Tanzania Accommodations

Tanzania Accommodations

There are numerous types of accommodation in Tanzania ranging from very low-budget camping and guesthouses to upmarket luxury lodges and tented camps.

Remarkably, there is a huge volume of accommodation options in Tanzania's towns, particularly in major tourist centers such as Arusha and Dar es Salaam. The National Parks offer camping, safari tents, or lodges of varying prices. Self-catering accommodations and apartments are also on offer to long-term visitors and new residents within the city centres. Tanzania is also a very popular conference destination, especially for the East African community, ensuring that most of the top hotels have well-equipped conference facilities. So no matter what type of accommodation you are looking for Tanzania has everything to offer! If by chance any of our viewers notice that we are missing a great lodge, hotel etc.; in a beautiful location in Tanzania please do not hesitate to let us know

Hotels -- If you stick to three stars or higher, you can expect clean rooms, a private bathroom with a shower, a swimming pool, and one or more decent restaurants. At the lower end of the scale, the towns offer basic lodgings in one- or two-star hotels that are predominantly used by locals. Budget travelers should look at a room to ensure that the sheets are clean and the plumbing works before committing.

Zanzibar has places on the beach where vacationers rarely venture out of the confines of their resort, but also has some wonderful hotels in Stone Town housed in historic Arabian-style buildings that feature unique Zanzibar-style four-poster beds, Persian rugs, and antique furniture, even at the cheaper end of the scale.

Safari Accommodations -- For all budgets, entrance fees to the parks are the same, and you can expect to have the same sort of game-viewing experience. But what you pay for an organized safari depends on the standard of accommodations and whether you choose to get to the parks by road or air. Generally, accommodations in the parks fall into three categories: top-end luxury tented camps, midrange large lodges, and campsites. Intimate tented camps usually comprise a dozen or so spacious tents under a thatched or wooden roof with their own terrace and sometimes extras such as a private plunge pool or outside shower. Cuisine and service are excellent, and game drives and other activities are all-inclusive. The benefit of these is that you are sleeping in the wild with animals close by, and you'll have the personal service of knowledgeable guides. The large safari lodges in the parks also offer good service and are mostly in scenic locations, but with a large number of rooms in either hotel-like blocks or individual chalets, they can feel a little impersonal. Nevertheless, they offer reasonable value and have a full range of facilities such as restaurants, bars, and swimming pools. Camping safaris offer the best value but are the least comfortable, with cold showers, primitive toilets, and hard ground to sleep on. But the advantage is sleeping in unfenced campsites where you may hear the roar of a lion at night. Camping safaris usually have a cook who prepares meals over an open fire.