Our Tours

Cultural Tourism is a form of tourism that focuses on people and the way in which they live their lives. Each community will have different traditions and different perspectives on life. Understanding the causes that lead to cultural differences and celebrating them is vital for a more peaceful co-existence. Cultural tourism therefore aims to both educate and stimulate an interest in host cultures.

To help you see and understand the impact that the environment has had on culture we have designed, in partnerships with the local community, a variety of trips which can be taken separately of joined together as you wish.

Accompanied by local guides, visitors will learn first hand about the environment, the people, their culture and their dignity and thus will develop an understanding of the challenges that rural communities face. We will take you on a journey based on water. Starting in a community outside Katesh where water requires along walk, and consequently is it a valuable resource and used sparingly. The community take their cattle on the long walk each day to graze and find water, and the relationship between the two is key to their mutual survival. At Ngendabi we will see the arid lands and what can be done with irrigation if only it was used effectively, and we end up in the village of Bacho where water is used with great effectiveness and one family can produce more than enough food.

Through our community development fee visitors will be contributing to local sustainable development schemes designed to improve the quality of life of the communities visited and visits to these sites will be included in your trip. The scheme are determined by the needs and aspirations of the community with additional external assistance and and vary between education based projects and income generation.

Visitors wishing to get involved in volunteering work can do with prior notice so that we can design something to suit your skill base.

The visitors are encouraged to freely interact with the local community thereby breaking the racial barriers and hitherto black/white colonial hangovers. Through cross cultural communication both visitor and host learn more about their similarities and their differences and begin to understand why they both exist. Learn how the men manage their many wives without the usual love hostilities. The men/women will tell/explain the benefits of marrying many wives and traditional reasons of allowing children outside marriage.

The visitor will learn more about real rural life as lived by ordinary Tanzanian people in the rural areas and know Tanzania in its real perspective compared to what is depicted in the International Media.

Through service charges to service providers the local women, guides, family elders/fathers, children in the community earn direct income from tourists, hitherto denied them because of being outside the traditional tourist programmes.

Through the Village and Local Government Levies and Project Work, the entire community benefit by having the hitherto compulsory contribution to project works paid for through our programmes.

By strictly adhering to proper environmental and health codes throughout our programmes, the community gradually psychologically adopt better environmental protection and improved health standards.

The Barbaig live in a very arid dry land walk 10km every day to fetch 20 litres of water for family use and take their cows with them for watering. In our Project Work, we are trying to bring water from 20km away to this Barbaig tribe as sympathy for them because the Government , for years has neglected them as customary nomads.

They customary use firewood thus diminishing the forests. With water, they can be advised to replace and plant new trees as environmental protection

Each tourist is required to donate through the Development Fee to the Trust fund which, in addition to the above schemes, also tries to alleviate poverty through education through it's variety of projects detailed on this website.

We can arrange trips for as long or as short as you like, so rather write a number of packages, we have detailed our menu of trips and you can select the ones you fancy, and then we will tie them together to make them work.

Costs (all in US dollars) are the same for each trip because they are based on guides, food and accommodation. Please budget on $60 per person per day. On top of this are the bus costs, climbing permits bike hire, drinks and tips.

We can arrange for you to be collected from the Airport (this is a flat rate of $60 per car (Airport to Arusha) and brought to Babati either by public bus (approx $10) or private car (approx $230 per car)

The safari trips will be designed to collect you from Babati and take you back to the airport after the safari. if you want other arrangements, just ask, no problem.

The Development fee is £150 ($300) per person, discounted for larger groups

This trip is one that takes you to two extremes of life. With the Barbaig, famous for their warrior skills life has changed very little over the last thousand years and traditional life of continues with the men grazing their catle while the women farm and tend to the house and family. We then visit the Iraqi Tribe who are agriuculturalists and whose live style is changing faster.

We will meet you in Babati from the morning bus and take you on public transport to Katesh. From there we walk into the bus, seeking out the Barbaig tribes. We spend the night with the tribe and can interact with them asking about their ways of life, their culture, history, education, what their concerns are for the future. In the morning after a demomstration of archery, stick fighting and how to use goats skin as clothing, we return to Katersh for the bus to Dareda where we walk to Bachu village and see the local farm and coffee plantations. This enviromenmt is wet and lush and some the locals make the most of it by harvesting the water and using it to produce crops in great quantities. In the morning there is an opportunity to climb the escarpment face before making our way to Babati where we can visit the primary school, the Gorowan story teller take evening drinks on Lake Babati before having a favourite banana meal.

Barbaig Trip

All the trips include trips to see the Barbaig in their homes, see how they live, to collect water, look after the cattle, hear stories of yesteryear, understand about their traditions, religious beliefs, how their society is structured, their relationship with the land and each other. They are very consevative in their nature and have changed little over the centuries. Like the Masai they are a semi nomadic cattle rearing tribe, where the women still wear tanned goatskin gowns, and are happy to show you how it is done. They will also teach you to pound and grind maize fight. We do not organise any local dances, but you can chance upon a marriage, circumcision, burial or prayer rituals and you won't be excluded. But since the Barbaig are warriors we organise for them to show you stick fighting and their archery skills.

Option 1

To walk to Dumbeta/Gigeja Village, 5km into the bush and stay the night with the family. Take food with you and share your meal with the family. Men and women sleep separately in this traditional home.

Option 2

Same as option 1, but return the same evening to the Katesh and stay in a guest house

Option 3

Walk 18km into the deep bush to a different village and stay overnight.

Optional Hanang Climbing Trip

This is an all day walk up (5-6 hours) and down (3-4 hours) Tanzania's 4^thlargest Mountain and requires a good degree of fitness and well-worn shoes. The spectacular views of small craters, Lake Bakangida, the Mangati plaisn and the Rfit Valley the are ample reward for the effort!! This climb starts at finishes at Katesh and requires a two-night stay with registration required before climbing. Climbing permit is $35pp

Photo by Annie Wormald

It is a 16km walk from Katesh (there is a bus if preferred) to the remote Iraqw/Nyataru Village of Gendabi, at the base of Mt Hanang. This is a very different lifestyle for Katesh. Water is available here from the mountain but because the infrastructure is not conducive, little excess is produced here and people live a very subsistence lifestyle, growing enough to meet their needs.

Here we visit the local schools (new and old) and spend time with the teachers. We walk (8km) through the bush to Lake Balagida, a local salt lake where salt is farmed for domestic use and also used in cattle feed. This is an all day walk through beautiful unspoilt landscapes past local villages and Bomas

Because of the transport connections 2 nights are spent here, staying with a local family in a stone house. You can join in the cooking if you wish and explore the local community. Life here is not fast.

At Dareda you will walk the 3km from the bus stop to the town of Bachu where the Iraqi Tribe live. Here you will visit the local school and see how the kids there struggle to get an education. Then we go to the Farm Project, a small plot that makes the most of the rich soil and the high water levels to produce a vast variety of crops and farms fish where you can choose a fish for dinner. The Farm is also home to hives of Tanzanian killer bees. We will also visit the coffee plantation and show you the processes involved in harvesting and making coffee. In the evening it is likely that the villagers will want to welcome you and talk with you. Dancing is usually included as part of the welcome. The Iraqi tribe are very different from the Barbaig as they are pastoralists and have water. This means they have developed a very different relationship with the land and different priorities in life, different traditions, customs and a different perspective on life.

There will be an opportunity to climb the escarpment that is the wall of the great rift valley.

Optional Extra

3-4 hours drive from Babati towards Kondoa in the beautiful Irangi Hills are one of the world's finest collections of prehistoric rock paintings with an estimated 1600paintings at over 200 sites, some are dated just a few hundred years while others  go back 30,000 years. These paintings are part of a chain of paintings stretching from Ethiopia to south Africa. The local Sandawe and Hadzabe tribes have similar languages to the Kalahari San bushmen. The paintings are mostly found in rock overhangs and depict elongated human figures, giraffe and elephant.

Costs $60 for the day per person + transport, which in a hire car is approx $110

Babati is the Manyara Regional Capital and is such a small, but booming town, it rests at the end of Tarangire and at the base of Lake Babati, and nestles under Mt Kwaraa. The lake is stunningly beautiful and a great spot to rest and watch the sun go down. Friendly hippos live in the lake and whilst the Trust do not include Lake Canoe tours, they are available at your own risk.

The tour of Babati includes the fresh vegetable market, the bus stand and the sports fields, and takes in a sunflower factory and maize grinding factory before going on to see the Gorowan story teller, a 93 year old elder who tells stories of the history of the land as well as the traditions, customs and practices of the Gorowan tribe.

Babati is set at the base of Mt Kwaraa, a 2415m high flat topped mountain coated in virtually untouched Ufiome Forest home to Buffalo, Elephants, and hyenas. But whilst the evidence is everywhere, they are extremely elusive. This can be climbed in a day but two is preferable to explore the vegetation. Permits are required if you want to go to the top.

Cycles are available for hire and day out to the Malangi Village (30km) away if a fun day. Malangi Village is home to more Barbaig tribes where traditional lives are still led.

Alternatively there is a walk to the Manangi Village where brick making, dairy cattle, goats and bio-gas are amongst the projects. From here you can climb Mt Baambay for stunning views of the rift valley landscape.

We collect you from Babati early in the morning and take you to Tarangire National Park for a whole day's viewing, leaving the park as late as possible to maximise your time in it. Tarangire is famous for it's large host of elephants and enormous Baobab trees. Zebra, Antelope, Giraffe, Lions, Ostriches, Warthogs and mongoose can be seen as well as many birds including hornbills, bustards, eagles and raptors.

We then drive to Mto wa Mbu where for dinner and a night's rest, before rising early and going to Lake Manyara National Park. In addition to the previous day's viewing we can see tree-climbing lions, hippos and of course the famous flamingos on Lake Babati that create a pink haze across the shoreline. Primates are abundant in this park and blue and vervet monkeys are the main attraction.

After a late packed lunch we head to Arusha and the airport.

Option 1

An extra day safari can be had by taking a side trip to the world famous Ngorongoro crater where we can spend a day seeing all the wildlife it has to offer before returning to Mto wa Mbu for dinner

Option 2

An extra day safari can be had by taking a side trip to the world famous Ngorongoro crater where we can spend a day seeing all the wildlife it has to offer before going to one of the fantastically opulent hotels on the craters rim. When you are spending a lot of money on accommodation this is one of the few places where it is totally justified and makes a fantastic last night's splash out.

Option 3

We can arrange trips to the Serengeti, for which we would recommend two nights

On all our trips you will be accompanied by an English speaking guide