Kivukoni is the eastern tip of central Dar, the seafront peninsula between the harbour and the Indian Ocean. The German and British colonial powers built their grandest set-pieces here — the State House, Ocean Road Hospital, the Lutheran and Catholic cathedrals, the Askari Monument — and most of what survives of the colonial core is within a slow morning's walk along Sokoine Drive and Barack Obama Drive.
The neighbourhood is genuinely walkable during the day, with hotels and cafés along the seafront and an excellent footpath that links the fish market to the cathedrals via the Kigamboni ferry pier. After dark, taxi back to wherever you are staying — Kivukoni empties out at the end of the working day and there is little reason to be on its quiet streets at night.