Moshi City

Moshi is a town in northern Tanzania, near the Kenyan border. It’s known as a gateway to Kilimanjaro National Park, home to Africa’s highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro. Trails run up the mountain’s cloud-ringed, snow-capped dome, through alpine forests and meadows home to elephants and leopards. The city was originally established as a military camp by the Germans it quickly developed into a town, thanks to its railway station and the emerging coffee trade in the region.

Moshi is a melting pot in all senses: Western supermarkets find their place next to the colorful local markets, the three main religions; Christians, Muslims, and Hindus live peacefully next to one another, and local and international cafes and restaurants offering dishes from all over the world competing against the local cuisine.

This tour allows you to mingle with the local people to see their daily activities at the local market (Farmer’s market), visit some souvenir shops, and restaurants with a local dishes, and then end up at a historical area – the Old Railway station. The trip lasts about 5 hours to 10 hours.

The tour will take you to all these places giving you an insight into everyday life in Moshi. You will have the chance to taste different types of local food and on bright days you will enjoy the stunning view of Kilimanjaro.

You’ll dive right into the bustling daily life of Moshi, cycling at a leisurely pace to the Majengo district of Moshi, which is the heartland of Moshi craft. Check out the dizzying array of local crafts and hand-made goods artily arranged at the roadside. From here you’ll pass through the small farms and family houses of the Msaranga area, taking in the daily activities of schools, mosques, and churches as you ride by.

Your journey can take you through fields of growing rice, one of Tanzania’s staple foods and you will have an opportunity of helping out the local field workers. You’ll certainly gain an appreciation of how much hard work goes into a sack of rice! Enjoy the product of your (albeit short) labor with a tasty lunch, hosted by a friendly local family. You can enjoy pilau, a traditional rice-based Tanzanian meal, as you chill out with your host family on their shady veranda.

You may arrange a bike ride through the Rau Forest, a jewel of protected tropical woodland, alive with birdsong and the calls of animals. Keep an eye out for the black-and-white faces of colobus monkeys peering curiously at you as you go by. You won’t be the first to wonder just how fluffy a monkey tail can be.

Once through the shady canopy of the Rau Forest, you can arrange a visit stop to the old railway station. You might feel you’ve stepped back one hundred years to German colonial times; close your eyes and you can still sense the energy and bustle echoing down the century. With a little bit of luck, you’ll have a great view of Kilimanjaro while sipping a cold beer from the railway station bar, a lovely final stop before your going back into town where you can finally rest your weary but happy legs.