Immerse yourself in the rich cultural heritage of Tanzania with cultural tours exploring the Maasai, Chagga, and Meru tribes. Experience traditional dancing, crafts, songs, and visit traditional houses. Start your cultural journey today.

The idea of a Tanzanian ‘cultural experience’ sometimes makes us cringe. It brings to mind superficial tribal dancing and local people portrayed demeaning, stereotypical roles for tourists to take photos of. Rest assured: this is absolutely not what we offer. Looking through our website’s pages you’ll find very, very few places where we write of traditional cultural experiences. That’s because we simply do not send visitors to interact with local people who live in Tanzania’s more fragile, original cultures unless we can be sure that it will be beneficial to both our visitors and their hosts. Fortunately, there are a few places like this where you can meet individuals living traditional lives – and the meeting leaves you with a mutual understanding and respect.

Cultural experiences in Tanzania

Tanzania offers many contrasting Tanzanian cultural experiences. With a population of around 50 million, the majority of whom are living in rural areas; it’s possible to interact with a wide variety of people. Tanzania offers real insights into many different cultures, backgrounds and religions.Across Tanzania the cultural groups and traditional practices differ greatly. A few examples of these contrasting groups are the iconic Maasai people who live mostly in northern Tanzania, the largely Muslim population of Zanzibar and the waMeru people who settled at the base of Mount Meru hundreds of years ago, to name but a few.

Simply staying on Zanzibar is a cultural experience in itself. The exotic, vibrant atmosphere of bustling Stone Town is an assault on the senses, but aside from the heady spices, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is steeped in history. What’s more, it’s easily explored on foot; you just wander around!

Zanzibar’s Swahili culture is the result of a fusion of Tanzanian, Asian and European influences meeting here. Historically Zanzibar was an important staging post for explorers and traders, and a key trading centre for spices and a centre for the slave trade.

Now Zanzibar offers many different cultural experiences, but accessing these in a short visit can be tricky. We’d often suggest basing yourself in Stone Town for a few days. We’ve also hand-picked a few insightful and enjoyable day trips – each of which focuses on different cultural aspects of Zanzibar. Ask us for more details.