Experience authentic Tanzanian culture

Arusha

Day 1: Welcome to Tanzania!

Welcome to Tanzania!

After landing at Kilimanjaro Airport near Arusha, a Tansafari Tours representative will greet you at the airport and then drop you off at your hotel. Depending on your time of arrival in Tanzania, you can decide for yourself on the spot if you would like to receive a short safari briefing with your guide on the same day or the next morning. The rest of the day is free for you to spend at your leisure. Enjoy the hotel and relax - The next day is waiting for you with lots of exciting activities.

Arusha

Day 2: Explore vibrant Arusha City!

This morning you’ll start in the Arusha tour by visiting a local market in the centre of the city. You’ll mingle with the most authentic locals and experience their haggling tactics, which is quite an experience, one you cannot get anywhere else!

Next, you’ll drive to the Cultural Heritage Museum, which is a unique cultural center and a well recognizable building on the outskirts of Arusha.

It is a place where the past and present of Tanzania's 120-plus tribes can be viewed in a single compound. The center boasts of various carvings, gemstones, artifacts, clothing, and books.
The exquisite collection of stones like rubies, emeralds, and diamonds is unrivaled across the continent. Of these, the most highly treasured is tanzanite - a rare blue/violet stone found only in Tanzania. 

You'll finish the tour by visiting the Shangha Beadwork manufactory. The colorful pearl jewelry of the Maasai is one of the most famous in East Africa and you will have the chance to create your own jewelry today.

Arusha National Park - Ngare Nanyuki - Arusha

Day 3: Visit a farmer's village near Arusha National Park

In the morning, you will drive to Arusha National Park, which lies in a uniquely beautiful setting between two of the highest mountains in Africa, Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro.

In good weather there is a wonderful view of the peaks from a plateau. Deep in the jungle, you will find year-round green vegetation and diverse fauna. You can continue exploring the area around the Momella Lakes, which is home to around 400 species of birds, including pelicans, herons and flamingos.

Next, you’ll drive to a little village called Ngare Nanyuki, situated north of Arusha National Park and far away from the main tourist areas. Here, people tend to keep their original way of life, as most of the population is engaged in rain-fed agriculture. You will visit the farms and houses of the local people to get an in-sight in their daily life.

Arusha

Day 4: Learn how to brew your own coffee!

After a delicious breakfast at your hotel, you will be in close contact with the locals and the culture of Tanzania at Tengeru Cultural Project.

First you'll embark on a coffee farm tour, where you'll gain an insight into coffee production from fruit to cup.

After a short hike over Tengeru's coffee and fruit plantations, you will be shown how coffee is made. Roasting, grinding, sieving, packing – of course, you can lend a hand at any point and then finally taste the coffee you made yourself.

Meanwhile you will be accompanied by your guide and the friendly locals of the Tengeru Cultural Project. After a typical African lunch, head to Lake Duluti for a guided canoe tour in wooden boats, where you will see many different species of birds and amphibious animals. Your guide will then take you back to your hotel.

Karatu

Day 5: Discover the daily life of local Tanzanians!

Today you’ll visit the Iraqw tribe, which inhabits the region of the Great Lakes in the vicinity of the Great Rift Valley.

The Iraqw tribes population is estimated to approximately 800,000 people strong, however in their history they have assimilated many foreign groups into their culture and lifestyle. They speak the Iraqw language as a mother tongue, which resembles an Arabic sound, as it is believed that their predecessors originate from Iraq.

Nowadays, they specialize in other industries, such as, the brick industry in the area of Karatu. You are going to visit a quarry and factory for bricks, in which you will see the adverse circumstances under which some local people in Tanzania have to work.

After the tour, you’ll visit the house of one of the Iraqw tribe families.

To get in touch with local children during a school visit will be a very emotional experience! Smiling faces will greet you when you enter the school and the children will follow you all the way to their classrooms. Inside, you will be introduced to a teacher who will, together with all
the laughing children, show you what and how the young boys and girls learn. This visit leaves unique impressions, which will stay in your mind forever!

Lake Eyasi - Karatu

Day 6: Meet the indigenous tribes: Hadzabe and Datoga

Today you’ll visit the Hadzabe, an indigenous ethnic group in Tanzania, living near the shores of Lake Eyasi and in the southern Serengeti.

Hunting is forbidden in the Serengeti, as is living there, but the government makes an exception for the Hadzabe tribe, since they are one of the last tribes in Africa who still maintain a Stone Age way of life.

Their tools are carved by hand, they hunt with a bow and arrow, and live in makeshift huts made of branches, leaves, clay and manure. You’ll have the opportunity to try your hand at using a bow and arrow, and if you want, take part in the traditional tribal dance!

After lunch, you’ll head to the Datoga Tribe, semi-nomadic people, who ensure their survival mainly through cattle and livestock, but nowadays also by farming beans and corn. In the late afternoon, you will return to the lodge to spend the rest of the day at your leisure.

Ngorongoro Crater - Karatu

Day 7: Maasai visit & Game Drive In Ngorongoro Crater

This morning on your way to the Ngorongoro Crater, your guide will drive you to a Maasai village off the beaten track where you can learn more about the rituals, ways of life and culture of these people.

The Maasai are a semi-nomadic, cattle-rearing people notorious for their military raids in the 19th century. You will be greeted in the village by a ceremony in which the young men dance and try to jump as high as possible on the spot to prove their strength. Then take a look in the clay huts and discover the jewellery handmade by the Maasai. In some villages, there is even a Maasai school that you can visit.

For the rest of the day, a safari in the largest volcanic crater in the world awaits you, which promises unique experiences! The Ngorongoro caldera, with a diameter measuring up to 21 km, is not
only populated by more than 360 bird species but also up to 25,000 large mammals. The crater also has the highest predator density in Africa. The Ngorongoro Crater is also the place you are most likely to see all the Big Five – elephant, black rhino, buffalo, lion, and leopard. You will be
particularly lucky if you discover one of the endangered black rhinos.

What is special about the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is that, unlike other national parks, the Maasai can live side by side with the wildlife to continue their culture and rituals in the place in which they have been doing so for centuries.

Arusha

Day 8: Goodbye Tanzania!

After a delicious breakfast at your hotel, you'll drive from Karatu back to Arusha which will take about 3 hours.

Enjoy the majestic view of the Great Rift Valley, when descending down to Lake Manyara. The Rift Valley is a divergent tectonic plate boundary, which stretches for more than 6,000 km from Lebanon all the way down to Mozambique. You will continue via various small villages towards Arusha.

After an eventful and relaxing holiday in Tanzania, it's now time to say goodbye, unfortunately. You will be driven to airport where you will start your journey home.

We hope you thoroughly enjoyed your stay in Tanzania!