5 Comments for The Rough Guide to Tanzania (Rough Guides)

• 1. N. Williams  |  July 31st, 2010 at 10:04 pm

  Review by N. Williams for The Rough Guide to Tanzania (Rough Guides)
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  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  This guide was good for giving me a sense of orientation before I left, but was so out of date and just plain wrong that I would very strongly warn against using it in country.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.

• 2. m&m  |  July 31st, 2010 at 10:36 pm

  Review by m&m for The Rough Guide to Tanzania (Rough Guides)
  Rating:
  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.

• 3. Anonymous  |  July 31st, 2010 at 10:39 pm

  Review by for The Rough Guide to Tanzania (Rough Guides)
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  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.

• 4. Douglas Jorgesen  |  July 31st, 2010 at 10:59 pm

  Review by Douglas Jorgesen for The Rough Guide to Tanzania (Rough Guides)
  Rating:
  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.

• 5. Kishan Iyer  |  July 31st, 2010 at 11:21 pm

  Review by Kishan Iyer for The Rough Guide to Tanzania (Rough Guides)
  Rating:
  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.

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