Most of Dar es Salaam's historic sights are packed into a small area of the old city between Kivukoni Front, Sokoine Drive and Samora Avenue, which makes them easy to see on foot in a morning. Start at the National Museum and House of Culture when it opens at 09:30, then step next door into the Botanical Gardens, laid out in 1893. From there it is a short walk to the Askari Monument, unveiled in 1927, and on to the harbour front, where St Joseph's Cathedral and Azania Front Lutheran Church recall the years when the city was the capital of German East Africa.
The city's other big draw is the sea. Bongoyo Island and Mbudya Island are uninhabited islands in the Dar es Salaam Marine Reserve, with beaches, snorkelling and coconut crabs, and boats leave from the Slipway on the Msasani Peninsula, with Mbudya also reached from the north coast. Go on a weekday if you can, pay the reserve fee, and take water and sun cream. The Village Museum, north of the centre on Bagamoyo Road, needs a separate trip by taxi. Visit the churches outside service times, dress modestly, and walk the city centre in the morning or late afternoon to avoid the midday heat.
8 places · Updated November 12, 2026
Our top 3 attractions in Dar es Salaam
Attraction
Tanzania's first modern museum, on Shaaban Robert Street beside the Botanical Gardens, covering human origins, ethnography, colonial history, art and natural history.
View details — National Museum and House of CultureAttraction
An open-air museum founded in 1967 north of the centre, with more than 30 traditional Tanzanian houses, craft stalls, music and dance, and a restaurant.
View details — Village Museum (Kijiji cha Makumbusho)Attraction
A 1927 bronze statue of an African soldier on a roundabout at the centre of downtown Dar es Salaam, honouring the askari and carriers of the First World War.
View details — Askari MonumentAttraction
A Gothic-style Catholic cathedral built by German missionaries between 1897 and 1902 on Sokoine Drive, facing the harbour, and seat of the Archdiocese of Dar es Salaam.
View details — St Joseph’s CathedralAttraction
A Bavarian-style Lutheran church built by German missionaries in 1898 on the Kivukoni waterfront, with a red-tiled roof and belfry, now the diocese's cathedral.
View details — Azania Front Lutheran ChurchAttraction
Shady colonial-era gardens on Samora Avenue, laid out in 1893 by Franz Stuhlmann, with indigenous and exotic plants including the Seychelles coco-de-mer palm.
View details — Dar es Salaam Botanical GardensAttraction
An uninhabited island in the Dar es Salaam Marine Reserve, about 30 minutes by boat from the Slipway, with a beach, snorkelling, forest trails and coconut crabs.
View details — Bongoyo IslandAttraction
A protected, uninhabited island north of Bongoyo in the Dar es Salaam Marine Reserve, reached by speedboat from the Kunduchi coast or by boat from the Slipway.
View details — Mbudya Island