Travel to Pangani and Tanga

an authentic backwater atmosphere

Pangani and Tanga is an attractive coastal area, the most northerly stretch of the Indian Ocean Coast of Tanzania.

This area is relatively off the beaten track and yet represents a viable and, in many ways, rather attractive alternative to the much more popular Zanzibar Island.

The area has lots of space, in parts there are virtually endless palm-fringed beaches with barely any development, interspersed with mysterious mangrove forests and river deltas, whilst offshore there are sandbanks and coral reefs.

The towns and villages along the coast are modestly interesting and the whole place has the kind of relaxed local atmosphere that one finds in this kind of quiet backwater.

There are some really interesting lodge options in the area. Virtually all of them are frontier-style places, mostly owner-operated, often quirky and uncommercial, small-scale, personable and considerably lower priced than equivalent properties on Zanzibar. The downside is that they do have the potential for variable in their levels of service and that they do not generally offer very high levels of conventional comforts.

There are plenty of activities to keep you busy, with most of the good lodges offering diving, snorkelling, sailing and kayaking. Some also offer mountain-biking, horse-riding and cultural visits to local towns and villages. If you stay in the Pangani area it is possible to do motorboat safari along the river.

The diving in this area is not generally considered to be of the highest order, but this may be that it is yet to be properly explored. Certainly we have heard rumours of decent sites, but we doubt that they will measure up to the best reefs off Zanzibar, Pemba, Mafia and Fanjove.

Another slight disappointment in this area is that the hinterland that backs the palm-lined coastal strip is dominated by large-scale agriculture. Not the worst backdrop by any means, but a reminder that the area is not really off the map, there’s some really significant commerce here.

Seasonality

The climate in Pangani and Tanga is tropical, with predominantly hot, humid and sunny conditions.

There is rain on most days of the year, usually taking the form of light showers. During the Nov-Dec and Mar-May rainy seasons these can turn into heavy and persistent downpours.

There can also be very strong winds during the May-Jun early dry season period.
The best times down on the coast are therefore considered to be Jul-Oct and Jan-Mar, when there is usually slightly less rain and wind.

Unfortunately these best periods happen to coincide with the two peak seasons for visitor traffic, although that is far less of an issue here than on Zanzibar Island.

Getting there

The vast majority of visitors to the Pangani and Tanga arrive via the international airports at Dar es Salaam or Kilimanjaro, from where there are regular scheduled light aircraft services into the local airstrips.

Once in the area it is usual to travel around by guided overland transfers.

There are options to travel down from the towns of Arusha (safari) and Moshi (trekking) to Tanga by local bus, which is considerably less expensive. But we have experienced such awful problems with this connection in the past (most notably with baggage being stolen) that we no longer recommend it. Instead we occasionally do the journey by guided overland transfer, but since this works out to a similar price to flying, those occasions are rare and tend to be limited to people who want to visit specific niche locations along that route.

Where to stay

The Pangani and Tanga area has only a limited range of accommodation options.
In Pangani the stand-out option amongst a cluster of mainly lower cost properties is The Tides, a long established and relatively upmarket beach option.

The main option in the Tanga area is the rather fabulous Fish Eagle Point, one of the most characterful and remote beach lodges on the whole of this coast.

inherently lacks the island vibe