Bagamoyo Historical Tour - Everyday

It was a fantastic experience ever

An unforgettable experience in Dar es Salaam with Dove Adventure! I recently spent three days (January 23rd–25th, 2026) in Dar es Salaam, and the experience was top-notch, thanks to Dove Adventure. I coordinated everything with Annastancia, who provided excellent service from start to finish. One of the highlights was their recommendation to visit Bagamoyo on the 24th—an extraordinary experience made even better by our guide there, Idrisa Mtoro. His knowledge and passion really brought the history to life. I also want to give a special mention to Derick Mosa, our driver-guide for the entire three days. He was professional, reliable, and overall excellent. I highly recommend this agency to anyone visiting Tanzania. Professional, well-organized, and truly memorable!

Our Guide ZAHARAN was extremely engaging, informative, and professional‼️ first he took us to Prison Island and give us an education about that island and found a spectacular place for us to snorkel followed by boat ride back to the mainland and a very informative tour of Stonetown with a delicious Swahili lunch‼️

Fantastic Dove trip yesterday to Bagamoyo. The guidebooks don’t do justice to the town’s history, beauty or atmosphere: the Kaole ruins date back to the 13th century but the area feels like a much more ancient settlement, while the busy fishing beach and cargo port is a mixture of modern and traditional and the Roman Catholic Mission is beautifully tranquil: if you’re lucky you may hear a choir practicing in the church grounds, as we did. The buildings associated with Zanzibar and Tanzania’s slaving history are haunting, though for what should be monuments of international importance, quite shockingly badly maintained in some cases. Guide Sadik is equally at ease introducing an attraction or leaving you to explore places and features on your own, and is happy to answer all questions: if you are interested in something specific he’ll be happy to angle your tour toward this. There’s also a delicious lunch, the odd shopping opportunity and a comfortable drive there and back courtesy of Derick (despite the hair-raising evening traffic in Mbezi beach and Mikocheni – some of the antics there break records, even for Dar!)
We’ve been on several Dove expeditions before and always found them engrossing – the crew really pay attention to the details that bring Tanzania alive for visitors, not always easy around Dar es Salaam, where folk are accustomed to tourists having a cursory look before making for the safari parks. However, these tours really get under the surface of the area. Thanks again, all.

This was one of the best and most comprehensive historical tours I have taken. Not only did I have a knowledgeable and engaging guide, but the content and context of Bagamoyo’s history and its placement in Tanzania. History was so fascinating and captivating. I would absolutely recommend this tour to anyone visiting Dar Es Salaam as a way to better appreciate the complex colonial history of Tanzania.

My third Dove Adventure tour, this time in the capable hands of guide Sadik and friendly driver Jimmy. Jimmy picked me up from the apartment at 8am and proved to be an excellent companion for the 2 hour drive from Dar to Bagamoyo, patiently indulging this happy bird watcher by stopping several times as we neared our destination so I could check out the beautiful Carmine Bee-eaters that were perched on cables overhead. We met Sadik, who knows his local history inside out, at the Caravan Serai museum where he explained the town's former role as a locus of the slave trade in the region and later as capital of German East Africa. We then had a packed day visiting the Kaole Ruins, the Old Boma, the Bagamoyo Museum, and the Roman Catholic seminary and church - from which emanated the joyous sound of a children's choir singing in multi-part harmonies. We stopped for lunch - I had a tasty plate of Tanzanian pilau - at one of Sadik's favourite eateries, and finished up the day with a visit to the beach to see the local fishermen in action. The drive back took three hours through the Saturday evening Dar rush hour, and I was dropped back at the apartment just before 9pm, exhausted and satisfied. Once again, highly recommend Dove Adventure tours!

In Bagamoyo the little old thing that remains is in ruined or semi ruined condition, so your visit is absolutely expendable.

I was in Tanzania in February which is a bit of a slow time so I was the only person on the tour and got to ask a ton of questions! Derick picked me up from my hotel in the city center of Dar Es Salaam for the 90 minute drive to Bagamoyo. I really enjoyed the ride out and it's a great opportunity to see how big the city is, see how people live, and catch some other sites like the Tanzanite bridge. Sadik was my guide in Bagamoyo. He was born and raised there and was very knowledgable. He took me to all the historical sites like the Kaole ruins, Old Boma, the Old German Fort and the Mission and was patient while I took photos. I was pleasantly surprised that he also took me around the city's modern cultural sites including the fish market, a school, and the downtown area. Both Derick and Sadik made the tour very comfortable and enjoyable. I even forgot a camera filter in the car and Derick was kind enough to bring it back to my hotel the next day. I don't recommend doing that, but really appreciated their graciousness the whole day. I learned a lot of history during this tour and highly recommend it if you're into that!

We expected a private tour for 4 but were in a shuttle bus for 10 and that was fine with six other lovely people. Bagamoyo is a long uncomfortable ride from Dar Es Salaam and our tour guide, although knowledgeable, spewed facts and history along the way, but was unresponsive to questions asked by the visitors. The ruins themselves, were just not worth the ride, nor were the stops along the way on the return drive. The poverty along the way was heartbreaking, but there was little discussion about the humanity. The other issue was that Viator had booked had booked everyone at different price points, and then a couple just hopped on the bus and paid significantly less than everyone else.

Very well organized and executed. Our guide Sadik was very knowledgeable about the history of Tanzania and Bagamoya incl. nature, economics and actual pollitics, much more than expected.