Tanzania (Including Zanzibar)
This post could go forever, Tanzania is a huge country with a ton of very famous tourist sites and just cool stuff to see and do.
Mount Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and more!
We spent about 6 weeks there all up and pretty much followed the tourist trail. If you plan to go, allow heaps of time to explore and get around.
Tanzania: Zanzibar
Where to start for Zanzibar?! A little piece of paradise, with plenty of history and architecture to explore.
Another place we also did very well with food, lots of fresh fish, fresh vegetables and fruit, oh and the spices! Do get yourself on a spice tour.
You can spend hours exploring the laneways of Stonetown, lots of tourist shops (this is where my obsession with Tanzanite began) and quite places to sit with a drink.
Or you can head to one of the beach areas and chill out there. We headed to Nungwi and hung out there for a few days.
Tanzania: Rest of country
Dar es Salaam: Most people will probably start in the capital, a crazy Africa city. It really gets your senses up, the sounds, sites and the smells. But I loved Dar and all of its craziness, despite the horrible traffic (and traffic police). There are some quieter areas outside of the city centre and I recall doing quite well there with food as well.
Mount Kilimanjaro: I don’t know how people get such amazing shots of Kili from Arusha (or really, outside of it). Everytime we tried it was covered in nice thick cloud. But as we did do the climb, we go plenty of photos close up.
For transparency, I didn’t make it to the top; I got a couple of hours past base camp and that was it for me, the altitude was a killer! But Mike did make it to the top, definitely an achievement.
The climb itself isn’t that difficult. We chose the Machame route and the climb was pretty gradual. Also, fitness, while it’s good to have, doesn’t necessarily decide the outcome. How you handle the altitude I would say is the greatest decider. Oh, and some pretty decent shoes.
I don’t feel the need to attempt it a second time, despite not making it to the top, but if you’re planning a trip to Tanzania, definitely something to consider doing. Make sure you book a reputable company and I’d also check if they bring their own toilets up the mountain, because the drop holes that were there were gross.
Ngorongoro Crater: It’s pretty easy to spot animals in the crater; it’s a relatively small area of mostly grassland. On the other hand, this results in a lot of tour vehicles moving through the crater so you don’t really get much time alone with the animals. But definitely a cool area for safari.
We camped on the edge of the crater the night before and spotted this guy a few hundred metres away as we went to set up camp.
We were freaking out an hour or so later when we saw glowing eyes in the distance while having dinner (turned out to be a hyena). My point is, you won’t be disappointed :-)
Serengeti National Park: Similar landscape to the crater, grassland as far as the eye can see, but obviously on a much, much larger scale.
We saw so many lions in Serengeti, always a treat!
We also saw a little of the wilderbeast migration. If you can time a visit during the peak of the migration, I’d say worth it!
Mwanza: This was the last town we stayed at in Tanzania and in all honesty it’s probably not a huge tourist area, but it was a nice spot to stop on the way to Rwanda. I have included mostly because I enjoyed our time there on the shores of Lake Victoria and it was a nice city, not too busy.
