Tanzania: From Kilimanjaro to Zanzibar

If you are looking for a safe but still very intersting African country, you should visit Tanzania. We traveled from Europe to Tanzania with Etiopean Airlines, and after a short stopover in Addis Ababa, and we landed at Kilimanjaro Airport, near the town of Moshi. We also spent the night in Moshi town. You can participare in a 6-day long adventure to  conquer the nearly 6,000-meter high peak of Kilimanjaro, with the help of several escorts and porters. Since we are not very experienced in alpine hiking, we only booked a one-day hike, in order to experience a bit how climbers feel when climbing the Mount Kilimanjaro. We started our ascent at 1800 meters and we finished the climb at 2700 meters. Then, in the afternoon, we walked down to the entrance. The hike was not too though, so maybe next time, if we are in Tanzania, we will climb even higher.  

In Moshi town, we booked a 4-night long safari program. Even though the price was quite high, it was worth it, because this safari was a lifetime experience. We enjoyed every single second of the 4-day-long safari, and we managed to see every important animal spices at least with binoculars, but we were able to capture most of them even in photos, as they came very close to our jeep. We saw the Big Five: lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants, African buffalo, and many more like giraffes and zebras. During the nights we slept in a tent, under the stars. But in return, we heard at night the sound of the wild, as the animals were only a few miles away. Our tour guide was also very professional, and the team, we shared the jeep with during the safari program, consisted of 7 really nice people, arriving to Tanzania from every corner of the world. 

At the end of our trip, we took the bus from Arusha to Dar es Salaam, and from there, we took the ferry to Zanzibar island. Zanzibar is a real paradise, with snow-white sand, turquoise sea, and palm trees. The beach of Stone Town is also very clean and sandy, but on the East side of Zanzibar you will find the holiday villages that you can find in the brochures of the travel agencies.  Instead of luxury hotels it is worth staying in small bungalows, as the atmosphere and the service is much more personal. We went on several excursions: to the capital of the island, to Stone Town, which is famous for being the birthplace of the singer Freddy Mercury and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From Stone Town, we sailed to the tiny Prison Island, where we saw gigantic tortoises and the water is warm and amazingly blue.