🚆 Trains
Dar es Salaam → Nakonde (Zambia border) via Mbeya
TAZARA
The legendary railway through the Southern Highlands to Zambia.
Built with Chinese help in the 1970s as the Uh Railway, the TAZARA line runs 1,860 km from the Indian Ocean to Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia, climbing through Mikumi's acacia country, the Uluguru foothills and the tea highlands around Mbeya before reaching the Nakonde border. It is a proper long-distance railway: dining car, changing landscapes, and a carriage-full of traders, students and the occasional overlander. Most tourists ride the Dar-Mbeya stretch by day, breaking in Mbeya for the southern parks and Lake Malawi, or continuing to the border for northern Zambia.
- Operator
- TAZARA
- Frequency
- 2x weekly
- Typical duration
- About 46 hours to the border
- Price range
- $20-60
- Luggage
- About 40 kg in sleeper; excess charged per kg
Service classes
Booking information
☎ Reservations at the TAZARA booking office on Nelson Mandela Road in Dar es Salaam or via tazarasite.com. Book sleeper class several days ahead; bring your passport - it doubles as your ticket ID.
Good to know
Eat before boarding and carry water and snacks - the dining car is basic and shops at stops are hit-and-miss. Sleepers have linen but a silk liner helps. Immigration formalities happen at Nakonde/Tunduma, often at night. The scenic value peaks in the first daylight hours out of Dar.
Times and fares are curated guidelines, not a live timetable. Always
confirm before you travel.