Pick up African crafts and curios at the most popular tourist centres. Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Stone Town on Zanzibar are dotted with curio shops, markets and bazaars, as well as main roads near parks and reserves, and the coast roads behind beach resorts, all have plenty of roadside stalls

Items to buy include African drums, batiks, basket-ware, soapstone knick-knacks, handmade chess sets, paintings of Maasai tribes and Serengeti landscapes in the popular Tingatinga style, and large wooden carvings of animals or salad bowls fashioned from a single piece of teak, mninga or ebony.

Maasai items such as beaded jewellery, decorated gourds and the distinctive red-checked blankets worn by all Maasai men make good souvenirs. Kangas and kikois are sarongs worn by women and men 

These are made into other items including clothes, cushion covers and bags. In Zanzibar, find old tiles, antique bowls and the famous carved wooden Zanzibar chests (once used by the Sultans to store their possessions, but today ornate replicas), and pick up packets of Zanzibar’s famous spices in Stone Town, as well as on a spice tour.

A Tanzanian specialty is the semi-precious stone called tanzanite, which ranges from deep blue to light purple and it is only found around Arusha. Tanzanite jewellery can be seen in upmarket curio and jewellery shops in Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar’s Stone Town.

Whilst most prices in shops are set, the exception include the curio shops where a little good-natured bargaining is possible, especially if it’s quiet or you are buying a number of things. Bargaining is very much expected in the street markets.