Highview Hotel Karatu is opening swimming pool

On the 30th of December, 2009, the new swimming pool of Highview Hotel Karatu has finally been opened. On the following night – New Year’s eve – the terrace around the new pool has then been used for the first time as an attractive outdoor dinner location – illuminated by the full moon. From now on, outdoor dinners at Highview Hotel will be served at the pool terrace which also features a bar.

On the 31st, the hotel’s 80 rooms were fully booked and our guests could enjoy a New Year masquerade party with special buffet, live music, karaoke, a raffle and fireworks.

Stone Age Experience at Lake Eyasi

ZARA Tours announces a new and innovative African adventure which will take place for the first time in February 2010: A group of 12-20 participants will live in the East African savanna like in Stone Age time. There will be an expert Stone Age instruction who will teach many prehistoric skills such as making tools, cloths or Stone Age cooking. Further, the participants will interact with members of local tribes such as the Hadzabe Bushmen who are the only active people of hunter-gatherers in Africa.

The group then has to apply what they have learned in order to solve certain tasks. An example is to bake honey-bread. The group must decide who will collect the honey (from wild beehives together with Bushmen), who will build the oven (using simple Stone Age tools) and who will collect the grains, make the wheat, the dough etc.

This is a really exciting new outdoor adventure for anyone seeking for the complete opposite of modern city life – going “back to the roots”. It is also particularly interesting for groups such as universities or clubs of cultural anthropology, ethnology, African sciences, history, archaeology etc. and for corporate team building.

There is a separate website for this new product with all necessary information, dates of upcoming events, video, photos and the possibility to book: http://www.stone-age-experience.com.

Meet ZARA at New York Adventures in Travel Expo 2009

ZARA will exhibit at the New York Adventures in Travel Expo October 10-11, 2009. If you want to meet us, please contact us in advance and we will provide you with complimentary guest tickets, valued at up to 15 USD! Just email to zara@zaratours.com.

Forodhani Gardens Zanzibar reopened

The renovated Forodhani Gardens in Zanzibar Stone Town

After more than 18 months of redesign construction time, Forodhani Gardens have opened again last week. Rehabilitated by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) at a cost of $2.2 million, the park was officially opened on the 30th of July 2009 by Zanzibari President Amani Abeid Karume in a function that was also attended by His Highness the Aga Khan.

The 1.4 acre park has regained its landmark status with a fresh new look that added to the beauty of the old Stone Town, itself a World Heritage Site recognised for its exceptional significance to mankind.

We have uploaded more images of the redesigned park to Flick. And you can read a full article about the redesign of the park on allAfrica.com following this link. 

Ngorongoro Bicycle Race October 2010

The ZARA Charity’s newest project aims at making a change to the lives of the Maasai women in Karatu. Whereas great improvements have been made in the education of Maasai men, the women are poorly lacking behind, due to their burden of a traditional inferior role within their community.

Therefore, Zara Charity wants to build a Maasai Women’s Vocational Training Educational Centre in the highlands of Karatu. Certain skills can help these women to rise above their restricted positions in society and to grant their family a better living by establishing their own business or getting employed. Eventually, they can realize their full potential and be empowered to pursue their own dreams and ideals.

To raise funds, Zara Charity is organizing the “Make a change:  Ngorongoro bicycle race 2010” which will take place on the 31st of October 2010 to finance this project. You can participate in this race, the participation fee is US$20.

There will be two routes, one will be for professionals and it will be on asphalted surfaces only. The other route will be for hobbyists; the route can be used with regular bicycles that tourists can rent from the Arusha Bicycle Club.   

The exact route description will be published on time, it will probably be from Makuyuni – Ngorongoro gate – Karatu town (distance around 40 km). Read more about it here.

ZARA Tours also offers a special package including participation in the race.

ZARA at the Geotourism Challenge 2009

ZARA was nominated to participate in the National Geographic Geotourism competition rewarding tourist businesses for practicing sustainable tourism. Please check out our entry to find out more about our efforts as we prepare to enter the final round of the competition! Once we’ve passed to the final round we will let you know, because then it’s up to you to vote for us!

http://geotourism.changemakers.com/en-us/node/22146

Expedition Africa on TV – from Zanzibar to Ujiji

Tonight, there will be the start of an interesting TV series called ”Expedition Africa” on A&E Television Networks. From Zanzibar to Ujiji at Lake Tanganyika, four modern-day explorers retrace Stanley and Livingstone’s famous search for the sources of the Nile through 970 miles of hell. They face countless dangers from predators and insects to disease and nature’s own fury.

If you missed an episode, there is also a website where you can watch it, view images and play adventurous games: http://www.history.com/expedition/episode-1/. Due to licensing reasons, the videos unfortunately can’t be watched outside the US (unless you access the Internet using a US proxy server).

The website also offers a nice game for your iPhone or iPod Touch that allows you to actively experience the historical trip from Zanzibar to Ujiji.

Kilimanjaro – A Photographic Journey to the Roof of Africa

Writer and editor Michel Moushabeck together with his wife, travel photographer Hiltrud Schulz have climbed Kilimanjaro with ZARA Tours. The result is the book “Kilimanjaro – A Photographic Journey to the Roof of Africa”, a spectacular collection of more than 200 full-colour images and narrative that offer a detailed glimpse into the unique beauty and rhythm of Africa’s natural wonder, its history, people and ecology.

Published at Interlink Publishing.

Ngorongoro Half Marathon April 18th – register now!

ZARA wants to remind everyone interested in finding out his or her personal limit taking part in a sports event in one of Africa’s most beautiful regions that the 2nd Ngorongoro half marathon (21 km) will take place on April 18th, 2009. It is still possible to register as a participant, which is free of charge. Everyone participating will get a 50 US$ discount on any ZARA safari or climb. Even if you’re not into participating yourself, it will be a lot of fun to cheer on the many local and foreign runners!

Please have a look at our original posting about this sports event which is arranged by Minnesota International Health Volunteers (MIHV):

http://zaratours.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/2nd-ngorongoro-run-to-be-held-on-april-18th-2009/

If you would like to support the work of MIHV, you can find more information about their work in the documents that you can download here as a ZIP file.

AMREF Flying Doctors

ZARA wishes to recommend to travellers to East Africa to consider a membership with the AMREF Flying Doctors.

Short term tourist memberships with a duration of 14 days or two months are inexpensive and in case of medical emergency, there will be one free air ambulance evacuation service from all Tanzanian wilderness areas to Nairobi hospital in case of serious medical emergency. There is also a free 24 hours Flying Doctor’s Emergency Response telephone for medical advice.

AMREF, the African Medical and Research Foundation has been in existence for over 35 years as a non-profit making foundation. Headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya, and there are Tanzania offices in Arusha and Dar-es-Salaam.

Unutilised membership subscription fees go towards funding the work of AMREF Outreach and charity evacuations. In Tanzania, AMREF funds The AMREF Muhimbili Outreach programme which flies out specialist doctors to rural areas to treat the less fortunate and train medical staff in those areas. You can download the 2009 membership price list, conditions and coverage map as a ZIP-file here.

Website: http://www.amref.org.