Mto wa Mbu

About Mto wa Mbu

Mto wa Mbu meaning River of Mosquitoes in Swahili is a vibrant and culturally extraordinary small town sitting at the entrance gate to Lake Manyara National Park at the base of the Great Rift Valley escarpment in northern Tanzania, making it the first town most visitors pass through on the northern safari circuit after leaving Arusha. Despite its modest size, Mto wa Mbu is one of Tanzania's most ethnically diverse communities over 120 tribal groups from across the country have settled here over generations, drawn by the town's fertile volcanic soil irrigated by the Mto wa Mbu River, producing bananas, rice, mangoes, papaya and vegetables in extraordinary abundance for a semi-arid region. The town's famous cultural tourism programme offers guided village walks, local brewery visits, banana beer tastings, batik workshops and bicycle rides through the rice paddies and banana groves to the lakeshore. A lively curio market selling Maasai beadwork, Makonde carvings and Tingatinga paintings makes Mto wa Mbu the northern circuit's best stop for authentic Tanzanian crafts at fair prices.