Travelling in Tanzania

This section is designed to help you find your way around Tanzania. In all honesty, it’s a pretty simple country in which to travel around, though the following information should still be of some use.

Do remember, if you have any questions about any aspect of traveling in Tanzania, drop me a line and I’ll see if  I can help. I don’t pretend to be an expert on the country – just a small, mountainous corner of it – but I’ll do my best to answer your queries anyway.

If I cannot help, then maybe the Tanzanian tourist offices can. In Tanzania itself, only Dar es Salaam and Arusha have tourist offices. Consulates and embassies around the world also have the odd brochure, or you can look at the online information services on the net; follow this link to the Tanzanian tourist board website.

The capital of Tanzania is not Dar es Salaam – even though everyone thinks it is. Dar is certainly the commercial center of the country, its largest port, and its biggest city too; and during the colonial period under first the Germans and then the British, it was the capital. But since 1996 the capital of Tanzania has been Dodoma, in the heart of the country.

There are over 100 languages in Tanzania. The country doesn’t have an official language but Swahili is the most commonly spoken tongue. English is also fairly widely spoken.

As well as being the home of Africa’s highest point, Tanzania also has a share of both its biggest lake (Lake Victoria) and its longest and deepest freshwater lake (Lake Tanganyika). It can also boast Africa’s biggest game reserve at Selous, and the park with the greatest concentration of migratory game in the world – the Serengeti.

The country is also the only place where Tanzanite can be found. This gemstone was discovered only in 1967, near Arusha.  The stone is actually called Blue Zoisite but was renamed Tanzanite by Tiffany & Co after the country in which it was discovered.