Welcome To Mwanza City

The city of Mwanza is the major Tanzanian port on Lake Victoria and a major center of economic activities in the region. The lake borders the country’s East African neighbors – Uganda to the northwest and Kenya to the northeast.

Exports and transport between the countries are the foundation of Mwanza’s economy. Around the city of Mwanza, the land is primarily devoted to agricultural enterprise. Tea, cotton, and coffee plantations throughout the area produce large cash crops that pass through Mwanza on their way to market. The town’s industrial harbor and busy streets make it a prosperous and busy place to explore.

For visitors, the city has a good base from which to explore the nearby Rubondo Island National Park and the western parts of Serengeti. Rubondo Island National Park offers pleasant day hikes and bird-watching around the lake shore.

About Mwanza city

Mwanza’s proximity to the western Serengeti makes it a necessary stop for visitors who want to experience a less bust part of the park and see the magic of the Serengeti without the parade of safari vehicles and seasonal crowds. Mwanza is also the center of the Sukuma tribe, the largest tribe in Tanzania, who have inhabited and farmed the region for centuries. Cultural tourism programs to their local villages and farms can be arranged through the local cultural centers.

The Unit is located in Mwanza, the capital city of the Mwanza region, on the southern shores of Lake Victoria in North Western (NW) Tanzania. With a population of over 900,000, This is the second largest urban settlement in Tanzania after the city of Dar es Salaam, and a major business center for regions around Lake Victoria and neighboring countries of Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda. The city is surrounded by rocky hills dotted with massive granite boulders.

The primary traditional economic activity in the Mwanza region is agriculture, with farmers growing a range of food crops and cotton for export markets. Other activities which have created new opportunities for social-economic development in the region include fishing and industrial processing of fish for export markets, and large-scale gold and diamond mining activities in neighboring regions. Mwanza is also experiencing major infrastructural development, with new highways opening to connect NW Tanzania to the city of Dar es Salaam and other parts of Tanzania, as well as other major cities in neighboring East African countries.

Arrival in Mwanza Town:

Mwanza City Tour: “The Pearl of Africa”

Mwanza City welcomes visitors with natural and fresh weather from the source of the River Nile off the shore of Lake Victoria. Mwanza City is an ideal place to start your adventure with wildlife safaris, boating and fishing on Lake Victoria or Rubondo Island, conducting research, or enjoying business. Mwanza City is a fast-growing city in Tanzania and is a dynamic, colorful destination of culture and life. It is a central point for great lakes countries in Africa, and the transit hub for many of Tanzania’s world-renowned tourist destinations like western and northern circuit wildlife safaris.

Mwanza City Activities

You can enjoy long bush walks and picturesque hikes, motorbike riding, boat cruises, lake fishing, and even visit famous kopjes or outcrops that are perched precariously on top of one another. Visit scenic islands, such as Ukerewe and Lukuba Islands, and expand your awareness by visiting cultural activities about Tanzania’s largest Bantu empire….”Basukuma.” Mwanza is a pleasant and exceptionally lively town and has a lovely waterfront that commands excellent views of the lake. The rocky city is also endowed with unique fish called Sangara (Nile perch), “the mother fish of Basukuma,” in Lake Victoria (other fish such as Tilapia can also be found). Mwanza City has other unique tourist attractions such as Igogo caves and underground tunnels (German Boma) that were used as an escape route when Germans ruled Basukuma.

Mwanza City Tour Summary

Begin the morning with a lovely breakfast at your hotel and depart at 8:00 a.m. for the Bujora Village to visit the Sukuma Museum, where you will learn about the traditions and culture of the largest tribe in Tanzania. The magic drums are fascinating at the museum, and in some exceptional cases, you may even have the opportunity to play them.

Thereafter, drive back to Mwanza City Center and begin a Lake Victoria adventure by boarding a speed boat. Sightseeing and bird watching are done en route to the Saa Nane Island, stopping at various rock outcrops where flocks of cormorants, egrets, ibises, and the occasional monitor lizard are known to sunbathe.

Sundowners are enjoyed from the island’s impressive rocky vantage points with a spectacular view of Mwanza City as the sun sinks into the Lake Victoria. Saa Nane National Park is a small park, but it’s like visiting a true paradise! End the day by returning to your hotel for the night.

Include

• Day trip according to the itinerary
•  Transportation in a 4×4 safari vehicle
•  Professional, English-speaking guide
•  Meals according to the itinerary
•  Mineral water
•  All mentioned activities
•  All national park fees
•  Flying Doctors insurance (AMREF) during the day trip

Exclude

•  Flights
•  Optional activities
•  Alcoholic and soft drinks
•  Visa fees
•  Tips
•  Personal spending money for souvenirs etc.
•  Travel insurance

HISTORY OF MWANZA CITY TOUR

The tour takes more or less 2-3 hours on foot. The historical tour is mainly the relics of the periods of Germans, British, Indians, and early Tanzania.

The best starting point is the large roundabout or rotary near Lake Victoria (and near the Tourism Information Office =TIO) from where the three main roads are leading: to the East (Nyerere Road), the South (Kenyatta Road), and to the airport in the North (Makongoro Road).

Near the clock tower in the grass in the middle of the roundabout is an inscription recalling that in 1858 the British explorer John Speke was the first European to see from nearby Isamilo Hill the waters of Nyanza which he called Lake Victoria after the reigning British Queen? He correctly claimed it to be the source of the river Nile.

On the wall of the clock tower is a War Memorial of the British. During the First World War British troops coming from Kenya and Uganda drove out the German garrison of Mwanza who fled to Tabora to the south. The British administered Tanganyika up to 1961.

There are a number of monuments from the German Period, which lasted only from the early 1890s to 1916. Across the street in the direction of the lake are former German offices with a decorative small wall in front. Here criminals were condemned and hanged on the Gallows Tree, the trunk of which remains in the middle of the road to the East. On the hill to the east of Makongoro road, one can see a German Watch Tower which was part of a large fortress now used by the Regional Commissioner as his official residence.