Most people meet Tanzania through a photograph of a lion or a mountain, which tells you almost nothing about the country those things sit in. We live here, in Arusha, so here is the version we would give you over a coffee before your trip.
Where is Tanzania?
Tanzania sits on the east coast of Africa, just below the equator, with the Indian Ocean on one side and a run of great lakes on the other. Kenya and Uganda are to the north, Rwanda, Burundi and Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south. That position is why the country has both snow and coral: Kilimanjaro in the north east, and a coastline with islands off it.
For a traveller the practical shape is simpler than the map suggests. There is a northern circuit around Arusha, where the famous parks and the mountain are. There is a southern and western set of parks that are wilder and much less visited. And there is the coast, including Zanzibar. Almost every first trip happens in the north, because everything is close enough together to see properly in a week.
What is the capital of Tanzania?
Dodoma is the official capital, in the middle of the country, and it surprises visitors because they have usually never heard of it. Dar es Salaam, on the coast, is the largest city and the commercial heart, and it is where most international flights to the south and to Zanzibar connect. Neither is where your safari starts. That is Arusha, in the north, under Mount Meru.
What language do people speak?
Swahili, or Kiswahili, is the national language and the thing that holds a very diverse country together. English is widely used in tourism, business and higher education, so you will manage without a word of Swahili. You will get further with about six words, and people notice when you try. We keep a separate guide with the phrases worth learning.
Underneath Swahili there are well over a hundred local languages, because Tanzania is made up of many peoples rather than one. Swahili is what everybody has in common, and it is one reason the country has stayed as settled as it has.
Who lives here?
A great many different communities, from the Maasai herders that photographs have made famous to Chagga farmers on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, fishing communities on the coast, and city populations in Dar and Arusha that look like anywhere else in the world. Christianity and Islam are both widespread, and on the coast and Zanzibar the Muslim influence shapes daily life and how visitors are expected to dress.
The country as it stands was formed in 1964, when Tanganyika on the mainland and the islands of Zanzibar joined. That union is why Zanzibar still has its own government for its own affairs, and why arriving there can feel like arriving somewhere separate.
How much of it is protected?
An unusually large share. Tanzania set aside national parks, conservation areas and reserves on a scale few countries have matched, which is the reason the wildlife is still here in the numbers it is. It also means park fees are a real part of what a safari costs, because those fees are what keeps the land in that state.
When should you come?
The country runs on rains rather than on temperature. There is a long dry stretch from around June to October that suits almost everything, a green season with calving in the south of the Serengeti in the new year, and a long wet season in spring that we would steer a first-time visitor away from. We keep a month-by-month guide for the detail.
What does this mean for your trip?
Three things, in our experience. Distances are bigger than they look, so a plan with fewer places and more nights each is almost always the better trip. The north is the right choice for a first visit. And the country rewards travellers who treat it as a place people live rather than a backdrop, which is mostly a matter of asking questions and taking the answers seriously.
If you are working out whether Tanzania is the right country for the trip you have in mind, send us a message. We will tell you honestly, including when the answer is somewhere else.
