Arusha: Base, Gateway and Safari Capital of Northern Tanzania

Why you sleep in Arusha

Arusha is not somewhere you go to see something. It is where the northern circuit starts, refits and ends, and almost every itinerary that takes in the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire or Lake Manyara passes through it at least twice. The first night is usually the one after a long-haul flight, before a vehicle leaves at dawn. The last is the one after the vehicles come back, when there is red dust in everything.

Arusha City Council describes the city as lying just below Mount Meru at an altitude of 1,500 metres. That altitude is the practical reason the town exists where it does and the reason a night here is comfortable: it is cool in the evening and cold before dawn in the middle of the year, in a country where most of the other arrival points are hot.

The city grew from a German fort built at the foot of Mount Meru by Captain Johannes in the nineteenth century, a building which still stands and now houses the natural history museum. Arusha was declared a township authority in 1948 with 5,320 inhabitants, became a municipality in 1980, and was granted city status in 2012. The growth curve is not incidental — it is why the town you arrive in feels less like a safari outpost and more like a working East African city that happens to have safari attached.

Where Arusha sits, and what it puts within reach

Arusha is the gateway end of the circuit. The distances that matter to a traveller planning a trip are these, as the managing authorities give them.

• Arusha National Park is about forty-five minutes from the city, with main access through Ngongongare Gate near Usa River. It is the only northern park you can reasonably do as a half day from your hotel, and because it has no resident lion population, walking and canoeing are permitted there.
• Lake Manyara National Park is roughly 125 kilometres away, two to two and a half hours on tarmac, with its main gate beside Mto wa Mbu at the foot of the Rift escarpment.
• Karatu, the usual overnight base below the Ngorongoro gate, is about 150 kilometres from Arusha on the road that continues to Mwanza and Musoma.
• Mount Meru rises directly behind the city inside Arusha National Park, and is climbed over three or four days. TANAPA gives its summit, Socialist Peak, as 4,566 metres.

Everything further — Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire, Lake Natron, Lake Eyasi — is reached either by driving west and south out of Arusha, or by flying from Arusha Airport into the park airstrips.

Arriving and leaving

Kilimanjaro International Airport

The international arrival point for the northern circuit sits east of the city between Arusha and Moshi. Published distances from Arusha vary: Arusha City Council gives forty-two kilometres, while figures closer to fifty circulate elsewhere. Either way it is a transfer of around an hour, which is worth knowing when a flight lands late and the first game drive leaves early.

Almost every operator includes the airport transfer, and it is the single most common way people first see the road between the two towns — sisal and maize on the flats, Meru on one side and, on a clear morning, Kilimanjaro floating above the haze on the other.

Arusha Airport

Arusha Airport is a different thing entirely, and the confusion between the two costs people money. It sits about seven kilometres west of the city centre, is managed by the Tanzania Airports Authority, and handles domestic flights only. Its runway is 1,860 metres long and its apron is built around light aircraft: the authority describes it as able to park three ATR 72 or Dash 8 aircraft plus fifteen Cessna Caravans at once.

That aircraft list is the whole point. This is the airfield the bush flights leave from — the Caravans and Cessnas that go to the Serengeti strips, to Manyara, to Lake Natron. If your itinerary includes a flying leg, this is where it begins. The airport was built in 1956 by Colonel Gray, a coffee and sorghum farmer in the Burka and Mateves area, and was taken over by the government after independence in 1961.

By road

Arusha sits on the highway that runs down from Nairobi and on across northern Tanzania, and the city is a genuine regional crossroads rather than a cul-de-sac. Overland arrivals from Kenya come through the Namanga border post; the road east goes to Moshi, Same and eventually the coast; the road west goes to Karatu and Ngorongoro; the road south goes towards Babati and the centre of the country. Which of those roads an itinerary actually uses, and what the honest drive times on them are, is covered in the guide to getting between Tanzania’s gateways and its parks.

The city that is not about safari

Arusha earns a surprising amount of its living from people who have no intention of going to a park. The East African Community has its headquarters here. The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals has run its Arusha branch since 1 July 2012, inheriting the functions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which closed at the end of 2015. The Arusha International Conference Centre, a government institution, is the venue that anchors the city’s conference trade, and Arusha City Council lists conference tourism first among the reasons visitors come.

Practically, that means Arusha has more hotel beds, more restaurants, more reliable connectivity and more people used to dealing with foreigners than a town of its size otherwise would. It also means the city can feel busy and transactional in a way that a first-time visitor expecting a safari town does not anticipate.

A day in Arusha when you are not in a park

There is enough here for a genuine spare day, which is useful because spare days in Arusha happen a lot — arrival days, weather days, the day between a climb and a flight. How many of a trip’s nights are worth giving to the town rather than the parks is worked through in the guide to how long a Tanzanian itinerary needs to be.

Museums and the city’s own history. The city council names three: the Arusha Declaration Museum, the Natural History Museum in the old German fort, and the Cultural Heritage Centre. The museum guide covers what each actually holds, and the historical walking tours guide covers seeing a Tanzanian town on foot.

Markets and food. Arusha’s markets are working markets rather than exhibits, and they are the cheapest and most interesting hour in the city. See the food and market tours guide, and the cooking classes guide if you want to do something with what you have seen.

Tanzanite. Arusha is the main market for tanzanite from the Mererani mines, which are the only place in the world the stone is mined. The tanzanite guide covers certification and how to avoid the obvious traps, which matter more here than anywhere.

Crafts. Carving, beadwork and textiles are sold everywhere and made in fewer places than the selling suggests. The craft workshops guide is about making rather than buying.

Coffee and farms. The slopes of Meru above the city are coffee and horticulture country — Arusha City Council lists coffee, vegetables and flowers among the region’s agricultural strengths. See the coffee tours guide and the farm tours guide.

Walking and riding. Day hiking on the Meru foothills, horse riding on the plains west of town and mountain biking all operate out of Arusha, and all of them are better ways to spend a jet-lagged first morning than a hotel lobby.

Maasai country. Arusha sits at the edge of Maasai land and the Maasai cultural visits guide is worth reading before you agree to anything, because the difference between a good visit and a bad one is almost entirely in how it is arranged.

Golf and running. Arusha has a golf course and hosts organised running events; see the golf guide and the running events guide.

When to come

Arusha is in Tanzania’s bimodal rainfall zone, which the Tanzania Meteorological Authority divides into the Vuli rains from October to December and the Masika rains from March to May. The tourism shorthand of “short rains in November” understates when Vuli starts, and travellers planning around it get caught. The month-by-month picture for the northern circuit sets out what each season does to the parks Arusha feeds.

Because the city sits at 1,500 metres, it does not get the heat that people expect of equatorial Africa. Evenings are cool year-round and genuinely cold in June and July. Pack something warm for the city as well as for the crater rim; a great many people arrive without it.

Practical notes

• Arusha and Arusha National Park are different places with the same name, and so are Kilimanjaro International Airport and Arusha Airport. Check which one an itinerary means before you book anything around it.
• The city is spread out. The clock tower area, the conference centre area and the outlying lodges on the Meru side and the Usa River side are all “Arusha” and are not walking distance from each other.
• Vehicle inspection is easier here than anywhere else on the circuit, because this is where the vehicles are based. If something about a vehicle worries you, raise it before you leave town rather than at Naabi Hill.
• Tanzania’s altitude, dust and sun all hit harder than the cool air suggests. The first afternoon is a good time to buy water, sunscreen and a hat if you did not bring them.

Common questions about Arusha