1 day · Day trip
Marangu Village, Waterfalls & Chagga Caves
A Chagga day on the lower slopes: a coffee farm, banana beer, the tunnels the Chagga hid in during the wars, and a waterfall fed straight off the Kilimanjaro glaciers.
Is this trip for you?
Trip type
Private departure
A single day, planned around your pickup time and your interests, with your own vehicle and guide.
Ages
All ages
Day trips are the easiest way to travel with small children or with anyone who would rather not sleep under canvas.
Fitness
Easy to moderate
Most day trips involve an hour or two of walking on uneven ground. The Kilimanjaro day hike is the exception and asks for a full day on your feet.
Group size: 1 to 7 travellers per vehicle
Day by day.
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1
Marangu
About forty minutes from Moshi, Marangu is a typical village of the Chagga, Tanzania's third-largest ethnic group. We see the traditional houses and visit a coffee farmer's family, who take you through the process from picking to the cup. There is banana beer too, a local brew worth trying once. Then a tour of the Chagga caves, the dark tunnel labyrinth where the Chagga lived underground for long stretches during wars. The day finishes at the Marangu waterfalls, whose water comes off Kilimanjaro's glaciers, with an easy walk through rainforest where colobus and blue monkeys, tropical birds and chameleons are all common.
- Overnight
- Your own hotel
- Where
- Marangu village and falls
- Driving
- About 40 minutes each way from Moshi
- Meals
- Lunch
Where you sleep.
Not applicable
Day trips return to your own hotel in Moshi or Arusha the same evening. If you have not booked one yet, tell us and we will suggest somewhere in the right part of town for your pickup.
We book against availability for your dates rather than naming a property we may not be able to get you into. Your written quotation names every lodge and camp before you pay anything.
What is included
- All park entrance and administrative fees
- A packed lunch
- 1.5 litres of drinking water
- Transfers from and to your hotel
- 4x4 transport for the day
- Professional English-speaking guide
- Staff fees
Not included
- International airfares and departure taxes
- Visa fees
- All items of a personal nature
- Tips and gratuities for your driver and guide
- Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks
When to go.
Year-round
Every day trip on this page runs in any month. Waterfalls are at their most impressive during and just after the rains, and the Chemka springs are warm whatever the weather is doing outside.
Questions about this trip.
Are the caves claustrophobic?
They are narrow, low and dark in places, and not everyone enjoys them. The rest of the day works perfectly well without going in.
Is this the same as the Materuni coffee tour?
No. Materuni is a bigger waterfall and a longer coffee process; Marangu adds the caves, the banana beer and a village that sits right at the Kilimanjaro park gate.
On this route
Where you will be.
Compare
Other day trip journeys.
Materuni Waterfall & Coffee Tour
The best single day out from Moshi: a green walk to a waterfall, then a Chagga coffee tour where you take the beans from tree to cup yourself.
- Materuni waterfall and cold pool
- Pick, roast and pound your own coffee
- Chagga village and lunch
Pricing on request View itinerary
Chemka Hot Springs
A spring-fed pool of clear turquoise water under fig roots, about an hour from Moshi. The right thing to do the day after a climb.
- Clear, warm spring water
- Fig tree roots and rope swing
- Picnic lunch at the pool
Pricing on request View itinerary
Arusha National Park Day Trip
Game drive, walking safari and canoeing in one day, in a park that sits under Mount Meru less than an hour from Arusha.
- Walking safari with an armed ranger
- Canoeing on the Momella lakes
- Colobus monkeys in the forest
Pricing on request View itinerary
Plan it with us
Make this itinerary yours.
Add days, drop a park, change the pace. This is a starting point, not a fixed departure.