Dar es Salaam Village Museum and Waterfront

The Makumbusho Village Museum (1966), An Open Air Museum Of Traditional Homesteads Of Tanzania'S Ethnic Groups, Including Sukuma, Maasai And Chagga Houses, With Dance And Drumming Shows. Nearby, The Coco Beach Promenade And Evening Street Food On Msasani Bay Are The City'S Weekend Meeting Place. · Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam

The Village Museum, called Makumbusho, is an open-air museum in Kijitonyama, about 10 km north of the Dar es Salaam centre, founded in 1966. About 16 life-size homesteads show how Tanzanian peoples build and live, among them the Sukuma, Haya, Makonde, Chagga, Hehe, Maasai and a Zanzibar Swahili house. Guides walk you through the thatch, the poles, the granaries and the customs behind each one. On weekends there is traditional music and dance, and a craft shop sells Makonde ebony carvings and tinga tinga paintings. Coco Beach, the city's seaside promenade at Oyster Bay, is a short ride away and fills with families on weekend evenings. The honest picture: this is a modest city stop of a couple of hours, not a reason to fly to Tanzania, and Dar es Salaam is mainly a gateway. It suits a day before a flight or a ferry to Zanzibar, and it is best on a weekend when the dancers perform. Plan around the traffic, which can eat hours, and add the National Museum downtown if you want more history. Entry is cheap by safari standards.

Open-air museum with reconstructed traditional houses of Tanzanian peoples in Kijitonyama, about 10 km north of the city centre, near the Coco Beach promenade on Msasani Bay, Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

The museum is open daily in daytime hours, roughly morning to late afternoon, and weekend dance shows run in the afternoon. Coco Beach has no closing time and is busiest on weekend evenings. Hours shift between seasons and holidays, so confirm with the museum before you go.

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