National Park
Lake Manyara National Park
A narrow strip of groundwater forest, floodplain and soda lake beneath the Rift Valley escarpment.
Best for
Tree-climbing lion, flamingo, night drives, canopy walk
325 km²
Discover Tanzania
WHERE EVERY HORIZON TELLS A STORY
From endless plains to island shores.
The Land
Few countries pack this much variety into one journey. In a single trip you can stand on short-grass plains that run past the curve of the earth, drop into a collapsed volcano teeming with life, walk beneath baobabs older than any city here, and finish with your feet in the Indian Ocean.
These are the four places we return to most, and the reasons why.
Every Park
ALL TANZANIA'S PARKS, BY ZONE
Tanzania protects close to a third of its land. These are the parks, conservation areas and marine reserves we travel, grouped the way itineraries are actually built.
Arusha · Manyara · Serengeti
Northern Circuit
7 places
Tanzania's classic circuit, and the easiest to travel. Short hops between wildly different ecosystems, from short-grass plain and caldera floor to baobab valley, rift lake and glaciated volcano.
National Park
Arusha National Park
Mount Meru's forested slopes, the Momella lakes and Ngurdoto Crater, an easy first or last day out of town.
Best for
Walking safaris, canoeing, colobus, giraffe
552 km²
National Park & UNESCO Site
Kilimanjaro National Park
Africa's highest mountain, from rainforest through moorland and alpine desert to the Uhuru summit glaciers.
Best for
Trekking Machame, Lemosho, Rongai and Marangu routes
1,688 km²
National Park
Mkomazi National Park
Dry Nyika wilderness under the Pare and Usambara ranges, with sanctuaries for black rhino and African wild dog.
Best for
Rhino sanctuary, wild dog, gerenuk, solitude
3,245 km²
Nyerere · Ruaha · Udzungwa
Southern Circuit
7 places
Bigger, wilder and far emptier. The southern parks trade traffic for scale, with boat safaris on the Rufiji, walking country in Ruaha, and rainforest mountains in between.
National Park (former Selous)
Nyerere National Park
One of Africa's largest protected areas, threaded by the Rufiji River, its lakes and sand rivers.
Best for
Boat safaris, walking, wild dog, hippo and croc
30,893 km²
National Park
Ruaha National Park
Where eastern and southern African species overlap, and huge lion prides line a sand river under baobabs.
Best for
Lion, greater and lesser kudu, wild dog, remoteness
20,226 km²
National Park
Mikumi National Park
Open Mkata floodplain below the Uluguru mountains, reachable in a morning's drive from Dar es Salaam.
Best for
Short trips, elephant, buffalo, giraffe, easy access
3,230 km²
National Park
Udzungwa Mountains National Park
Eastern Arc rainforest with endemic primates and the 170m Sanje Falls. A hiking park, not a game-drive park.
Best for
Forest trekking, waterfalls, endemic monkeys, birding
1,990 km²
National Park
Kitulo National Park
The 'Serengeti of Flowers', a high plateau that erupts into orchids and wildflowers in the rains.
Best for
Orchids, wildflowers (Dec – Apr), highland walking
412 km²
National Park
Katavi National Park
Tanzania's most remote big-game park: floodplains that shrink to mud pools packed with hippo and buffalo.
Best for
True wilderness, buffalo herds, hippo, late dry season
4,471 km²
National Park
Saadani National Park
The only Tanzanian park on the Indian Ocean, with elephant tracks on the beach plus Wami River boat trips.
Best for
Bush and beach, boat safaris, green turtles
1,062 km²
Tanganyika · Kagera · Lake Victoria
Western Circuit
7 places
Chimpanzee forests on Lake Tanganyika and lightly travelled parks along the western lakes. Fly-in country, best added to a longer itinerary.
National Park
Mahale Mountains National Park
Forested mountains dropping straight into Lake Tanganyika, home to habituated chimpanzee communities.
Best for
Chimp trekking, kayaking, snorkelling the lake
1,613 km²
National Park
Gombe Stream National Park
Tanzania's smallest park, and the valley where Jane Goodall's chimpanzee research began in 1960.
Best for
Chimpanzees, research history, forest walks
35 km²
National Park
Rubondo Island National Park
A forested island in Lake Victoria with introduced chimpanzees, sitatunga and world-class fishing.
Best for
Island wilderness, fishing, birding, chimps
457 km²
National Park
Burigi-Chato National Park
Rolling savanna, papyrus swamps and lakes in Kagera, newly gazetted and almost entirely unvisited.
Best for
Off-grid game viewing, birding, roan and topi
4,707 km²
National Park
Ugalla River National Park
Miombo woodland along a seasonal river system, with sable, hippo and huge crocodile.
Best for
Miombo species, fly camping, exploratory safaris
3,865 km²
National Park
Kigosi National Park
Vast swamp and woodland wilderness feeding the Moyowosi wetlands, for the truly curious.
Best for
Wetland birding, sitatunga, expedition travel
7,460 km²
National Parks
Ibanda-Kyerwa & Rumanyika-Karagwe
Two small far-northwestern parks on the Kagera River, protecting hippo, buffalo and riverine habitat.
Best for
Community-linked travel, birding, river landscapes
Zanzibar · Mafia · Pemba
Coast & Islands
6 places
Where a safari should end. Reef, mangrove and spice-island culture within an hour's flight of the plains.
National Park
Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park
Zanzibar's only national park, with groundwater forest, mangrove boardwalk and endemic red colobus.
Best for
Red colobus, mangroves, half-day trips
50 km²
Marine Park
Mafia Island Marine Park
Coral gardens and channels where whale sharks feed seasonally and turtles nest on quiet sand.
Best for
Whale sharks (Oct – Mar), diving, turtles
822 km²
Island
Pemba Island
Green, hilly and far less travelled than Unguja, with steep drop-off diving and clove plantations.
Best for
Wall diving, seclusion, spice farms
Marine Reserves
Chumbe & Mnemba Islands
Tiny protected reefs off Zanzibar with some of the healthiest coral in East Africa.
Best for
Snorkelling, reef conservation, day trips
Conservation Areas
Menai Bay & Misali
Community-managed bays of sandbanks and mangrove, good for dolphins and dhow sailing.
Best for
Dolphins, sailing, community tourism
Between the Parks
SMALLER ATTRACTIONS WORTH THE DETOUR
Craters, waterfalls, rock art, hot springs and lake towns are the half-days that turn a good itinerary into a memorable one.
Rift Valley & Volcanoes
Lake Natron & Ol Doinyo Lengai
North of Ngorongoro
A caustic soda lake breeding East Africa's flamingos, under an active carbonatite volcano you can climb overnight.
Empakaai & Olmoti Craters
Ngorongoro highlands
Steep rim hikes down to a deep soda lake and a hidden waterfall, walked with Maasai guides.
Lake Eyasi
South of Ngorongoro
Hadzabe hunter-gatherer and Datoga blacksmith communities on a shallow rift lake.
Lake Manyara Escarpment & Mto wa Mbu
Karatu road
A market village of over a hundred ethnic groups, banana beer and irrigation-canal walks.
Ngurdoto Crater & Momella Lakes
Arusha NP
A forest-walled crater and alkaline lakes you can canoe among waterbuck and giraffe.
Heritage & Archaeology
Olduvai Gorge
Ngorongoro Conservation Area
The Leakeys' excavation site and museum, with layered evidence of nearly two million years of human ancestry.
Laetoli Footprints
Near Olduvai
3.6 million year old hominin prints preserved in volcanic ash.
Kondoa Irangi Rock Art
Dodoma region · UNESCO
Hundreds of rock shelters painted over millennia on the eastern rift escarpment.
Stone Town
Zanzibar · UNESCO
Swahili, Omani and Indian architecture in a living maze of carved doors and courtyards.
Kilwa Kisiwani
Southern coast · UNESCO
Ruins of a medieval Swahili trading sultanate that once minted its own coin.
Bagamoyo & Mikindani
Coast
Old caravan and slave-trade ports, now quiet towns of coral-rag buildings and mission churches.
Isimila Stone Age Site
Iringa
Eroded sandstone pillars scattered with Acheulean tools in a dry gully.
Mountains, Forests & Waterfalls
Usambara Mountains
Lushoto, Tanga
Cool Eastern Arc ridges of tea, forest and viewpoints, with Tanzania's best village-to-village walking.
Amani Nature Reserve
East Usambara
Endemic-rich submontane forest, a birder's and botanist's park.
Materuni & Ndoro Waterfalls
Kilimanjaro foothills
Chagga coffee-farm walks that finish beneath a cold falls, easy from Moshi.
Kikuletwa (Chemka) Hot Springs
Between Moshi and Arusha
A turquoise spring-fed pool under fig roots, the classic post-Kilimanjaro swim.
Sanje Falls
Udzungwa
A 170m three-tier waterfall reached through rainforest full of endemic primates.
Kalambo Falls
Lake Tanganyika, Rukwa
One of Africa's tallest single-drop falls, plunging 235m into the rift.
Mount Hanang & Mount Meru
Manyara & Arusha
Tanzania's fourth and second highest peaks, offering serious treks with a fraction of Kilimanjaro's crowds.
Lakes, Coast & Culture
Lake Tanganyika
Kigoma
The world's longest and second deepest lake, clear enough to snorkel among endemic cichlids.
Lake Victoria & Ukerewe Island
Mwanza
Granite-boulder shorelines, fishing villages and a slow island of orchards.
Lake Nyasa (Malawi) & Matema Beach
Mbeya
Freshwater beaches below the Livingstone Mountains, almost never on an itinerary.
Rubondo & Saanane Islands
Lake Victoria
Forested island reserves, one wild and remote, one a short boat ride from Mwanza city.
Maasai & Hadzabe Communities
Northern Tanzania
Boma visits, livestock markets and guided bush walks arranged directly with the community.
Ruvuma & Makonde Highlands
Mtwara
Home of Makonde carving, plus the coastal lagoons and reefs of the far south.
Not sure where to start?
Most first journeys combine two or three of these. Tell us how long you have and we will shape the route around the season.