The Usambara Mountains

Size Part of the Eastern Arc mountains

Best time June to October, and December to February

Getting there About 7 hrs by road east of Arusha

Location Lushoto, Tanga Region

The Eastern Arc mountains have been forested continuously for something like thirty million years, isolated from each other and from the rest of Africa. That isolation is why so much here lives nowhere else: chameleons, birds, trees, and the wild African violet that every windowsill in Europe is descended from.

What you do here is walk. Between villages, through the forest at Magamba, out to the Irente viewpoint where the ground simply stops and the Maasai plain opens up a thousand metres below. It is cool, it is green, and it is about as far from a game drive as Tanzania gets.

The Usambaras are a long way east — roughly seven hours from Arusha — so they suit people with time, or people travelling on towards the coast. Two or three nights is right.

Where it is

How to get there

By road — about 7 hours east of Arusha, turning up the mountain at Mombo. The last hour is a climb in switchbacks.
On the way through — a natural stop between the northern parks and the coast, rather than a there-and-back trip.

Best time to visit June to October, and December to February

See all destinations

What to see

Attractions

01

The Irente viewpoint

The escarpment edge above Lushoto, where the ground simply stops and the Maasai plain opens up a thousand metres below. An easy walk from town.

02

Magamba rainforest

Old-growth forest with colobus, chameleons found nowhere else, and enough birds to justify the trip on their own.

03

Village-to-village walking

Terraced hillsides, market days and footpaths between villages. The reason people come here rather than the reason they stay.

04

Amani Nature Reserve

In the East Usambaras, further from Lushoto. One of the most biodiverse patches of forest on the continent, and almost nobody in it.

What to do

Activities

Guided walks

Half-day and full-day routes with local guides, from viewpoint strolls to serious hill days between villages.

Birding and chameleons

Eastern Arc endemics in the forest reserves, and three-horned chameleons that live on this range and nowhere else on earth.

Farms and markets

Irente farm for cheese and bread, and the Lushoto market on the days it runs. Ordinary Tanzanian life at close range.

A break in the journey

The Usambaras sit between the northern circuit and the coast, which makes them a natural two nights on the way to Zanzibar or Pangani.

Itineraries

Trips that include The Usambara Mountains

6 days

Mountains to the coast

Arusha · Lushoto · Pangani or Zanzibar

Two nights walking in the hills, then down to the sea. For people who would rather not spend a week in a vehicle.

12 days

Safari, hills and beach

Tarangire · Ngorongoro · Serengeti · Lushoto · Zanzibar

The long version, with the Usambaras as the change of pace in the middle.

Shapes rather than fixed packages — every one of these is adjusted to your dates, your pace and the month you can travel before it is priced.

All safaris