Tanzania
Mwanza
Granite boulders the size of cathedrals balance over Lake Victoria's shore.
The boulders got here first: granite the size of buildings, balanced over Lake Victoria's shore, with Tanzania's second city built around and between them. Bismarck Rock teeters over the ferry channel like a dare.
Mwanza is Tanzania's second-largest city and the Lake Victoria basin's commercial capital, built through a landscape of colossal granite tors that give it a silhouette no other Tanzanian city owns. The morning fish market by the ferry terminal is the atmospheric place to eat, lakeside kitchens grill and curry the Nile perch and tilapia, and the city gates Rubondo, Ukerewe and the western Serengeti. Mid-year dryness suits the lake best, with a short second window after the new year.
Solo
Solo city travellers can connect Mwanza’s granite landmarks with markets, ferries and a reputable Sukuma programme.
Couple
Couples can leave Bismarck Rock for lakefront working life without reducing Mwanza to one postcard.
Friends
Friends can share ferries, fish-market food and cultural visits across the Rock City’s steep neighbourhoods.
- Granite tors the size of buildings frame the whole city.
- Bismarck Rock balances over the ferry channel, the city's emblem.
- The morning fish market by the terminal is the real Mwanza table.
- The city gates Rubondo, Ukerewe and the Serengeti's western corridor.
Lakeside kitchens serve Nile perch and tilapia grilled, fried or curried in coconut.
The morning fish market near the ferry terminal is the atmospheric place to eat it.
Ioannina
Greece
Ali Pasha's lake fortress — silversmith workshops and Ottoman mosques on an island reached by boat.
Visby
Sweden
Ruined medieval churches rise from rose gardens inside three kilometres of fortress wall.
Takamatsu
Japan
The udon capital, where you carry your own bowl and queue before the doors open.
Beppu
Japan
Steam rising from every crack in the ground in a city that boils from below.
Usambara Mountains
Tanzania
Cloud forest called the Galápagos of Africa gave the world the African violet.
Olmoti Crater
Tanzania
A waterfall slips out of a grassy crater where cattle graze beside eland.
Ngorongoro Crater
Tanzania
A collapsed volcano holds its own weather, its own herds, and Maasai cattle besides.
Tarangire National Park
Tanzania
Elephants in their hundreds crowd a shrinking river beneath thousand-year baobabs.