Tanzania is a beautiful country, its diverse landscape allows you to climb mountains, snorkel over protected coral reefs and even travel overland in a huge crater that’s home to thousands of wildlife. If you like variety in your travels, Tanzania is the perfect place to scratch multiple itches and the perfect African Adventure. 

I’d recommend at least 10 days here to have a real chance to do as many things as possible. My partner and I travelled here with my brother and my sister-in-law when we were fresh out of university. We didn’t have much money but we managed to make it work. 

One thing that I will admit is that we didn’t do a lot of pre-planning. We booked most of our activities once we were in-country which worked out fine, but we definitely missed out on the hot springs.

We also took the worst quality photos as we just wanted to have a good time. But I’ve uploaded a few for you to see.

Here is our detailed itinerary with some extra information but as usual, the free downloadable spreadsheet for this Tanzania trip is at the bottom.

If you’re looking for a similar adventure on the other side of the world. My trip to Queensland in Australia had a similar vibe. Wildlife, snorkelling and general adventurous exploring: click here for the itinerary.

Day One in Tanzania

Start off by flying into Arusha, Tanzania. It’s not a particularly safe area but we had someone from the hotel take us to an ATM (which had an armed guard) so we weren’t concerned. Make sensible choices and don’t go out alone at night etc. After arranging a transfer from the airport, we had someone who took us straight to a travel agent to book our Arusha activities. It was late but it worked out well.

Day Two in Tanzania

The first activity was a day hike up Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania side as opposed to Kenya). We didn’t want to commit to an 8 day hike, it’s just not our thing. We like walking but not to spend all our precious annual leave doing it. The day hike was beautiful. We saw monkeys (which will try to steal your food!) and when we got to the campsite for people continuing up the mountain, we managed to cross the Tanzania border into Kenya for all of 5 minutes before we headed back down the mountain. 

Despite there being a path, you’re not able to do the day hike without an official guide, which you’ll be allocated when you arrive. Tipping is expected at the end of the day. 

Day Three in Tanzania

A trip to the Serengeti Crater to go on safari is one of the main reasons people visit Tanzania. It was definitely a bucket list kind of day. We saw hippos, hyenas, giraffes, zebras, and so much more. It was a nice day of sitting in the safari truck after walking the previous day. Our group of 4 was put with another 2 travellers and that was it. This was such a strange experience because it literally is a giant crater that you drive through.

Day Four in Tanzania

On this day we actually headed to Zanzibar, which is an island off the coast of Tanzania. However, I would recommend staying in Arusha for one more day and heading to the hot springs. It’s reviewed really well and it’s something we weren’t aware of before we went. Alternatively like us, you can fly to Zanzibar on this day.

Zanzibar – After leaving our bags at the hotel, we explored Stone Town. There are a few bars and restaurants but it comes alive at night when the market is on. Stalls of vendors sell their catch of the day and cook it right in front of you. You don’t get much fresher than that. 

My brother is super adventurous when it comes to seafood and tried everything from shark to eel to squid. 

My partner, his sister and I went for the banana and nutella crepes every night. 

Day Five in Zanzibar

If you haven’t already, head to Arusha airport to fly to Zanzibar island. It’s the birth place of Freddie Mercury and although they don’t make much of a song and dance about it (pun intended), there is a small plaque on the building. Take a wander around Stone Town and look at the beautiful shops. You can pick up some great artwork. As we were there just before Christmas, we picked up a handmade nativity scene for Dom’s Mum.

There are some fancier hotels with spa options, if this is your thing, it’s a good opportunity to book in some self-care.

Day Six in Zanziba

Organise your day tour to Prison Island, head over early as it gets busy throughout the day. You can hand feed the giant tortoises celery and lettuce. They especially love when you scratch their necks which is honestly so adorable. For those who are trying to imitate a European coloniser of the 16th Century (not a compliment), it would be handy to know that you are not allowed to ride the tortoises. There’s a lot of signs up that inform visitors that they will be removed from the island if they try to.

As the name of the island suggests, it was once a prison! Now there are remnants of the prison left over which you can visit and when we arrived, a new cafe had opened up.

Part of this tour was a snorkel on the reef. It wasn’t the best snorkelling and the waves were crashing over the reef which at the time felt quite unsafe. If the waters are rough, don’t go in, save yourself for Chumbe Island.

Day Seven in Zanzibar

This day is a bit calmer. In the morning we attended a Spice Tour. We were provided a leaf cup to collect all the samples which included lemongrass and also jackfruit. It was a nice tour, easy to walk around but it is in the forest so anyone with mobility issues would need to bear that in mind. 

This is what Dom and I refer to as a gentle tour. It’s easy and not much is expected from you but it’s an interesting outing. They took us to a cigar maker on the way back to the hotel. We don’t smoke but it was interesting to see the process.

We then spent the afternoon chilling by the pool and sunbathing. 

Day Eight in Zanzibar

This was by far the most surprising part of our trip. My partner and I love to snorkel and we’d heard good things. This really is the destination!

Chumbe Island – it includes a coral reef sanctuary, forest reserve, wildlife on land and by sea. They have coconut crabs here which are absolutely huge. There are also hermit crabs as well. Our guide took us around the island and there were hundreds littered around.

The coconut crabs usually come out at night but we managed to find one under some tree roots. See my picture below… honestly this was so exciting. They can get to be as big as 3 feet wide. 

We spent the day on the island. We were given an eco lodge which had a bed, hammock, compost toilet, rainwater shower. The lodges were amazing, made with completely sustainable materials. It costs an absolute bomb to stay over night here but we were lucky that they didn’t have any other bookings so we were given the lodge as part of the day rate. 

In the visitor centre, there is a homemade encyclopaedia which a visiting family created after multiple trips to the island. They catalogued all the different sea life they saw including photos. Such a great project and it meant we knew what to look out for once we were on the reef. 

Day Nine in Zanzibar

We did a short walk in the Jozani forest where we patiently waited for local wildlife. There was quite a big group of us walking around but eventually we saw the cutest monkeys including a baby one. 

My photos below show just how tiny the babies were. We stayed here for around twenty minutes and the monkeys jumped around while we tried not to disturb them.

After our jungle walk, we headed to the south of the island where we were taken out into boats.

We swam with a pod of dolphins and honestly there must have been around 50 wild dolphins just swimming around. They were super curious and came up to the surface to see what we were doing. Once they’d fed their curiosity, they just swam down and away. Such an incredible experience, I would highly recommend but obviously there’s no guarantee you’re going to see anything. 

They did let us snorkel after this but honestly there wasn’t a reef and there were a few schools of fish but nothing to really look at. If you’re desperate to snorkel on a reef, you’ve got to go to Chumbe. 

Day Ten

Travel day – flight back to the UK.

The point of this holiday was to go and enjoy an incredible country on a budget. We turned up with nothing booked but managed to fit in an amazing amount of activities. This isn’t the approach I would take now but it proves that you can just turn up sometimes and it will work out.

It does also mean that it works out cheaper. I’ve updated the activity costing on the spreadsheet to amounts today (we visited in 2016). This is waaaaay more than we paid. Paying in country is significantly cheaper as you cut out the incredibly overpriced middle man. There’s no guarantee you’re going to be able to do everything if you turn up with no bookings but you could save a small fortune.

The spreadsheet itinerary is here.