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.

Tanzania Ultimate Safari Sweepstakes

Today, an advertising campaign for Tanzania has been launched across the USA. There will be television advertising spots on CNN and HLN and on airport networks. There is also a website http://cnnpromos.com/Tanzania09/ where you can win trips to Tanzania.

Impressive photos of Kilimanjaro and safari

Our customers Thomas Eigenheer, Cuno Flück and Markus Wieland from Switzerland have published some impressive photos of their Kilimanjaro climb along the Marangu Route: http://www.thomas.eigenheer.ch/reisen/kilimanjaro.htm and also professional animal, landscape and people pictures of their safari including the Usambara Mountains, Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara, a Massai village, Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater and Zanzibar: http://www.thomas.eigenheer.ch/reisen/tansania.htm. Thanks a lot to Thomas, Cuno and Markus!

The beauty side of Tanzania

“The beauty side of Tanzania” is our new range of itineraries focussing on cultural encounters, the close-up discovery of natural wonders, and doing activities “other” than just the typical National Park game drive safari. The itineraries are ideal for those travellers who want to see Tanzania in a multifaceted way and learn more about the country than the average tourist. Led by local guides, they are also perfect for repeat visitors to Africa.

However, our 8 days package, besides visiting a Chagga village on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, an “authentic” Massai village which is not set up for tourism purposes, and the farming areas of Mtu Wa Mbu, includes some game drives in Tanzania’s most stunning National Parks, because it would simply be a real pity if you would leave the country without having visited them.

The two 5 days itineraries, with one including hiking in the Usambara Mountains, and the other one including activities of historical visits and natural exploration along the Dar-es-Salaam/Bagamoyo coast area, are perfect if you are short in time or can be added to any other safari itinerary or mountain climb.

See the full itineraries here.

Madaraka Nyerere about climbing Kilimanjaro

End of August 2008, Madaraka Nyerere, son of Julius Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania, was doing a fundraising climb of Mount Kilimanjaro with ZARA. In the following video which was recorded in Springlands Hotel, he is talking about his experiences of the challenging climb.  

Sounds of Wisdom festival Zanzibar 2009

Sauti za Busara is an international festival celebrating East African music taking place around the second weekend of February each year in Zanzibar. The dates for 2009 will be 12th to 17th of February.

Featuring top-quality musical performances by more than 400 established and upcoming artists (40 groups in total), Sauti za Busara has already established itself as one of Africa’s leading music festivals. It’s an event that unites people in celebration. The festival celebrates Swahili music and culture, old and new. It’s popular with locals and now attracting people from all over the world. Since the first Sauti za Busara festival in 2004, the number of visitors to Zanzibar during February has increased 400%, boosting local revenue and bringing important economic benefits to the island through cultural tourism. The festival directly employs 100 local crew, builds skills and opportunities for musicians, artists, traders and technicians.

During the time of Sauti za Busara, all the hotels and restaurants in Stone Town are full, the boats and planes are fully booked, the tour guides are busy, Zanzibar is energised and excitement is in the air.

A carnival and street parade kicks off festivities on Thursday 12th February, featuring a beni brass band, drummers, wanandege (umbrella women), dancers, stilt walkers and acrobats. The parade arrives at Forodhani around 5pm and continues into the Mambo Club (grassy side) of the Old Fort, where the main stage of the festival is situated. The venue is exploding with colour and there are around twenty stalls selling food and refreshments, clothing, music and local handicrafts.

From Thursday through til Sunday, around ten groups perform each day. Big names rub shoulders with upcoming artists, including thirty of the best groups of Zanzibar, Tanzania and around East Africa, from Comoros, Zimbabwe, Mali, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria and UK, traditional and modern, acoustic and electric.  

ZARA now offers a luxury 12 nights all-inclusive program with a Canadian tour leader, visiting the festival and staying at the historic 236 Hurumzi Hotel in Stonetown. After the Festival, we are up to the 5 star Fairmont Zanzibar for some downtime at the beach. See the itinerary.