Tanzania Safari

Tanzania is well-known for its Big 5 wildlife viewing, luxury lodges, Serengeti safari tours, and beach vacations, attracting visitors from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Europe, and other countries. Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, Ngorongoro Crater, superb coffee plantations, UNESCO World Heritage Sites such as Stone Town, wildlife-rich national parks such as the Serengeti, the magnificent Rift Valley lakes, and other attractions can all be found in the country.

Top attractions visitors can expect from a Tanzania safari include:

Animals

Tanzania is well-known for its wildlife, which includes the Big Five as well as wildebeest, Diceros, Impalas, Dik-diks, Impalas, giraffes, hyenas, African wild dogs, and many others.

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

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

Tanzania is home to approximately 20% of Africa’s large mammal population, with the majority of wildlife concentrated in the Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Crater.

Parks & Reserves

Tanzania has a lot of parks, reserves, and sanctuaries, each with its own unique charm, places to stay, and wildlife to see.

There are more than 17 national parks in Tanzania, as well as many smaller ones.

The Serengeti and Ngorongoro are two of the most famous parks, and they are both amazing places to visit. Nyere National Park (Selous) and Ruaha National Park are also worth mentioning.

• 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 the following:

• 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