Tanzania Cultural Tours – Experience the Soul of Africa
Cultural tours have become a popular tourism offering in Tanzania, often included as a complementary experience alongside traditional safari packages. These cultural tourism sites, primarily located in mainland Tanzania, were initiated through a collaboration between the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) and the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV). The program began in selected villages near Arusha in northern Tanzania and later expanded to other regions. These are real, living villages that have been made accessible to travelers, offering an authentic insight into the daily life and traditions of Tanzania’s 120+ ethnic communities.
For many first-time visitors to Africa, the continent and its people offer a unique and captivating experience. At Leopard Tours, we understand and value this appeal, which is why we strive to include community visits in our itineraries—providing guests with the chance to witness and engage with the vibrant culture of a typical African village firsthand.
Some of the popular cultural centres which may be tailored into visitor itineraries include:
1. Manyara – Mto wa Mbu, meet an array of tribes living together in a small area
Mto wa Mbu is one of the first cultural tourism sites developed by TTB and SNV. Situated on the foot of the Great Rift Valley bordering Lake Manyara National Park, straddling the famous Arusha / Serengeti route, 120kms and 60kms from Arusha and Ngorongoro respectively, Mto wa Mbu is one of the most popular cultural tour sites in Tanzania.
Following the setting up of irrigation systems in the early 1950s, the area rapidly developed into a small town attracting a new wave of tribes from all over the country, each with its own cultural background. Nowhere else in Tanzania have so many different tribes settled in such a small area.
Choose from a walk through the farms and green oasis on the foot of the Rift Valley; a climb to Balala Hill; a view into the culture of the many tribes living in the area; a trip to Miwaleni Lake and waterfall where there is an abundance of papyrus; visits to development projects that aim to improve agriculture and start income-generating activities for local farmers.
2. Maasai Bomas / villages in Ngorongoro
Most visitors to Africa, especially first timers, find the continent and its people enchantingly different and a special experience. We at Leopard Tours appreciate this fact and endeavor to include visits to the local communities to give our guests the opportunity to see first hand the way of life in a typical African village.
Tanzania has over 120 tribes each with its own culture. The Maasai in northern Tanzania are among the most popular ethnic groups in the area, a proud people fervently attached to their cultural values. Ngorongoro is the home of the pastoral Maasai, who have been allowed to live in the conservation area, a pioneering experiment in multi-purpose land use where people, their livestock and wildlife coexist and share the same protected habitat.
3. Lake Eyasi – the Hadzabe and Datoga
Lake Eyasi is a very scenic soda lake found on the southern border of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a couple of hours drive from Karatu. This less visited lake lies at the base of the Eyasi escarpment on the western Great Rift Valley wall, bordered by the Eyasi Escarpment in the northwest and the Kidero Mountains in the south.
The Hadzabe, a hunter-gatherer tribe, live close to the shores of Lake Eyasi, as do the Nilotic-speaking Datoga tribe who are pastoralists. Visits to these tribes are possible on half day or full day excursions which would include a visit to their homesteads, learning about their way of life, medicinal plants, and even animal tracking with bows and arrows with the Hadzabe hunters.