Tanzania Wildlife Safari Tours

Serengeti National Park Safari

• About 14,750 km²
• Great Migration
• Big cats

The Serengeti is known worldwide for the abundance and variety of its wildlife. The Big Five can all be seen here, and lions, leopards and cheetahs are a highlight.

The national park covers about 5,700 square miles (14,750 km²) and sits inside the wider Serengeti ecosystem of roughly 30,000 km². It runs continuously into Kenya's Masai Mara. The landscape is mostly open grassland plains, with savanna, riverine forest and woodland, at elevations from about 900 to 1,800 m. Rocky outcrops called kopjes are favourite lookouts for lions.

The Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Mount Kilimanjaro are a classic Tanzania combination, and the Serengeti and Ngorongoro share the migrating wildebeest, zebra and gazelle herds.

Ngorongoro Crater Tour

• World's largest intact caldera
• Year-round game viewing
• Black rhino

The Ngorongoro Crater is a giant volcanic caldera, formed when a huge volcano collapsed in on itself. Over time, water, grass and forest turned the crater floor into a natural wildlife haven with a wide range of ecosystems.

There is no accommodation on the crater floor, but lodges and campsites on the rim have spectacular views. Game drives take you down into the crater, and you can also arrange cultural visits with the Maasai community.

The crater is the heart of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which also includes the southern Serengeti plains and Olduvai Gorge, often called the Cradle of Mankind for the fossils found there. It is a unique place where wildlife and people share the land: Maasai herders are allowed to graze their cattle but not to farm commercially.

Game viewing is good all year. To combine the crater with the migration herds, travel between January and March, when they gather on the southern plains.

Tarangire National Park Safari

• Elephant herds
• Baobab trees
• Best Jun to Oct

Tarangire lies south of Maasailand and is known for miles of woodland, flat-topped acacias, ancient baobabs and large elephant herds along the Tarangire River. Birdlife is excellent.

In the dry season the river is a lifeline: elephants dig in the dry riverbed for underground water, while wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, hartebeest and eland crowd the remaining water, followed by their predators. Tarangire is also known for tree-climbing pythons, lions and leopards.

Lake Manyara National Park Safari

• Flamingos
• Tree-climbing lions
• Rift Valley views

Lake Manyara is one of Tanzania's smaller parks, famous for its flamingo flocks, tree-climbing lions and tall Masai giraffes. The park has several distinct ecosystems at the foot of the Great Rift Valley escarpment, from groundwater forest and acacia woodland to marsh, grassland and salt flats.

The lake grows and shrinks with the rains. The wetter months (about November to April) are best for migratory birds, and wildebeest and zebra graze along the shore.

Arusha National Park Safari

• Near Arusha town
• Walking safaris
• Mount Meru

Arusha National Park is a compact park close to Arusha town, roughly a 40-minute drive away and about 60 km from Kilimanjaro International Airport. It packs in varied scenery, from open savanna and acacia scrub to rainforest and alpine moorland on Mount Meru.

Look for giraffe, buffalo, zebra, hippo and elephant, plus colobus monkeys in the highland forest. The park is also a good place for walking and canoe safaris, and for game viewing around the Momela Lakes at a quiet pace. It includes the slopes and summit of Mount Meru, which can be trekked in three to four days (see our Mount Meru trek).