What To Do In Lushoto – An Authentic African Village

Lushoto – an authentic African village. Waterfalls, viewpoint, beautiful nature, local market and much more you can find here.

The Usambara Mountains are definitely the best place we visited in Tanzania on the mainland. Beautiful scenery, nice people, excellent coffee, low prices, the ability to trek into the wild on your own without a guide. Plus it’s really lively at night.

HOW TO GET TO LUSHOTO

You can take a local bus to Lushoto from every major town in the area. Presumably you’ll be coming here from either Dar es Salaam, Moshi or Arusha.

If you are coming from Ubungo bus station in Dar es Salaam, be very careful!!! This is a really busy place with no system, no platforms, and no departure times. We recommend going to the station very early in the morning. As soon as you arrive at the station, several locals will descend on you and start pulling you into different buses (literally jostling for you). If you let them help you, they will make you pay for it and they are able to ask for 50 USD for this “help”. Ignore them, run through the station and look at the signs on the buses until you find the “Lushoto” sign. Go to it, buy a ticket from the driver in front of the bus and wait for it to leave. Be patient. We arrived at the station at 6:00 am. We left at 9:20. The bus doesn’t leave until it fills up. The ticket costs between 12,000 and 16,000 TZS, depending on the quality of the bus.

Alternatively, try asking the accommodation where it is good to go from. After our second visit, we left from a smaller bus station where the situation was not so hardcore.

ACCOMMODATION

We stayed at the basic but nice Kialilo Green Garden Motel. The price was 39,000 TZS ()per night with breakfast for 2 people. Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi doesn’t work much here and the hot water doesn’t run very often either. However, the staff is great and the rooms are nice too. You will find this accommodation about 200 meters from the bus station towards the hill on the right hand side. The phone number is +255 762 143 468. The price is negotiable. The accommodation can also be found at www.booking.com.

THINGS TO DO in LUSHOTO

There are markets right in town next to the bus station every Thursday and Sunday where you can buy absolutely everything. We definitely recommend visiting the market, it’s an experience. Plus, it’s very safe and there’s nothing to worry about. Always bargain at the markets. You can even get half the original price. The price of fruit and vegetables is about TZS 2,000 per kilo.

RESTAURANTS

A great place to eat is the Kaya restaurant. You will pay TZS 4,500 for a portion here. The pizzeria Mamma Mia is also good, but it is much more expensive. You can enjoy excellent coffee, grown, brewed and hand-ground here, at Asante C@fé. You also get a free homemade peanut bar with your coffee.

TREKKING

For nature treks, you can choose the guided option. You can get one from the Friends Of Usambara Society office for a price of USD 35 per person per trip. We did all the treks on our own and it was great and hassle free.

We don’t recommend the offers you get on the street. They are not from certified guides. You may save $10 USD, but you will learn much less about the local culture and the experience will be that much worse.

Kisasa Waterfall

The entrance fee to Kisasa Waterfall is TZS 10,000 per person.

Follow the map below to Kisasa Waterfall. You will see the waterfall on your left, but there is no signpost on the way to it. Once you see the waterfall, turn onto the dirt path down the hill. If necessary, ask the locals. You just give it :-D.

Irente Viewpoint

A visit to the Irente viewpoint also costs 10,000 TZS. You can also wander around the mountains aimlessly, a walk through the local villages is a very nice experience indeed.
There is an easy route to the Irente Viewpoint marked on the map below. The viewpoint is 1 km high and there are no railings :-). From the viewpoint you can see the vast Maasai plains and visit several indigenous villages along the way. The distance is again round trip.

Magamba Forest

To get to Magamba Forest you need to pay 10 USD per person. This entrance fee is supposedly paid somewhere in the village of Magamba. We didn’t find this place, so we volunteer that we went into the forest and walked through it without paying. However, if you are caught, you will be fined.

The trek through Magamba Forest is definitely the most challenging route. You can either take a taxi from the town to the entrance of the forest or you can walk the entire route. Along the way, you will climb the Magamba peak (1,850m above sea level), see the magnificent rainforest and, with a bit of luck, meet a few Colubus Black and White Monkeys. Unfortunately, the route through the forest is not shown on the maps. So we put here at least a map drawn by us :-D. The red marker is the entrance to the forest. The whole route is about 16,5 km. It took us about 5 hours with a picnic.

TIPS FOR VISITING LUSHOTO

If you go trekking in the mountains, don’t forget to pack plenty of water in your backpack and also a raincoat. The weather changes very often in the mountains and you can experience torrential rain and tropical heat in one trip.

If you have trouble sleeping in a busy environment, we definitely recommend bringing earplugs. They will come in handy here.

WATCH OUT in LUSHOTO

Watch out for thieves at Ubungo bus station. After you buy your bus ticket and sit on the bus, you will probably be approached after a while by someone who wants to pay for your luggage. It’s a thief, your luggage is already included in the ticket price. NEVER pay anyone anything extra.

We told the person in question that we needed to verify the information, took the phone and pretended we were calling the hotel. The thief disappeared within moments and never showed up again.

If you don’t venture to the Ubungo terminal on your own, arrange a transfer from the hotel. The driver will take you to the bus and wait for you to get on. You’ll pay about TZS 10,000 more for the transfer than UBER, but it will save you a lot of time, nerves and ultimately money.

Make sure you go to the toilet before you go. Apart from waiting for departure, you’ll have about another 4 hours on the bus before the driver stops for a break. You can read this recommendation from multiple travelers on the internet.