Manzini or Mbabane?

Manzini or Mbabane: which one to stay in while visiting Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland)?

Should you stay in the economic hub, the business center of the country (Manzini)? Or should you stay in the Capital of the country? Which one of the two that is the largest city in Eswatini is also up for debate. I've seen both being hailed as it. Not even Wikipedia can give a clear answer to that question and gives a different answer at different parts of the site and sometimes even on the same page. The population figure for each city varies between sources.

Both cities have around 100,000 inhabitants, give or take a few thousand. So neither is a major city.

The good thing is that the country is rather small in area and the roads are mostly in good condition, at least the main roads. The highway system in Eswatini is almost up to European standards. So it's possible and easy to visit them both. They are actually pretty much interconnected into a larger metropolitan area (which is probably one reason why it is so hard to get reliable information about which one is the largest).

There are multiple buses, or minibusses, leaving between the cities on an irregular basis (they leave when they are full). I didn't wait more than 15 minutes any of the three times I traveled the distance. It is a high-traffic route and the main route of the country.

Be aware that the bus stations in both cities are generally fairly unsafe and unpleasant places. Be alert at all times in those areas. The bus station in Manzini was much worse than the one in Mbabane.

So whichever city you decide to stay in it is good to know that it is easy to travel between them. It's not a decision about which city to visit, you can positively do them both on the same day.

It can feel chaotic and hard to navigate the bus ranks in Eswatini. The best way is to just say which town you're going to and the people working in the area will guide you to the next available bus going there. It might sound sketchy, but this system seemed to work surprisingly well. Avoid these areas after darkness, and be aware and alert during the day.

For me the answer to which is the most interesting city to visit is Mbabane. I stayed in Mbabane so I did spend most of the time there. It was still quite early obvious that Mbabane was much quieter and more developed than Manzini. In Manzini, the atmosphere was more pressing and hectic. While in Mbabane it was more laidback and it was possible to just wander around the shopping malls or shopping streets, which is essentially the only thing you can do in either city.

Both cities are small, remember they are only about 100,000 inhabitants large. I only had 1½ days in Eswatini and was able to fit in both Manzini and Mbabane, and I felt done with both long before time ran out. I was only in Manzini for three hours in total before taking the minibus back to Mbabane. It was not due to some timetable or that I wanted to fit in both on that same day. I was just feeling done with the city. I couldn't see anything more to do there. You can start at the bus rank and walk up to Ngwane Street and Nkosehlusaza Street (both part of MR3). You'll soon find Bhunu Mall, and if you walk a little bit east you can find an old church. There's not so much more to see. What I found most interesting in Manzini was the opportunities for street photography. Manzini was certainly more fun to photograph than Mbabane.

The time needed in Mbabane is something similar. Mbabane has a large shopping area (Swazi Plaza) with some city life, some restaurants, and a few stores to look through. It also has a few streets with stores and a little bit of a Downtown feeling, but we are talking about 2 to 3 streets in total before it becomes suburban.

The shopping malls in Mbabane felt more organized and modern. And by modern I mean more like a 1990's feeling rather than 2020's feeling. It gave me flashbacks of walking through the local malls back home during my childhood.

Mbabane is also closer to the most famous sight of Eswatini, the Sibebe Rock. It is the second-largest monolith in the world (after Ayers Rock / Uluru in Australia). I personally didn't do that sight as to do this hike you need at least a full day dedicated just for that.

If you want to stay at a better hotel you don't have many options, especially if you don't want to rent a car. The only large chain hotel is located in Mbabane (Hilton Garden Inn), apart from that the choices for accommodation are mostly in the form of Guest Houses and a couple of rural resorts which are located a bit from the towns and require you to rent a car.

Most people probably don't stay just in the cities, like I did. Most people will likely make sure to fit in a lot of nature tourism when planning a trip to Eswatini. It's usually good and necessary to stay a night or two in a population center during such a trip too, and if I could recommend one of these two I would say to stay in Mbabane those nights.