Arusha

Why every Northern Circuit safari starts here

Arusha sits at roughly 1,400 metres on the southern slopes of Mount Meru, midway between Kilimanjaro International Airport and the Rift Valley escarpment that carries the road west toward Lake Manyara, Tarangire, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. That geography, not marketing, is the reason it became the safari capital of Tanzania: it is the last town of any size before the parks, and every fuel stop, vehicle workshop, curio market and safari operator in northern Tanzania is clustered here as a result. The altitude also does a lot of quiet work — after the heat of the plains, Arusha’s evenings are genuinely cool, and it is a comfortable place to land jet-lagged before an early-morning drive out to the bush.

What there is to do in town

Arusha rewards a spare day rather than a rushed transit. The Arusha Declaration Museum covers Tanzania’s post-independence history and the socialist Ujamaa policies set out in the 1967 declaration that gives the museum its name. The Cultural Heritage Centre, on the Dodoma road, is part gallery and part market — a good place to see Makonde carving and Tanzanite jewellery before buying either at the airport. The clock tower roundabout downtown is popularly, if inaccurately, billed as the halfway point between Cairo and Cape Town, and the Maasai market around it is one of the liveliest in the country.

Two airports: Kilimanjaro International (JRO) and Arusha (ARK)

What is just outside it

Arusha National Park is 25 kilometres east — Mount Meru, the flamingo-covered Momella Lakes, and one of the only parks in Tanzania where a walking safari is permitted. Lake Duluti, a small crater lake ringed by forest, is closer still and makes an easy half-day of canoeing and birding. The farmland climbing the slopes of Meru toward Usa River and Tengeru grows some of Tanzania’s best Arabica coffee, and several estates run tours that walk you from the cherry to the cup.

Getting oriented

Two airports serve the region: Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO), about 45 minutes east on the road toward Moshi, handles the long-haul and regional flights; Arusha Airport (ARK), closer to town, handles domestic hops to the parks. From Arusha, it is roughly two hours to Tarangire, three to Lake Manyara and Mto wa Mbu, and four to five to the Ngorongoro Crater rim, which is why most Northern Circuit itineraries — including our own 5-Day Northern Circuit Classic and 8-Day Full Northern Circuit — begin and end at a hotel here.