Few travellers visit the south-eastern part of Tanzania adjacent to the Mozambique border, but this is where the famous makonde carvings originally came from (they've since been copied by artisans all over East Africa). It's also a beautiful part of the country. Getting there involves a series of bus journeys and overnight stays in the towns en route, but there's no shortage of transport. The first leg is a bus from Mbeya to Njombe, one of the highest and coldest parts of the country. Then it's on to the rowdy town of Songea, and beyond to the remote towns of Tunduru and Masai, on the Makonde Plateau itself. There's also a regular ferry between Dar es Salaam and Mtwara, near the plateau.

While most travellers do Zanzibar (Unguja), very few make the journey a little farther north to the laid-back island of Pemba, also part of the Zanzibar archipelago. It's not that there are no historic sites to visit, or a lack of good beaches, because there are plenty of these. No, the island is just a bit tricky because there's little public transport off the islands' main road. Jeepneys (jitney bus converted into a jeep) are on the increase however. Pemba's earliest ruins are those of Ras Mkumbu, on the peninsula west of Chake Chake, where the Shirazis settled about 1200 AD. To the east are the remains of a palace destroyed by the Portuguese in 1520. The island's other main attraction are the surrounding coral reefs, rated by many divers as the best in the world. There are flights from Zanzibar to Pemba every Wednesday, and the most reliable boat connections are between Zanzibar and Mkoani on the island's south-west end.

This huge, little-visited slab of wilderness is said to be the world's largest game reserve (at 54,600 sq km/21,294 sq mi). Largely untouched by people, estimates suggest it contains the world's largest concentration of elephant, buffalo, crocodile, hippo and hunting dog, as well as plenty of lion, rhino and antelope and thousands of dazzling bird species. One of the reserve's main features is the huge Rufiji River. In the northern end of the reserve is the lodge area of Stiegler's Gorge, which is spanned by a cable car. The most convenient way to get to Selous is to fly direct from Dar es Salaam. By land, there are no buses and hitching is virtually impossible - but the TAZARA line train goes as far as Fuga, on the edge of the reserve.