Blantyre Travel Guide

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City Introduction

A trip to Malawi is a fantastic encounter with Africa and the continent’s magnificent scenery, culture and population. The country’s most significant and interesting cities to visit is the capital Lilongwe and the older city of Blantyre.

Blantyre to the south is among other Malawi’s economic locomotives, and this is also the place to visit the country’s national museum and Carlsberg’s brewery in Africa. Blantyre is named after the city in Scotland where David Livingstone was born. The city’s cathedral stands as a monument from that era.

During a visit to Malawi, beautiful Malawi Lake is also a natural stop on the journey with its many panoramas and activities. The lake is great like a sea in the country, and the natural beauty of the lake has another dimension in the water; it is the lake in the world with the greatest variety of species. Wildlife in abundance can be seen as well in national parks around country.

Top Attractions

  • St. Michael & All Angels Church: This impressive brick church was built in the years 1888-1891 by the Blantyre mission at the site of the area’s original Scottish mission.
  • National Museum: This is Malawi’s national museum, which exhibits various items from the country’s history. The exhibition ranges widely and includes everything from a royal ceremonial gun from the 16th century to modern means of transport.

Other Attractions

  • Mandala House: Built in 1882, Mandala House is the oldest preserved house in Malawi. It was built by the Mandala Company, founded in 1878 by brothers John and Frederick Moir of Scotland.
  • Blantyre Railway Station: Malawi’s railway history began in the early 1900s, when Blantyre, as the UK’s most important economic city and territory, was to be connected to the shipping traffic that left Chiromo and Lake Malawi, among others places.

Day Trips

  • Lake Malawi: Lake Malawi is Africa’s third largest lake and, along with the country’s national parks, is Malawi’s greatest natural attraction. The drive to the lake gives the opportunity to see the African landscape, and you can enjoy the view of the lake from eg the beautiful beaches at Senga.
  • Zomba: The city of Zomba was the first capital of first British Central Africa and since Nyasaland, named Malawi before independence in 1964. The city was also the capital of Malawi until 1974, when Lilongwe became the new capital of the country. In Zomba you can see a memorial to King’s African Rifles and enjoy nature on the so-called Zomba plateau.
  • Lilongwe: Lilongwe has been the capital of Malawi since 1974, and you can experience several different sights in the city. Some of the most famous are the War Memorial Monument, the Hastings Banda Mausoleum, the country’s Parliament Building and the area around the Central Market.

Shopping

  • Chichiri Shopping Mall, Kamuzu Highway
  • Chitawira Shopping Center, Kenyatta Drive
  • Shopping streets: Victoria Avenue, Chilembwe Street, Glynn Jones Road

With Kids

  • Museum: National Museum, Kasungu Crescent
  • Resort: Senga Bay, Salima, Lake Malawi

Practical Links

City History

Lilongwe’s earlier start
The name Lilongwe comes from the river that cuts through the capital and the word comes from the language of the Nyanja people. Already in the 9th century, Bantu tribes settled in present-day Malawi, and centuries before the European colonization of the country, a smaller fishing village had emerged on the winding lakes of the Lilongwe River, and relatively few people lived here compared to today’s growing capital. Elsewhere in the lush country, there were settlements; as there had been through thousands of years.

The arrival of Europeans
Today is Lilongwe Malawi’s capital, but it was southern Malawi that was the focus of most of the development in the country’s early colonial history.

In 1876, the town of Blantyre was founded and named after a town in Scotland from which the missionaries who established themselves in today’s Malawi came. In addition, Blantyre in Scotland was the city in which David Livingstone was born. The new Blantyre gained higher British status in 1883, and in 1895 the city gained the status of an actual market town, making it the oldest modern city in Malawi.

By 1891, the British had also come to the area of ​​Lake Malawi and colonized it under the name British Central Africa Protectorate. It was still not the center of Lilongwe, as the British expanded its governance and economic center in Blantyre to the south. One of the major commodities through Blantyre at that time was ivory.

Twentieth century expansion
In the first decades of the 20th century, only a few thousand inhabitants lived in Lilongwe, while Blantyre, on the other hand, grew rapidly. However, that would soon change for Lilongwe due to various factors.

Most important of all was Lilongwe’s location. It was located on the intersection of Lusaka and Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi) in an east-west direction and between the country’s then two most important cities, Mzuzu and Blantyre to the north and south respectively. It was also possible to navigate the waterway to Lake Nyasa, and the area was also good for the important tobacco cultivation.

It was thus a small but strategically well-chosen city, which the British, after a few decades, chose to put in their colony administration when they chose Lilongwe. It had until the 1930s became a few thousand inhabitants.

The country’s independence
The decades of the mid-20th century stood for signs of independence in the British colony called Nyasaland. One of the key people on the path to freedom was Dr. Hastings Banda, who after a few years abroad returned to Nyasaland and became politically active with the goal of making the country independent of British rule.

Banda was appointed prime minister on February 1, 1963, and three years later he was able to take office as president of the Republic of Malawi; a position he contested for 1994, whereby his policy came to define the foundations of the new country.

From independence to present-day
Malawi became an independent country in 1966, and since then the development has gone strong with Lilongwe’s population. In 1977, there were still less than 100,000 people living here, and that is a figure that has doubled in three decades thereafter.

Population growth is not least due to the urbanization seen all over the world. In Malawi too, the younger generations are affected by fewer economic, job and educational opportunities in rural areas, and this increases the migration to the capital, which has also benefited from, for example, South African investments and the development of the tobacco industry.

Among the newer investments in the cityscape is the large new parliament, whose buildings were inaugurated in 2010 after just one year of construction.

Lilongwe is Malawi’s capital, political center, while one of the country’s major economic engines is the city of Blantyre to the south of the country. Blantyre is historically the most significant in Malawi, and thus there are some institutions located here rather than in the capital. This applies, for example, to the Supreme Court, polytechnic and the country’s home ground at international football matches, which are also located in Blantyre.

There are thus two centers in the country today. Both Blantyre and Lilongwe, both experiencing population growth and economic development. As a political capital, Lilongwe’s development is steady, while Blantyre, with the country’s largest white population among others, remains the locomotive of much trade, production and education.

Geolocation

In short

Blantyre-Church

Overview of Blantyre

A trip to Malawi is a fantastic encounter with Africa and the continent’s magnificent scenery, culture and population. The country’s most significant and interesting cities to visit is the capital Lilongwe and the older city of Blantyre.

 

Blantyre to the south is among other Malawi’s economic locomotives, and this is also the place to visit the country’s national museum and Carlsberg’s brewery in Africa. Blantyre is named after the city in Scotland where David Livingstone was born. The city’s cathedral stands as a monument from that era.

 

About the upcoming Blantyre travel guide

  • Contents: Tours in the city + tours in the surrounding area
  • Published: Released soon
  • Author: Stig Albeck
  • Publisher: Vamados.com
  • Language: English

 

About the travel guide

The Blantyre travel guide gives you an overview of the sights and activities of the Malawian city. Read about top sights and other sights, and get a tour guide with tour suggestions and detailed descriptions of all the city’s most important churches, monuments, mansions, museums, etc.

 

Blantyre is waiting for you, and at vamados.com you can also find cheap flights and great deals on hotels for your trip. You just select your travel dates and then you get flight and accommodation suggestions in and around the city.

 

Read more about Blantyre and Malawi

 

Buy the travel guide

Click the “Add to Cart” button to purchase the travel guide. After that you will come to the payment, where you enter the purchase and payment information. Upon payment of the travel guide, you will immediately receive a receipt with a link to download your purchase. You can download the travel guide immediately or use the download link in the email later.

 

Use the travel guide

When you buy the travel guide to Blantyre you get the book online so you can have it on your phone, tablet or computer – and of course you can choose to print it. Use the maps and tour suggestions and you will have a good and content-rich journey.

St Michael & All Angels • National Museum • Zomba • Lake Malawi

Blantyre-Church

Overview of Blantyre

A trip to Malawi is a fantastic encounter with Africa and the continent’s magnificent scenery, culture and population. The country’s most significant and interesting cities to visit is the capital Lilongwe and the older city of Blantyre.

 

Blantyre to the south is among other Malawi’s economic locomotives, and this is also the place to visit the country’s national museum and Carlsberg’s brewery in Africa. Blantyre is named after the city in Scotland where David Livingstone was born. The city’s cathedral stands as a monument from that era.

 

About the upcoming Blantyre travel guide

  • Contents: Tours in the city + tours in the surrounding area
  • Published: Released soon
  • Author: Stig Albeck
  • Publisher: Vamados.com
  • Language: English

 

About the travel guide

The Blantyre travel guide gives you an overview of the sights and activities of the Malawian city. Read about top sights and other sights, and get a tour guide with tour suggestions and detailed descriptions of all the city’s most important churches, monuments, mansions, museums, etc.

 

Blantyre is waiting for you, and at vamados.com you can also find cheap flights and great deals on hotels for your trip. You just select your travel dates and then you get flight and accommodation suggestions in and around the city.

 

Read more about Blantyre and Malawi

 

Buy the travel guide

Click the “Add to Cart” button to purchase the travel guide. After that you will come to the payment, where you enter the purchase and payment information. Upon payment of the travel guide, you will immediately receive a receipt with a link to download your purchase. You can download the travel guide immediately or use the download link in the email later.

 

Use the travel guide

When you buy the travel guide to Blantyre you get the book online so you can have it on your phone, tablet or computer – and of course you can choose to print it. Use the maps and tour suggestions and you will have a good and content-rich journey.

Other Attractions

  • Mandala House: Built in 1882, Mandala House is the oldest preserved house in Malawi. It was built by the Mandala Company, founded in 1878 by brothers John and Frederick Moir of Scotland.
  • Blantyre Railway Station: Malawi’s railway history began in the early 1900s, when Blantyre, as the UK’s most important economic city and territory, was to be connected to the shipping traffic that left Chiromo and Lake Malawi, among others places.

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