Serengeti National Park

Two World Heritage Sites and two Biosphere Reserves have been established within the Serengeti region. The Serengeti’s unique ecosystem has inspired writers, filmmakers and numerous photographers and scientists. Its ecosystem is one of the oldest on earth with the features of climate, vegetation and fauna barely changing in the past million years.

It is also famous for its rocky outcrops or kopjes and its lion, leopard, cheetah and hyena sightings. The Park features a number of seasonal rivers where Africa’s largest crocodiles are to be found. Birdlife in the Serengeti is prolific, with Yellow throated sandgrouse, ostrich, Secretary bird, Crowned plover and Kori bustard are most frequently seen.  Back to Top

Ngorongoro Crater

A Ngorongoro Crater safari is a unique and unforgettable experience. Covering a mere 260 square kilometres/100 square miles, the 600m/1969ft-deep Ngorongoro Crater is home to a permanent population of more than 30 000 animals, and is one of the few places in Africa where you stand a very good chance of seeing the Big Five in the course of a game-drive.

The Ngorongoro Crater forms part of the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area where the wildlife is protected. The local Maasai have permission to graze their cattle on the Crater floor, and it is not unusual to see Maasai cattle and buffalo grazing together, with a lion gazing fixedly mere metres away.

There are around 70 lions in the Crater, and about 15 black rhino, and the spectacular Lerai Forest is one of the best places in Africa to spot a leopard.

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Arusha

Arusha is a lush town at an altitude of 1 380 metres above sea level. With Mount Meru as a backdrop, it’s an attractive town, with a busy bustle about it. As the launch pad for all the great Tanzania safaris in the north of Tanzania, Arusha is a pleasant travel destination in which to spend a few days.

While in Arusha, don't miss the Clock Tower donated by a Greek who lived there in 1945. The German Boma houses the National Natural History Museum containing the famous Laetoli Footprints set in volcanic ash and dating back 3 500 000 years.

The Arusha Declaration National Museum is dedicated to the landmark Tanzanian Uhuru Freedom Movement of the 60s, and affords a fascinating perspective into this crucial period of Tanzania's history.  For epicureans, the Arusha Coffee Lodge is a lovely, scenic place to have a meal, set as it is in the midst of a coffee plantation.  For the adventurous, Chicken On The Bonnet is a local favourite that delights visitors with its quirky cooking methods.

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Olduvai Gorge

Olduvai, more accurately called Oldupai after the wild sisal in the area, is situated near the Ngorongoro Crater and is the site of some of the most important finds of early hominid fossils of all time (made famous by the work of the Leakey family) - The "Nutcracker Man" or Australophithecus Boisei who lived 1.8 million years ago. There is a small informative museum located at the visitor center. The gorge is a treasure trove of archeological sites filled with fossils, settlement remains and stone artefacts. Lecture tours are offered.

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Mount Kilimanjaro

The snow-covered splendor of the highest mountain in Africa is visible on a clear day from more than 250 kms away. Kilimanjaro rises from the vast open plains. First mentioned by Ptolemeus (a 2nd Century Greek philosopher and geographer), the largest mountain in Africa and highest free standing mountain in the world, has proved a magnet to climbers, naturalists, travelers and explorers over the centuries. Only three degrees from the equator, the Victorians believed Kilimanjaro's snow to be a flight of fancy for many years. Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and stands at 5,895 meters, three degrees south of the equator. The mountain, a dormant volcano, has two peaks - Kibo and Mawezi, which are surrounded by dense forests full of dazzling variety of flora and fauna.

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Tarangire National Park

At 2 600 square kilometres/1000 square miles, Tarangire is by no means the biggest of the Tanzanian parks, but its landscape of open plains dotted with thousands of baobabs makes for an unforgettable safari. Tarangire is also known for its tree-climbing lions, for its very large herds of buffalo and its predators tracking the vast herds of antelope.

A birding paradise, Tarangire National Park also boasts the endemic ashy starling, rufous-tailed weaver and black-collared lovebird. The dry season (approximately July – October) attracts large concentrations of wildlife as the Tarangire River is the only permanent source of water in southern Maasailand.

Tarangire is one of the few places in Africa where large herds of 300 or more elephants can be seen. Lion are readily seen, particularly during the dry season when huge herds of wildebeest and zebra arrive from the Steppe.

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Lake Manyara National Park

This relatively small park is divided into five distinct vegetation zones: ground-water forest, marshland and reed beds, open grasslands and acacia woodland. In a single day, a visitor may see elephant, buffalo, zebra, hippo and the curious lions which have a habit of resting in trees. Sheltering under the massive escarpment of the Great Rift Valley, and covering an area of 325 sq. km, this park is a flash of green amid an otherwise parched landscape. A line of springs support the lush vegetation of a groundwater forest, where blue monkeys, baboons and the curious-looking silvery-cheeked hornbill live, among the more than 350 bird species, the most profuse being the flamingo. 

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Selous Game Reserve

Proclaimed a World Heritage Site, the Selous Game Reserve is a vast region of largely unexplored bush teeming with wildlife, and with very few roads in the interior, it is a serene wilderness safari experience. Bisected by the Rufiji River, the Selous is one of the most remote parks in Africa.

Walking, accompanied by an armed Park Ranger, is allowed in the Reserve, and is probably one of the best ways to enjoy the natural beauty and diversity of plant life of the area. There are sections of magnificent grass plains, wetlands, swamps and dense forest.

Perhaps the best way of exploring the Reserve is by boat, meandering through channels and swamps, and discovering hidden lagoons where elephant often come to bathe. Angling in the river can be an exciting way to pass an evening. Scheduled flights afford easy access to the Selous’ diverse lodges.

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Mahale Mountains

Mahale Mountains National Park was created to protect thousands of chimpanzees and is set in the magnificent Mahale Mountains. It is renowned for its fantastic sunsets over Lake Tanganyika, which makes it an essential stop for the keen photographer and safari enthusiast. The habitat combines rain forest, grasslands, alpine bamboo and woodland.

There are few natural environments more seductive than Mahale, and there is probably no place on earth better to view wild chimpanzees. Over 90 unique species of fish swim in the clear waters of the lake.

Some 50 species of animals have been recorded in the Mahale Mountains National Park, predominant among these being representatives from various monkey and ape families: chimpanzees, yellow baboon, Sykes monkey, red tailed monkey, savannah monkey, colobus monkey (both the red, and black and white species), and two species of bush-baby. As there are no roads for 50 miles/80 kilometres, access to the area is by charter aircraft and all activities are done on foot or by boat.

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Mikumi National Park

Located astride the main Dar to Mbeya highway, to the north of Selous Game Reserve and only 283 km from Dar-es-Salaam, the park is an important educational center for students of ecology and conservation, having been established to protect the environment and resident animals. The Mikumi flood plain is the main feature of the park along with the bordering mountain ranges. It has a landing strip and is home to, among others, the buffalo, zebra, giraffe, lion, wild dogs, python, monitor lizard, hartebeest, wildebeest, elephant hippo, impala, warthog, eland and antelope. Birds include the hammerkop, saddle-bill stork, and the malachite kingfisher. The vegetation is made up of woodland, grassland and swamp. There are two water holes, Mkata and Chamgore. 

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Gombe Stream National Park

Located a few kilometers north of Kigoma , on the western part of Tanzania, is the smallest but one of the best known of Tanzania's National Park’s made famous for its primates and the research center of world renowned Dr. Jane Goodall. Gombe Stream consists of a narrow mountainous strip of country stretching along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika and running inland about 5 km to the peaks of the mountain range forming the rift escarpment. The thick gallery forests of the valley and lower slopes, and the open deciduous woodland on the upper slopes.are the few places where chimpanzees can still be found in their natural habitat. Since 1960, Dr. Jane Goodall and colleagues have studied the primates here. Other primates which may be seen in the park include: Baboon, Red Colobus Monkey, and Blue Monkey. and the birdlife include the African and the trumpeter hornbills, Ross's turaco, pied and giant kingfishers, and the crowned eagle. Access to the park is only by water vessel from either Kigoma or Ujiji. 

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