The first thing most people do in Tanzania is sleep through it. They land at Kilimanjaro Airport tired, get driven the hour to a lodge in the Arusha foothills, fall into a bed, and are up the next morning on a small plane bound for the Serengeti. The Arusha night is just a transition. It is also a missed opportunity. After two decades of meeting guests in the JRO arrivals hall, the single piece of advice we give most often is the simplest: schedule two nights in Arusha, not one. The reason is not romantic. It is logistical, with a romantic side benefit.
The logistical case is straightforward. International flights from the US and Europe are increasingly subject to delays, and a single missed connection in Amsterdam or Doha can bleed a day off the front of your safari. Two nights in Arusha builds in the cushion. The romantic side benefit is that you get a real afternoon and a real morning to acclimatise — to the altitude, the time zone, the equatorial light — before the safari pace begins.
Two nights in Arusha is the single best change you can make to a standard ten-day itinerary. The day before the safari is a part of the safari you didn’t know you wanted.
The town, honestly.
Arusha is a working East African city. About half a million people. A busy central market with stacks of mangoes and second-hand sneakers, a clock tower the colonial British put up, modern coffee shops, traffic that does its own thing. It is not Cape Town and it is not pretending to be. What it is, is the friendliest entry point in northern Tanzania — people will greet you on the street, the Swahili is patient and slow, and a half-day guided town tour costs less than lunch in your home country. Bring small notes if you want to buy from the Maasai market in the centre; haggling is part of the protocol and a good guide will not let you overpay.
A morning at the foot of Meru.
If you have one morning to spare, Arusha National Park is our pick. Half an hour from town, fifty square miles, completely uncrowded. The crater lakes are full of flamingos in season. Giraffe wander between them. The forest holds the famous black-and-white colobus monkey, which you will not see in many of the bigger parks further west. A guided walk on Mt Meru’s lower slopes — led by a park ranger because there are buffalo about — is the closest most people get to a walking safari on a standard itinerary. Bring a fleece even in the dry months; the altitude is cool.
Long arrival, longer flight.
Some international routings land you in Arusha at three in the morning. If yours is one of them, we will book the hotel for the night before, so that you can check in at three in the morning and stagger directly into a real bed. The alternative is being told the room is not ready until eleven, which is not the welcome anyone wants. Tell your safari consultant the moment you book the flight; the timing is easy to handle if we know in advance.