Off-peak Tanzania: Go for wildlife, go again for people

When you think of Tan­zania, massive ele­phants, beau­ti­ful lions, and migrat­ing herds of zebra and wilde­beest usu­ally come to mind. And with good reas­on. This coun­try has some of the most incred­ible wild­life on the plan­et. From the Ser­en­geti to the Ngoron­goro Crater, there are so many stun­ning land­scapes in which to wit­ness these impress­ive anim­als in their nat­ur­al hab­it­at. For that alone, Tan­zania is a trip of a lifetime.

As the then head of oper­a­tions for Off Sea­son Adven­tures (OSA), I had the oppor­tun­ity to travel to Tan­zania in Novem­ber 2019. My friend and col­league, Tan­ner Knorr (own­er & founder of OSA), told me that Tan­zania is a place where you’ll go for the wild­life and return for the beau­ti­ful and gra­cious people. 

The inside track

When vis­it­ing Tan­zania for the first time in Novem­ber 2019 — and sampling the banana beer of Mto wa Mbu — Lind­say Booth was the head of oper­a­tions for off-peak travel & tour spe­cial­ists Off Sea­son Adven­tures.
She’s now the CEO.

Tan­ner­’s sen­ti­ment res­on­ated with me and turned out to be incred­ibly accur­ate. We had so many unbe­liev­able wild­life exper­i­ences, bey­ond my expect­a­tions, but our inter­ac­tions with the loc­al people were the high­light, and touch­ingly meaningful. 

From all my fant­ast­ic exper­i­ences in Tan­zania, I chose only a few of the most mem­or­able to share with you here.

Datoga tribe & the fourth wife

Near Lake Eyasi, we had the oppor­tun­ity to meet with a fam­ily of the Datoga tribe. This nomad­ic group resides mainly in Tan­zania and relies on met­al han­di­crafts to make a liv­ing. We wit­nessed their work and pur­chased genu­inely unique souvenirs. 

The women of the fam­ily wel­comed us with open arms and allowed us to par­ti­cip­ate in their daily activ­it­ies, laugh with them, and try on their intric­ate beaded skirts. They even adop­ted my friend into their fam­ily as a fourth wife, which came as a sur­prise to the hus­band and head of the fam­ily. He nev­er­the­less got used to the idea very quickly!

Mto wa Mbu & banana beer

We trav­elled to the eclect­ic vil­lage of Mto wa Mbu in the north of the coun­try. Mto wa Mbu is a mid­way point between Karatu and Mak­uy­uni — a cross­roads of sorts — which is why there are rep­res­ent­at­ives of 120 tribes liv­ing here. We toured the loc­al mar­ket, were shown how bana­nas are har­ves­ted, and inter­ac­ted with many vil­lage res­id­ents. We even had the chance to sit with some loc­al gen­tle­men and sample banana beer. It’s made in the vil­lage, is a bit warm, only slightly alco­hol­ic, and it is delicious.

Our guide & all the hospitality staff

Our guide, Hosea, was the best. His pas­sion and know­ledge for Tan­zania were evid­ent. His fam­ily opened their hearts and their home to us for a wel­come din­ner on our first night. And they had such pride for their country. 

The people at every hotel, lodge, or oth­er type of accom­mod­a­tion were wel­com­ing, gra­cious, and eager to share their home­land with us. They would go out of their way to explain their cul­ture, show us inter­est­ing wild­life and veget­a­tion on the prop­er­ties, and in one instance took us on a nature walk near the lodge. These per­son­al inter­ac­tions solid­i­fied why we loved Tan­zania so much.

There are so many oth­er exper­i­ences I could have high­lighted. We hunted with the Hadzabe, danced with the Maa­sai, and toured a spice plant­a­tion in Zanzibar.

It helped that we vis­ited in Novem­ber, the off sea­son. The people had more time for us and our vis­it helped main­tain their incomes. 

Off-sea­son travel con­trib­utes to a more sus­tain­able tour­ism, which should bene­fit the people and wild­life of Tan­zania in perpetuity. 

Immers­ing ourselves in the loc­al cul­ture left a last­ing impres­sion on me. Along with the game drives and fant­ast­ic wild­life encoun­ters I recom­mend that you vis­it with loc­al tribes, con­verse with the staff at your lodges, and immerse your­self — as much as you are wel­come to — in the Tan­zani­an cul­ture. You will not regret it, and you will not for­get it. I assure you that when you return to Tan­zania it will be for the people you met there.

Where is this?

As its name sug­gests, Off Sea­son Adven­tures spe­cial­ises in off-peak travel exper­i­ences in Tan­zania and oth­er des­tin­a­tions around the world. OSA works with organ­isa­tions such as the Tan­zania Cul­tur­al Tour­ism Pro­gramme to optim­ise the value of each vis­it for every­one. Email: info@offseasonadventures.com.

Where next?