Flights to Dar Es Salaam (DAR)

There’s an excellent tourist infrastructure in place for travellers on flights to Tanzania. There’s no lack of hotels, good restaurants, helpful safari guides or anything else you might need and it’s easy to get around. Just strap on your backpack (or grab your suitcase) and go.

Most trips to Tanzania will begin in Dar Es Salaam, a chilled out coastal city where cows in the streets compete with honking minibuses. It’s not a major tourist destination, but Dar is the perfect place to get to know the Africa you can’t see from a safari van. A mesh of Arabic, Indian and African influences makes it visually interesting; the friendly locals make it fun.

If you’re planning to go on safari to one of Tanzania’s incredible national parks, Arusha will be your base. This city is the launching pad for safaris of almost any length, and for treks up Mount Kilimanjaro. Shop around for the best deals on both – Arusha has plenty to offer. To maximise your chances of seeing of hippos, wildebeests, elephants and more, head to Serengeti National Park for a few days.

Tanzania’s beaches are the perfect place to recover from a trek up Kilimanjaro. Sipping an ice-cold drink on one of the country’s beautiful coastlines, watching wooden dhows sail by in the distance, is paradise. What could be better than that? Perhaps a trip to Zanzibar, where the picture-perfect beaches compete with beautiful historic buildings and small alleyways of Stone Town.

Getting further outside the most tourist-heavy areas will give you a chance to meet Tanzania’s captivating peoples. The Maasai are the most noticeable, wrapped in their cloaks, but there are a number of other distinctive tribes.