The Rough Guide to Tanzania (Rough Guides)

Rating:
Summary: not very precise
Review: I just bought this book to replace my old lonely planet, expecing to find new information on Tanzani. I have not traveled around Tanzania with this book in hand, so would like to leave the judgement on practicalities to those who have, but after quickly skimming it, I noticed the book contains quite a few factual mistakes. For instance the author says that Dar-es-Salaam is predominantly muslim, which is is completely wrong - Zanzibar is predominantly Muslim and possibly Bagamoyo but in Dar-es-Salaam the Christian-Muslim ratio is fifty-fifty at most, or he advises to bring cigarets for present if you are invited to a Tanzanian family (smoking population is really small, so it is not a common present), etc. A number of new but prominent shops/restaurants that were open since or before 2002 are also not there - Dar-es-Salaam is a quickly growing and changing city, so if the book is published in 2003 and misses new opening of 2002, it is not very up-to-date info. Swahili vocabulary/phrases section contains a number of basic mistakes (some phrases don't make sense). I wonder why such a widely used guidebook would not have someone who knows Swahili to check such basic things, which leaves me a bit sceptical about accuracy of other information.

Rating:
Summary: Your best bet
Review: I travelled to Tanzania with this guidebook in hand (as well as others), and it was by far the best when compared to similar guidebooks on the area. I agree with the other reviewer that there may be some inaccuracies, but that is inherent in guidebooks. I personally found all of the restaurants, hotels, and shops that I visited based on information I found in the book to be accurate (Dar, Zanzibar, and Pemba). I cannot attest to the accuracy of the Swahili phrases, as I tended to learn more from people I met than I actually used from the book. If you are debating between guidebooks, I would recommend this one over the others (especially if you are travelling to Zanzibar and Pemba).