There are a lot of touristic activities to do in Tanga. On your visit, you will enjoy some of the most favorite adventure around Tanga region. Some of the attractions and activities around Tanga includes;
Explore the Amboni Caves
Twenty minutes north of Tanga town, there’s a very small sign on the left side of the road: “Department of Antiquities – Amboni Caves”. The rough sandy track winds through scrub and low-hanging tulip trees, through the yards of several small houses, and dead ends in the thick copse of fig trees.
The caves are considered the “jewel in Tanga’s crown” – in fact, the only formal tourist destination. But there’s never anyone there. You will have the guide and the deep, creepy limestone caves to yourself. The system has never been fully explored, and so stories abound of its extent, which could be hundreds of miles or only a few.
You will listen to the tale of a couple who went missing when trying to find their dog. This is one of many you will hear on the 30-minute, torchlight-only tour. You may want to bring your own incense and rosewater (and prayers) to make an offering at the small pagan shrine near the entrance. Outside, there is a small gift shop selling the usual trinkets. Please tip the guide.
Trek Usambara Mountains.
Enjoy a wonderful day Lushoto to Mtae (The World View Point )trek through the forests, villages, and farmland, visit and sleep in a local home, and experience the traditional life of the shambaa people as you enjoy Tanga Cultural Tourism Enterprise (CTE)
Visit Toten Island
Toten Island is situated off the Tanga harbour in Tanzania. It is within the Tanga Bay. The Island contains ruins of two mosques and tombs. The name comes from the German word for “dead bodies” alluding to the numerous graves on the island.
Soni Falls Tour
A walk to Soni falls will reward you with a great nature walk with a stunning view of the surrounding environment as you enjoy the un winding country side view. The falls are superb and it is fun to walk up-to the fall.
Wander through the European cemetery
Any taxi will take you. If you go by bike, ride up to the Bombo Hospital, take a right, poke around the sandy lanes behind the Popatlal School, and you will find this quiet, overgrown place.
During colonial times, the graveyard was reserved exclusively for Europeans and is thus a testimony of the white experience in equatorial Africa: graves for numerous infants, women who died in childbirth, men who succumbed to malaria. One section is given over to the British soldiers, mostly from the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, who died in the appallingly executed 1914 Battle of Tanga. (The German soldiers who died are in another graveyard; the Indian regiment has been altogether forgotten.)
The graveyard holds one great mystery: seven crew members of an American plane that went down off the Tanga coast in 1956 are buried here. It’s a very quiet place indeed.
Safari to Saadani national park
Get lost the naturally wilderness and beach mixed feeling of the Saadani National Park where even the wild animals do enjoy and appreciate being on the beach. It is the only wildlife sanctuary in Tanzania bordering the sea. This park is an exceptional biodiversity and the location makes it very unique. You can enjoy the safari for few days to unwind at the beach combined with games drives and guided walks up to the wami river.
Take an architectural bike tour
The best way to see the town’s lovely, eclectic architecture is quite interesting through a bike tour. Rent one of the heavy Chinese bikes from Mikey at the central market and simply peddle off. He won’t expect you back until 4pm.
South of town, along the maze of sandy tracks of the Ras Kazone Peninsula, you will find fabulous Art Deco mansions, some crumbling, some lovingly maintained, and testifying to the Tanga’s glory days of sisal. Close to the sea, these stand side-by-side with the imposing colonial houses of the higher ranking members of the British Empire. The regimented civil service meant that lower ranks had incrementally smaller houses, further and further away from the ocean view.
The original Bombo Hospital, just off the main drag to Ras Kazone, looks like a castle in a Grimms fairy tale. Built by the Germans (when it was their colony, 1889-1918), the hospital has long since fallen into disrepair, a home for swallows and swifts. Stand in the empty halls, amid the creepers, and quote Shelley’s Ozymandias.
In town, examples of much older Arab-influenced buildings abound: ornate mahogany balconies, four-foot walls, coloured-glass windows and heavy, dark doors, courtyards where cats slink in the deep shade. If you get hot with all the biking, look for the shade of a mango tree: likely, there will be someone selling cups of hot, sweet espresso and slices of delicious kashata, a kind of peanut fudge.
Tour the Tongoni Ruins
The Tongoni Ruins are 15th century ruins of a mosque and forty tombs in Tongoni, a small fishing village 17 km south of Tanga in Tanzania. The area was a different place four to five centuries ago. Contrary to its almost unnoticed presence today, it was a prosperous and a respected trading centre during the 15th century. Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese sailor, first visited Tongoni in April 1498. He had the opportunity to eat the local oranges, which he said were better than those available in Portugal. He made a second visit the following year, and spent fifteen days in Tongoni.
Search for smugglers in Pangani
Once a grand port serving China and Arabia with slaves, ivory and spices, Pangani has fallen under the spell of heat and fast-growing vegetation: you might think you have stepped onto the set for Sleeping Beauty. For the past two centuries, the world has passed Pangani by.
The ferry crossing the town’s namesake river has only one functioning engine, so it pirouettes slowly across the current. There is nothing to see, hardly anywhere to eat, but you can wander quietly among the ancient, crumbling ruins and under the looming fig trees.
The town is rumoured to be a smugglers’ haven, and it’s easy to imagine canoes scuttling up and down river at night ferrying contraband: cheap electronics from Dubai coming in, plundered hardwoods and gems going out. The town lies 50km south of Tanga; half-way, there are two excellent small hotels with beaches, great food, and camping: the Peponi Beach Resort and the Pangani Beach Resort.
Urithi Tanga Museum
Tanga’s old boma has been rehabilitated, and now houses this small but worthwhile museum, with historical photos and artefacts from the area.
Visit Sisal Plantations & Processing Factory
The sisal industry is the oldest commercially organised agricultural undertaking and one of the longest surviving agricultural industries in Tanzania. Introduced in 1893 by Dr. Richard Hindorf a German Agronomist, as a commercial crop, the sisal industry grew to become the most extensive commercial agriculture and primary processing in Central Africa, spreading to Kenya, Mozambique and Angola. Peak production was reached in 1964 when Tanzania alone produced 234,000 tons grown in Tanga, Morogoro, Coast, Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Singida, Iringa, Mwanza, Shinyanga, Mara, Mtwara and Lindi regions, virtually throughout Tanzania.
Sisal has played a significant role in the country’s economy being the largest foreign exchange earner in Tanzania up to the 70’s and the largest employer providing employment to over 1,000,000 permanent and casual workers. Sisal is the only crop where Tanzania was the largest producer in the world, producing the best quality.
Explore Tanga
Arm yourself with a copy of William Boyd’s An Icecream War and Ross Anderson’s The Battle of Tanga, 1914. Boyd will set the narrative mood; Anderson provides a brilliant blueprint of British military stupidity: “one of the best-known events of one of the more obscure campaigns of the First World War.”
The battle, fought between 2 and 5 November, 1914, was a fiasco – for the Brits. The many, glaring mistakes – abysmal planning, under-trained Indian troops, gross arrogance – exposed endemic problems in the British War Office.
Sadly, those in command chose not to pay the slightest heed, and went on the repeat the errors of Tanga in Europe for four more years. General Arthur Aitken, known for his pomposity, ordered four companies of men ashore from British craft, selecting the least favorable landing: the thick mangrove swamps and high cliffs of Ras Kazone, and this at low tide. In the mangroves, the men were set upon by bees, and many of the Indian troops drowned. The sad farce ended with more than 800 British casualties.
When Aitken retreated, he left behind 455 rifles, 500,000 pounds of ammunition, medical supplies and other equipment: a great boost to the poorly resourced Germans. Anderson’s book will take you to the landing spots, as well as key positions briefly occupied by the British: most of the old houses are still standing, though one is occupied by goats.
Boat tour
Tanga Region is a great place to rent a boat. You can rent or charter a small motorboat, sailboat, houseboat, or even a yacht. Take in the beautiful scenery and spend quality time with your friends and family while having the perfect day on the water. Enjoy a wonderful vacation exploring the sea on you visit to Tanga, having a beautiful time as well at the beaches.