This way you get the most beautiful journey through this beautiful African country.
Tanzania is high on the bucket list for many people, no wonder when you consider that this country has several sites that are registered on the World Heritage List of UNESCO.
You can experience the most amazing Tanzania safaris experience here and there is also so much to see and do. Easytravel provides more travel tips for Tanzania safari. Do you want to know more then visit here
A while back I lived in Tanzania Safaris for a few years where I was the manager of a beautiful lodge, which supported the nearby orphanage with the income. I would like to share my 10 best tips with you, so that you get the most out of your visit to Tanzania!
# 1 Get driven – don’t fly
Most people start in Arusha, because this is the closest city to Kilimanjaro airport. If you continue from Arusha to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and eventually enter Serengeti, you will see the scenery around you on the way.
Make a stop at the viewpoint at Lake Manyara, visit the lively village of Mto Wa Mbu and especially stop at the viewpoint in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to give you a look into the largest crater in the world that is still intact.
Along the way you will encounter several Maasai with their herds and enjoy a free ‘African Back Massage’. By traveling over land you not only see much more, but you feel, smell and experience the country much more intensively.
# 2 Learn to answer the local greeting
Local people will greet you with “Jambo Mzungu”, literally translated: “ha stranger / white man”. If you answer this greeting with “Jambo” it is obvious that you are a tourist. Not that that’s bad, but you pay for it too.
If you answer “Sijambo, habari yako” instead, you will first receive a surprised and then a warmest greeting.
# 3 Say no to begging
Do not give money or food to the children you encounter along the way. Where they used to wave at you and asked for a “pipi” (candy, not to be confused with the German word for peeing), money is already ordered now.
A bit of a shame, but that is the result of tourism. Do not cooperate and wave gently, but do not give anything. In the long term, you will not help anyone with this.
# 4 Say yes to local shops
Especially buy local trinkets along the road (not at the obvious mass of tourist shops) and dive into a local market.
# 5 Use the local currency
Pay in Tanzania safaris shillings, instead of dollars. The course is usually better and you will be cheated less quickly.
Make them all up, because in the Netherlands you can’t do anything with it anymore and if you redeem it, it’s almost worthless.
# 6 Travel by public transport
Take advantage of the local transport. You can choose from the ‘Dalla Dalla’ and the so-called ‘Noa’. Dalla Dalla’s are vans with a maximum of 10 seats, but these are literally crammed with people, chickens, goats, and everything else they need. The co-driver hangs out of the car as standard. Only use these vans for short items.
The first time I came to Tanzania Safaris I made the mistake of catching the Dalla Dalla instead of the Noa for a three-hour ride. Believe me, it is no fun not to be able to move for three hours and to be surrounded by an aroma of old sweat and goat poo (deodorant is a luxury that many local people have to do without).
The man next to me tried to put on his jacket but could not move his arms, eventually his neighbor and I got him in. Therefore, use the Noa for a longer piece; still 5 people in three seats but still a lot more comfortable.
# 7 Enjoy the local cuisine
If you make a pit stop in Mto Wa Mbu, buy bananas by the side of the road and try the red banana (yes, they exist!). Have lunch in the same village at Scorpions pub and order fried ndizi (fried banana), ugali (kind of corn porridge) and mchicha (spinach). In particular, ask for chumvi (salt) and dip your baked banana in it, delicious!
# 8 Sleep among wild animals
Spend at least two nights in Serengti in a tented camp where you can wake up at night from the shuffling of hyenas, buffalo or elephants around your tent and the primal roar of the lions, mighty! The feeling is hard to describe but if you spend the night in the middle of nature this way you feel that this is how it should be. This is Africa!
# 9 Keep corrupt officials sweet with syrup waffles
Don’t pay if you are kept on the road, but stay polite. And if you have stroopwafels with you it will almost always be fine. Hold your driver’s license and never issue it.
# 10 Finish on the beach
At the end of your safari, book another beach extension on the spice island of Zanzibar, where you go back in time in Stone Town and enjoy the locally caught, freshly caught fish as Sheherazade in the palace of Sultan Sayyid Said under the starry sky.
Do you have a lot to spend? Then visit Mafia Island and spend the night in the underwater room of the Manta Resort, dive with whale sharks and discover the magical underwater world around Pemba Island.
For those of us who don’t have 5 zeros in their bank account: travel across the mainland to the coastal town of Tanga, from where you take the ferry to Pangani. Here tourism is not that far developed, but the sea is just as blue and the water as clear as glass (depending on the tides).
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