On my Tanzania tour in September 2024 I had planned a short detour to Lushoto, as I wanted to visit the Usambara Mountains. My experience: It's a small cozy town with nice and helpful people and hiking through the landscape is great. The hotel complex is beautiful with many amenities and nicely furnished rooms. I especially enjoyed sitting outside on the terrace in front of my room in the evening. The breakfast is very rich and delicious. About the journey I was extremely unsure about bus timetables and how to book tickets. You can hardly find any reliable information or even timetables online. On site, however, it is quite easy to book a bus ticket (in my case from Moshi, but also from Arusha) and there is also a very comfortable direct bus from Lushoto to Dar es Salaam. The bus rides are quite long (from Moshi to Lushoto about 5 h in a very full bus and then to Dar es Salaam about 7 h), but also entertaining and you are rewarded with a very nice landscape view on the way from Mombo to Lushoto. The bus company from Lushoto to Dar es Salaam is Kiluwa. It makes several stops in Dar es Salaam and ends at the (huge) Mbezi Magufuli Bus Terminal. To buy a ticket, you need a Tanzanian mobile number, so it's best to get a sim card beforehand. You can book a guide for the hikes, which is worthwhile because there are many interesting “secret paths” through the forest. I had a guide, called Costa, he has a nice tourist office in the center and a store with handmade souvenirs at very fair prices. I am glad to have made this detour and would love to come back for a whole week, unfortunately I had only planned 2 full days, which was far too short.
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