Mto wa Mbu – Tanzania Cultural Tour / Safari : Cultural tourism in Tanzania is not well known compared to other tourist goods such as wildlife tourism, hiking tourism, and beach tourism. Cultural tours are a relatively new tourist product in Tanzania, and they are typically sold as an add-on to major safari travel packages. It’s not a well-known tourist attraction, but believe me when I say that it’s one of the most distinctive and amazing tourist attractions in Tanzania, where visitors may not only learn about the Tanzanian people, but also about their culture, including their dancing and food. Tanzania has around 120 tribes, making it one of the countries in the world with the most tribes and cultural diversity, as each tribe practices its own culture. Due to the fact that you will be able to explore more than 120 cultural groups if you have enough time, cultural safaris and tours in Tanzania are more gratifying and stunning.
When you go on a Tanzania safari today, you’ll be able to see more cultural sites all across the country. The Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) developed the majority of cultural tour sites in mainland Tanzania, beginning with selected villages around Arusha in northern Tanzania and spreading out into northeastern Tanzania in the Usambara and Pare mountains, and more recently, including the southern Tanzania area around Mbeya. These are traditionally extant communities that provide tourists a look into the actual lifestyles of Tanzania’s diverse tribes. Cultural tours not only enrich visitors’ itineraries, but they also generate revenue for the towns they visit.
In the Great Rift Valley, Mto wa Mbu is the busiest entry point to Lake Manyara National Park and Tarangire National Park. Mto wa Mbu, a village surrounded by beautiful landscape and located on the main route leading to the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater, was one of TTB’s initial cultural tourism locations. Mto wa Mbu is one of Tanzania’s most popular cultural travel destinations, located at the foot of the Great Rift Valley, bordering Lake Manyara National Park and straddling the famed Arusha-Serengeti route, 120 kilometers from Arusha town and 60 kilometers from Ngorongoro.
After irrigation systems were installed in the early 1950s, the area of mto wa mbu quickly grew into a small town, attracting a new wave of tribes from all over the country, each with their own unique cultural heritage. There are no other places in Tanzania where so many distinct tribes have congregated in such a short and small region.
Over the years, this diversified location has become a true melting pot of cultures, Mto Wa Mbu has developed into a tourist hub, with a plethora of lodges, campgrounds, roadside cafés, petrol shops, money changers, souvenir stalls, and just about anything else that would attract a passing safari vehicle to stop and enjoy. The following are some of the tourist cultural activities available in the Mto Wa Mbu community.
Mto wa Mbu village walk.
Mto Wa Mbu is believed to be one of the few areas in Tanzania where representatives from all 120 tribes coexist together. During your village tour walk, you’ll get a good sense of the hamlet’s social side, including the farms and milling machines, as well as the schools, marketplaces, and churches. You’ll probably go to the village banana plantation, curio shops, a youth art project, and a wood workshop, where you can witness Makonde tribe people make exquisite sculptures, masks, and household goods.
During Mto wa Mbu village walk You must, of course, pay a visit to the lively local market. You may stroll through vendors selling fruits and vegetables, spices, and meat. The duration of the village walk tour is variable, but it usually lasts 2–3.5 hours. After the village stroll, you have a fantastic native Swahili supper, which you may prepare with the highly respected locals.
Tuk Tuk ride through the village
This is another option for visiting Tanzania’s Mto WA Mbu village for cultural tour; however, you will have to forego the 4×4 safari vehicle that is generally utilized inside the park. A Tuk Tuk is a light, tiny, and simple-to-ride small vehicle with seating for up to three passengers on a bench behind the driver and guide. The sides of the tuk tuk are open, allowing you to maintain a strong sense of being outside and linked to the people and places around you. You will have the opportunity to explore the Mto Wa Mbu village by riding through or to farms, local households, schools, milling machines, churches, and much more while in the tuk tuk. It is a unique kind of exploring the mto wa mbu village that will makes you enjoy your cultural tour/safari in this small tourism town in tanzania.
Cycling tour
A bike trip is highly suggested if you like to observe the surrounding area while having the flexibility of being on two wheels. You will bike through the green environs of Mto wa Mbu accompanied by a professional tour guide, and the cycling trip may take 2 to 3 hours depending on the places where you are riding. You can bike through the village, banana plantations, and rice fields, as well as halt at Lake Manyara National Park‘s shoreline. Flamingos and wildebeest frequently congregate on the beach here and it’s easy to spot them during your cycling trip. The following are the tips or highlights during your Mto wa Mbu cultural safari
- Try banana beer, visit a traditional home, and learn about Makonde carving on a village tour.
- Enjoy a traditional home-cooked meal.
- On a farm visit, you’ll discover what the villagers cultivate and how they do it.
- On a Maasai tour, you’ll visit a traditional Maasai boma (enclosure) and participate in various activities with tribe members.
- The weekly Maasai Market on Thursday afternoons or the monthly Maasai Market on the 22nd
- Balaa Hill is a trek up the Rift Valley Wall with spectacular vistas and excellent birding.
- See ancient Baobab trees and swim in the pool below the falls at Miwaleni Lake and Waterfall.
- Bike to the shores of Lake Manyara across a nature corridor.
Mto wa Mbu cultural tour is not long safari and can take up to two days if you want to participate in all of Mto wa mbu’s tourism activities. As a result, the mto wa mbu cultural tour is always combined with the northern wildlife safari circuit of Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, and Serengeti national parks, but if you’re comfortable doing it alone, it’s also fine and possible.
The Mto wa Mbu cultural trip is one of Tanzania’s most reasonable and budgeted safaris and can be done at any time of year. During your village tour in the Mto wa Mbu, whether by walking, cycling, or tuk tuk, you will have the opportunity to visit many local shops where you will be able to buy and obtain some of the unique local commodities and other gifts to take home with you for friends and as a memory of your Tanzania safari.
