Travel Closer Tanzania - Tour Operator with a Difference

Local families

The heart of Travel Closer lies in the homes of local families and communities. For it was here that the beginnings of our project took place, conceived in the living rooms of friends and relatives to give a piece of Tanzania to every guest and visitor.

Your family home will be your “base” in Arusha. Rather than staying in comparatively expensive hotels, you can find with us a cheaper option but a much richer cultural experience.

Apart from providing budget accommodation, a true “Swahili” atmosphere and home cooking, home-stays in local families give you a peak behind the curtains of family life in Tanzania, as well as let you interact with its general citizens. You will be given the opportunity to participate in family meals, friend visits, walk around the local villages and markets and visit local bars and restaurants (you will not find these in your Lonely Planet!)

The traffic, however, is not all one-way. Home-stays allow families and local individuals to bring a piece of the outside world into their homes. This outside world is often unreachable to them due to obvious financial constraints, so they will surely be interested in what you have to say about your own country, background, culture and travels.

Our families are those of our trusted guides and porters themselves. In this way, if you chose to do a hike or safari with us it will be them you will go with. We find this is a proven way for clients to be part of the travelling crew and increase interaction with their guides.

The home-stays available are all in the outskirts of Arusha, situated a short minibus ride away from town or between 30 minutes and 1 hour by foot.

Accommodation includes simple sleeping quarters, meals and night security guard. Rooms are very basic and you will be sharing facilities with the rest of the family as well as eating local foods. Rates per night per person are the same throughout the year.

Rate per night, per person: USD 15

Homes-stays in tribal villages

The Masai are a welcoming lot. Pride for their traditions and culture, and an affable stubbornness has ensured that their customs and way of life have been affected little by the growing cosmopolitanism that often surrounds them.

In meeting these families you will see why they are so keen to hold on to their heritage. You will also see, despite this fact, just how openly and warmly they welcome “outside” guests into their homes.

The home-stays we arrange in traditional Masai villages are neither tourist sites nor “pretend” villages (as offered on many “cultural tours” by other operators). These are genuine families, many of them herders and farmers, living by their traditions like they have for many hundreds of years. Of course, the way of life has changed since then. Constraints put on their lifestyles through climate change and government authorities means few of them are still nomadic or even semi-nomadic. Still, they live in their traditional Masai huts congregated into family “bomas”, herding their cattle everyday to graze on fresh pastures.

During your stay you will learn about the Masai way of life. You will see how and what they eat, their rituals, beliefs and stories. You will always be accompanied by one of our friendly guides, who will act not only as your guide but also as an interpreter, since many of these families do not speak English or Swahili.

Villagers that take part in receiving guests are all part of the Travel Closer family and have all met most of our guides and organisers. The villages chosen are also ideally situated should you decide to combine your stay with of our hiking routes or safari itineraries.

All our tribal village home-stays are far from other towns, you will thus have to contribute to transport costs – either rent a safari vehicle from us or defy one of the many daladalas (minibuses) that take you nearer – unless of course it is already part of your itinerary.

Although accommodation is provided in tents only, you will be able to stay within the boma. The reason for this is simply that most families do not have spare mud huts for guests. In the near future, however, Travel Closer envisages building more quarters within the family properties to give guests a chance of sleeping in these typical Masai huts.

As with our local family stays, the rates include accommodation (with tent rent) and food, although guide charges and transport is separate.

Rate per night, per person: USD 15

Guide/interpreter per day: USD 55