View Inn in Zanzibar City (Stone town) – the perfect place to get away from Stone town’s bustling rhythm. The staff was friendly and even helped us arrange a parking spot for free.

Those were our favorite things to do in Tanzania! Absolutely amazing place, where we would return to learn and experience more. What is your favorite place in the country? Let us know!

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