Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to Tanzania

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just got back from a three week business trip to Tanzania, and I have to say that this guide was worse than useless-- it was dangerous. On three seperate occasions I took taxis to the most highly recommended restaurants in the guide only to find myself in dangerously isolated areas with businesses that in no way shape or form resembled their reviews. If you are going to visit specific places listed in the guide I recommend you have your taxi wait until you can check out the inside for yourself.

The map of Arusha is not accurate. I walked with a single female traveler who needed to buy a bus ticket in Arusha, and its a good thing I was with her because the map was off on its location by about 8 blocks-- and the real location was in one of the most dangerous parts of town. In Dar es Salaam the one location listed as being able to offer cash advances for Mastercards with no pin does not offer such a service as I found out after spending the last of my shillings on a taxi to get there. I had more experiences like this using the guide than I have room to list here.

This guide was good for giving me a sense of orientation before I left, but was so out of date and just plain wrong that I would very strongly warn against using it in country. They claim the author has lived in Tanzania for years, but I do not see how this can be true. I saw so many other tourists in Tanzania using this book, so I know that many of you will buy it-- but please be careful and take ALL specific information with a very large dose of skepticism. Be careful.

That says it all. We attracted lots of attention by being the first to show up in Tanzania toting the new edition. The locals all agreed it was the most comprehensive & accurate guide available, & were really impressed by some of the things we knew from reading it. We had several offers to buy it when we left but wanted to keep it as a souvenir.
Be aware that the author included information on a FEW things that were planned but never opened. Nonetheless, it's an outstanding guide with good maps & lovely photos.

I just bought this book to replace my old lonely planet, expecing to find new information on Tanzani. I have not traveled around Tanzania with this book in hand, so would like to leave the judgement on practicalities to those who have, but after quickly skimming it, I noticed the book contains quite a few factual mistakes. For instance the author says that Dar-es-Salaam is predominantly muslim, which is is completely wrong - Zanzibar is predominantly Muslim and possibly Bagamoyo but in Dar-es-Salaam the Christian-Muslim ratio is fifty-fifty at most, or he advises to bring cigarets for present if you are invited to a Tanzanian family (smoking population is really small, so it is not a common present), etc. A number of new but prominent shops/restaurants that were open since or before 2002 are also not there - Dar-es-Salaam is a quickly growing and changing city, so if the book is published in 2003 and misses new opening of 2002, it is not very up-to-date info. Swahili vocabulary/phrases section contains a number of basic mistakes (some phrases don't make sense). I wonder why such a widely used guidebook would not have someone who knows Swahili to check such basic things, which leaves me a bit sceptical about accuracy of other information.

I just spent three weeks in Tanzania on vacation, and visited Dar Es Salaam, Arusha and the northern Safari circuit, and Zanzibar with the Rough Guide as my primary guide. I also hiked Kilimanjaro on a prearranged trip, without using the guidebook.

The major strength of the book is that it is written from the viewpoint on traveling that I share, that when traveling you should try to experience the country from as much of a local perspective as possible and avoid the tourist traps that isolate you from the actual country. In this respect it served very well, covering methods to tour the country (such as by daladala and local dhows) that were only occasionally used by tourists. Its recommendations were generally pretty good, although I didn't see too much difference between the highly recommended special picks and the standard listings for hotels and restaurants. His general suggestions for areas to go to and things to do I thought were very good, however.

The main issue with the book is that it was sometimes very out of date. Even though it was just published in 2006 I ran across some places that we were counting on from the book that had closed (DDC in Kariakoo (Dar Es Salaam) and the cultural tourism in Gezaloule). Also the inflation from the prices in the book was between 0 and 75%, so it was difficult to know for sure when you were being ripped off and when the prices had just increased.

Another issue with the book is that sometimes the author made it sound easier than it was to get around without knowing some kiswahili (the local language). Until we had a rudimentary grasp of the language it was sometimes tough to follow the directions.

Generally a good book that I would recommend to anyone that really wants to see the country, but verify your plans with locals when you're there.

I recently visited Kenya and Tanzania and purchased Rough Guides for each country. The Rough Guide to Tanzania had a good list of hotels and provided enough information for us to choose where to stay and make our reservations from the United States. It also gave useful tips about safety precautions, and the maps which we used (Karatu, Moshi and Stone Town) turned out to be quite accurate. There was also a considerable list of restaurants for these cities which made our trip much easier. The book also contains plenty of information about the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

One topic where I found the Rough Guide to be lacking is the description of Kilimanjaro routes. It had some information about the Marangu and Machame routes, but almost nothing about the others. It would have also been useful for them to mention that credit cards are rarely accepted and that we get horrible rates for Travelers' checks - the best rates are obtained only for US Dollars in cash.

Overall though, I was quite glad I purchased the Rough Guide, and our trip was made considerably easier and more interesting due to this book.

I got this book as a gift and hardly opened it before getting on the plane to Tanzania. Once there, however, we used it many times a day and found it to be accurate, comprehensive, and engaging. A great guidebook.

I travelled to Tanzania with this guidebook in hand (as well as others), and it was by far the best when compared to similar guidebooks on the area. I agree with the other reviewer that there may be some inaccuracies, but that is inherent in guidebooks. I personally found all of the restaurants, hotels, and shops that I visited based on information I found in the book to be accurate (Dar, Zanzibar, and Pemba). I cannot attest to the accuracy of the Swahili phrases, as I tended to learn more from people I met than I actually used from the book. If you are debating between guidebooks, I would recommend this one over the others (especially if you are travelling to Zanzibar and Pemba).

This book was indispensable for our trip last year. It was the first time I used a 'rough guides' book as opposed to Eyewitness guides and Lonely planet. The best thing is the context setting - provides cultural and historical context throughout the book, and some great tips. Good guidance on food

It definitely doesn't have glossy pictures, and could do with some better maps, but overall very good - will be sticking to Rough guides from now on!

I bought this book for a roadtrip north to south through Tanzania. The book was helpful all the way in finding places to stay each night, and good stops for food. More detailed maps of some of the larger towns would have helped me navigate a bit better. Also, some of the prices listed were a bit low, but I suppose that's expected after a couple years.

No guidebook is perfect. They can't possibly cover every conceivable place you might come across or question you might have, information can quickly become out of date, and they will all occasionally reflect the personal political and cultural point of view of the author (which might not always be shared by the reader). With that understood, I found this guidebook invaluable in planning our trip. It thoroughly hit all the "must see" spots in Tanzania, plus many of the off-the-beaten-path locations that only but a handful of travelers will visit. It was honest, provided options for many areas depending on personal tastes, and doesn't assume many travelers will have the unlimited budgets some game park visitors appear to have. In connection with our visit we served as Christian volunteers in a very out-of-the-way location for a couple of weeks and it was marvelous preparation for that area. I found it to be especially helpful as an introduction to how to pick a good outfitter to lead a safari and Kilimanjaro climb (although you will likely want to supplement the book with something like Stedman's Kili book, and internet research). Not sure how this compares to LP, Frommer's, etc... because I didn't feel I needed another after this one.