Tanzania Safari

Tanzania is renowned as a premium destination for Big 5 wildlife viewing, luxury lodges, Serengeti safari tours, and beach vacations with international visitors flocking from the U.S., UK, Europe, and beyond.

The country is also home to Africa’s highest mountain Mount Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro Crater, superb coffee plantations, UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Stone Town, wildlife-rich national parks such as the Serengeti, the superb Rift Valley lakes and more.

Top attractions visitors can expect from a Tanzania safari include:

Animals

Tanzania is famous for its wildlife with the big 5 present as well as Wildebeest, Diceros, Impalas, Dik-diks, Impalas, giraffes, hyenas, African wild dogs and many more.

All big 5 game animals can be found roaming including the African bush elephant, the lion, the black rhino and white rhino, the leopard, and the African buffalo.

Tanzania is one of Africa’s best birding destinations with one of the largest species lists of any African country at over 1,100 bird species including the black crake, Fischer’s lovebird, Ashy starling, Tanzania seedeater, and Hartlaub’s turaco.

Tanzania contains some 20% of the species of Africa’s large mammal population with most wildlife found in the surrounds of the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater.

Parks & Reserves

Tanzania has numerous parks, reserves, and sanctuaries, all of which have their own charm, accommodation, and wildlife attractions.

Tanzania has more than 17 national parks and many smaller parks.

Of particular note amongst parks are the Serengeti and Ngorongoro, a truly spectacular experience, as well as Nyere National Park (Selous) & Ruaha National Park.

• Serengeti National Park: 5,700 sq miles of savannah teeming with migrations of wildebeests, gazelle, and zebras making this one of the 7 Natural Wonders of Africa,  a national treasure in the north of Tanzania.
• Ngorongoro Crater: The world’s largest inactive cauldron-like hollow volcano with a crater floor covering over 100 sq. miles and almost 0.4 miles deep. This crater in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area has over 7,000 wildebeest, 6,000 black spotted hyenas, 4,000 zebras, 300 Elephants and 55 Lions.
• Selous Game Reserve: Also known as Nyerere National Park, this is Tanzania’s largest national park at about 12,000 sq miles, set in southern Tanzania with majestic waterways, notably the Rufiji River and interconnected lakes attracting wildlife galore.
• Ruaha National Park: Tanzania’s second largest national park with excellent game viewing of predators including lions and the endangered wild dog and 500 bird species.
• Gombe National Park: The second smallest of Tanzania’s national parks at just 20 sq miles, Gombe is characterized by steep valleys and vegetation from grassland to woodland to tropical rainforest, a superb place for tracking chimpanzees.
• Katavi National Park: ​​A 1,700 sq mile park renowned for large concentrations of animals including 4,000 elephants.
• Tarangire National Park: The Tarangire River provides water for the wildlife in this northern park including for the rare tree-climbing lion, leopards, cheetahs, baobab trees, birds, and for the Masai people.
• Arusha National Park: At the base of Mount Meru, visitors will find this 213 sq mile less visited park with large numbers of African elephants, Cape buffaloes, hippos, zebras, and giraffes.
• Kitulo National Park: A protected area of montane grassland and montane forest on the Kitulo Plateau in the southern highlands of Tanzania.

Other national parks of note include:

• Lake Manyara National Park: This is a protected area in Tanzania’s Arusha and Manyara Regions, known for its large elephant numbers and tree-climbing lions.
• Kilimanjaro National Park: At 644 sq miles, the park contains the largest free-standing volcanic mass in the world and the highest mountain in Africa, also home to numerous giraffes, warthogs, water buffaloes, colobus monkeys, dik-dik, and many birds.
• Mahale Mountains National Park: A park of 637 sq. miles on the western tip of Tanzania bordering the Congo (DRC), known for its large population of chimpanzees.
• Mikumi National Park: A large park at 1,250 sq miles, 190 miles from the coastal city of Dar es Salaam, Mikumi NP has numerous waterholes, crowded with hippos, elephants, and buffaloes.
• Mkomazi National Park: Mkomazi does have the big 5 present, but wildlife in general is more thinly populated in this 1,253 sq mile park.
• Rubondo Island National Park: This 176 sq mile island on Lake Victoria in the north-west is 75% covered in pristine equatorial rainforest, perfect for hippos, bushbuck, vervets, sitatungas, crocodiles, elephants, chimpanzees, and giraffes.
• Saadani National Park: The only park in East Africa with an Indian Ocean beachfront with elephants and Swahili fishermen on view in this 410 square mile area.
• Saanane Island National Park: A square mile island on Lake Victoria in Mwanza, northern Tanzania, known for its zebra, impala, rock hyrax, velvet monkey, and wild cats.
• Udzungwa Mountains National Park: This 770 sq mile park supports diverse wildlife, including elephants, buffalo, lions, leopards, African wild dogs, and eland as well as 6 species of primate.
• Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park: Located on the island of Zanzibar, this 19 sq. mile park has a landscape consisting of mangroves, tropical forests, and coral rug forests, as well as groundwater, salt marshes, and agricultural areas.

Spread across the country including Zanzibar tour packages, Tanzania’s parks and reserves can take several hours/flight to one another