Nightclubs and bars in Tanzania

I stayed in Novotel Mount Meru, which is quite good, nice people, good food.
In Arusha itself there are several possibilities to hang out. Bars, clubs and restaurants. Let people advise you before going on an expedition on your own. This can end up frustrating.
Room rates go from $ 100 to $ 155.

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If you want a truly African experience regarding night life, try this disco. It's as one would expect, basic, dark and the tape deck is even cooled by a fan propped over it to prevent it over heating. Resourceful people yes! Nothing stops them from enjoying life and unlike us very spoiled people from the rich western world, throwing away the deck to purchase another is not an option.
A lively and fun experience!

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One of my favourite night time escapades (while still keeping it clean and in accordance with a family site!), is to watch the sky at night. The first time I was in Sub-Saharan Africa, I found the sky so absolutely amazing, I’d never seen the sky look so huge. With no light pollution around, the sky seems to reach all the way down to the horizon, and the stars are so much brighter than they are back home. Try it for yourself and see. It is absolutely breathtaking!

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You may also find that lodges will encourage night time visitors, by baiting them. I have seen this on a few occasions, with a leg of lamb being hung from a tree to attract leopards, breadcrumbs being placed on tables on the roof top terrace to entice bush babies and such like, or bananas smeared on tree trunks. I have seen people feed monkeys through slats in the windows from restaurants as well, although this is not recommended as some monkeys can have quite a severe bite! Be careful with walking around lodge grounds at night – some places have armed guards to escort you back to your room, in fear of wild visitors. Once David walked around the courtyard/car park of a lodge to try and find some staff in the middle of the night for a minor emergency, only to be told in the morning that the previous night there had been a lion in that same car park!

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Many camps and lodge grounds have night time visitors to look out for. On my first camping safari a few years ago, I was woken in the night by the guy in the next tent going to the loo. He seemed to make such a lot of noise back in the tent, rustling with plastic bags and shuffling about, I was secretly cursing him. This time I didn’t shout though, which I was very glad about the following morning. I must have gone back to sleep again without realising it, and it wasn’t the guy in the tent next door making all that noise, it was a jackal rummaging through the rubbish bin! Oops. In the Serengeti we were told to look out for wild animals if we needed to visit the loo in the night, and especially to shine the torch under the vehicles. Not sure what I would have done if a pair of eyes had stared back at me! I must confess I was a tad nervous when making my nightly trip to the loo. Another time, in another camp, in another country, I was making my solo trip to the bush toilet (down a path some distance away from the camp), when my torch picked out two eyes in the pitch darkness, a few metres off the path. Curiosity got the better of me (the eyes were close enough together to not be a large animal, so I figured I was reasonably safe), so I went off to investigate. It turned out to be a nightjar, and it gave me quite a start when it flew straight at me!

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Nightlife on safari is almost non-existent. You will probably find yourself going to bed at a time you may not have seen since your pre-teen days. We found that most evenings we were tucked up inside our sleeping bag by nine pm, as were everyone else in the camp. Out of courtesy to other guests, it is polite to keep any noise down after this time. In one camp we had the misfortune of being lumbered with an American group who insisted on playing games inside their tent after everyone else in the camp had settled down for the night. They were so noisy they didn’t even hear people asking politely if they could be a bit quieter. Eventually I lost my temper, and shouted at the top of my voice: “OY! CAN YOU KEEP THE NOISE DOWN PLEASE? PERHAPS YOU SHOULD HAVE GONE TO LAS VEGAS RATHER THAN SERENGETI!” That did the trick. The noise stopped immediately, and after a few muffled giggles, a quiet “sorry” was mumbled and the camp was quiet again until morning. Success!

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Some lodges have waterholes which may be floodlit at night. This is a good time to observe animals, as many animals are more active during the hours of darkness, at least initially. I have spent many an hour just gazing out at the waterhole, watching the comings and goings of the animal kingdom. Some lodges may offer a ‘wake-up’ service where you can put your name against whichever animal you are interested in, and if that particular species turns up at the waterhole, they’ll wake you. I think this is a great service to offer! That way you don’t have to spend half the night, staying up until 3am waiting for the elusive leopard to turn up, only to find it was his night off.

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Some lodges can arrange a night safari. We have done this a couple of times, and it is a completely different perspective to the day time game drives. Of course you don’t see as much as you would during the day, but I do think it is worth doing at least once, just for the experience. On one such drive, we found our vehicle surrounded by a huge herd of buffalo. We could only see the eyes of the nearest animals, but we could hear them chomping away all around us. It was totally surreal. By taking a night safari, you can spot a few of the more unusual nocturnal animals like foxes and bush babies for instance. Usually there are two rangers on night safaris, one who drives the car and one who uses a powerful spotlight to try and pick out animals. As I said, it is a totally different experience to a day time drive.