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.

Website for Huruma Women Group

The Huruma Women Group is a community-based organisation of Tella Mande in rural Moshi, initiated and directed by Mary Saria and Berther Mawenya. The aim of Huruma (swahili for ‘compassion’) is to help the disadvantaged and vulnerable families in the community. ZARA has been a friend and supporter of Huruma Women Group for several years. In July, Huruma Women group welcomed their first international volunteer, Julia from Germany who has degrees in social work and educational sciences. Before starting with Huruma, she first spent 3 months in Dar-es-Salaam accompanying the social workers of the SOS Children’s village at their ‘Family Strengthening Outreach Program’. Then during a further 3 months in Tanzania with the Huruma Women Group, she tried to assign certain principles that worked at the big organisation in the capital to the small rural initiative of Mary and Berther. As a result of Julia’s voluntary work, Huruma now even have their own website, as she convinced a friend of hers who is web designer, Jacek Jonczyk to create a webpage for the charitable group free of charge. The website is now online at http://www.huruma.info. ZARA thanks Julia for her big support, Jacek for his effort and Gabriel of World Unite! for translating the website’s English texts into Swahili.

2nd Ngorongoro Run to be held on April 18th, 2009

Minnesota Health Voluteers with the support of ZARA will be organising the second Ngorongoro Marathon on Saturday, 18th of April 2009. Runners will make their way through one of the most beautiful and unique landscapes on earth, ending at the mighty Ngorongoro Crater. Participants can run the full half marathon (21 km) as individuals or as part of a team running a fraction of the race. Tourists and locals are welcome alike.

The aim of the run is to raise awareness and funds for the fight against malaria. Malaria affects between 300 and 500 million people every year, over 90% of whom live in Africa. Malaria kills over one million every year, but there can also be debilitating effects to the survivors. Women who become infected during pregnancy run the risk of having low birth weight babies, may suffer from anemia, premature births, birth defects, still births and spontaneous abortions. Young children can be left with neurological after-effects and learning disabilities.

If you take part in the run, you can book any ZARA safari or climb for a discount of 50 USD. First, please contact Jolene Mullins, Tanzanian Country Director of Minnesota Health Volunteers at mihvtanzania@gmail.com to book your participation in the run and inform her about the time you expect you need to run the half marathon. Runners will be grouped into three speed groups depending on their estimated pace. Then, book your ZARA Tanzania adventure  (before or after the run) online through the ZARA website and mention that you take part in the run to claim your discount.

ZARA travel article in Canadian World Traveller magazine

Travel writer Michael Morcos has published an article about his memorable tour through Tanzania with ZARA Tanzania Adventures in the Summer 2008 Issue of Canadian World Traveller. His trip included Arusha National Park, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti and the area around Kilimanjaro.
You can read the article here.

Get to know some ZARA staff

Hello, I’m Mr. Shabani,

I’m the restaurant supervisor of ZARA’s Springlands Hotel in Moshi. I’m a Tanzanian from Moshi and this is my fifth year with ZARA. Everyone in Moshi is happy to work with ZARA, it is a preferred employer in the country.

In my department there are 10 waiters and 2 barmen. Typically, we cater food for around 100 people every day, but at peak times we sometimes have up to 200 guests. I make sure our guests have good meals, good service and they are perfectly happy – every day. I welcome them in Springlands to enjoy our meals and services. Karibu sana (A big welcome) to Springlands!

Did you know? ZARA ecofarming

Next to ZARA’s Highview Hotel, between the town of Karatu, just at the border to the Southern Ngorongoro forest, ZARA has 28 acres of farmland where most of the fruits and vegetables are grown that you as a ZARA traveller get served at the hotel, at a bush lunch or as part of your delicious safari lunch box.

ZARA follows the philosophy of organic farming. We don’t use synthetic pesticides – because the fruits and vegetables taste better and it protects the environment.

Highview Hotel Website
Highview Hotel on Tripadvisor

Karibu Tanzania

The annual Karibu travel and tourism trade show in Arusha is the leading travel trade event in East Africa. Originally, the idea was to promote Tanzania, but during the last years, the show has considerably grown from a local travel event to a serious industry meeting, attracting more than 200 exhibitors from many East African and overseas countries in June 2008.

It is clear that ZARA as a leading Tanzanian safari and Kilimanjaro trekking operator cannot miss the opportunity to present their innovative socially and environmentally sustainable travel products on this show. The picture above shows this year’s ZARA stand with a demonstration of our brand new Kilimanjaro climbing camping equipment.

Other trade shows ZARA usually participates include World Travel Market in London (each November), ITB in Berlin (in March), FITUR in Madrid (February),  International Tourism and Travel Show Montreal (October) and many others. If you want to have a chat with a ZARA representative in your country – contact us (zara@zaratours.com) and ask us which shows we are going to attend this year. We are looking forward to meeting you there!

http://www.karibufair.com

Tanzania Tourist Board video

We have just discovered the beautiful official Tanzania Tourist Board video about Tanzania on Youtube. Enjoy!