The 10 Best Safari Parks in Tanzania

The Serengeti covers nearly 14,750 km² of grassy plains, granite kopjes and wooded savannah between the Ngorongoro highlands and the Kenyan border with the Masai Mara. A UNESCO site since 1981, it hosts the Great Migration: over a million wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of zebra and gazelle circle the ecosystem year-round, followed by lions, hyenas and cheetahs. Lions, leopards and elephants are seen all year around Seronera, in the centre of the park.

The calendar dictates which area to choose: calving on the southern plains and around Ndutu from January to March, the move north through the centre and the Grumeti western corridor in May-June, Mara river crossings in the north (Kogatende) from July to October, then the return south with the short rains of November-December. Access is by road from Arusha (5 to 6 hours to Naabi Hill gate via Ngorongoro) or by light aircraft to the Seronera, Kogatende or Ndutu airstrips.

The Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest intact caldera: about 20 km across, 600 m deep, a 260 km² floor that is home to some 25,000 large mammals year-round. Lions, elephants with huge tusks, buffalo, hippos in the Ngoitokitok swamp, flamingos on Lake Magadi and one of Tanzania's last black rhino populations: it is one of the few places where the Big Five can be seen on a single game drive. The crater lies within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO site since 1979 run by the NCAA, where the Maasai graze their cattle.

Lodges sit on the rim at 2,300 m, with cold, misty mornings; the descent is by a one-way track and time on the floor is limited by the NCAA. Nearby are Olduvai Gorge, where the Leakeys unearthed hominid fossils, and the Empakaai crater, walked with a ranger.

Two hours' drive south-west of Arusha, Tarangire covers about 2,850 km² of savannah studded with giant baobabs and termite mounds along the Tarangire River. In the dry season, June to October, the river is the region's only permanent water and draws some of Tanzania's largest elephant herds, several hundred at a time, along with the zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, eland and oryx that migrate into the park. Lions, leopards and, more rarely, wild dogs follow them.

The park also counts more than 500 bird species, including the kori bustard and the silvery-cheeked hornbill. Many itineraries give it just one day from Arusha; a night in the south of the park, towards the Silale swamp, gets you away from the vehicles clustered near the gate.

Wedged between the Rift Valley escarpment and the alkaline lake that gives it its name, Lake Manyara National Park is small (about 330 km², two thirds of it lake) but very varied: groundwater forest beneath fig and mahogany trees, grassy plains, marshes and the Maji Moto hot springs. Elephants, baboons in huge troops, hippos and giraffes are a sure thing; the tree-climbing lions the park is famous for need more luck. Flamingos colonise the lake when its level allows.

The park is visited in half a day from Mto wa Mbu or Karatu, often on the first or last day of a northern circuit, with a treetop walkway and night drives run by the park. A track south links up with Tarangire.

In 2019, the entire northern section of the Selous Game Reserve was gazetted as a full national park, Nyerere National Park, covering about 30,893 km² and ranking among Africa's largest national parks. The southern remainder keeps its status as the Selous Game Reserve (hunting blocks and buffer zone).

Most photographic safaris — by 4x4 but above all the signature boat safaris — now take place inside Nyerere National Park, along the Rufiji River and its lakes, where you can see elephants, hippos, crocodiles, wild dogs and abundant birdlife.

The historic name 'Selous' is still widely used commercially, but the safari territory itself is now called Nyerere. It is the main gateway to the wilder, far less crowded southern circuit.

Ruaha is Tanzania's second-largest national park, about 20,226 km² of semi-arid bush, baobabs and rocky hills west of Iringa. The Great Ruaha River, which borders the east of the park, concentrates life in the dry season: elephants (one of East Africa's largest populations), buffalo in their hundreds, giraffes, greater kudu, big lion prides, leopards and wild dogs. More than 570 bird species are recorded.

The park remains one of the least visited in the country: a few remote camps, tracks where you meet no one, walking safaris and night drives allowed at some camps. Access is by light aircraft from Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar or Arusha, or by road via Iringa (about 130 km of dirt road from town).

Mikumi stretches over about 3,230 km² north of Nyerere National Park, whose ecosystem it shares, 283 km west of Dar es Salaam. The tarmac A7 road to Iringa runs through the park, making it the most accessible in the country: people come by car, bus or even train for a one-day or weekend safari. The Mkata floodplain, north of the road, looks like a small Serengeti: elephants, giraffes, zebras, buffalo, eland, lions and occasionally wild dogs.

The Uluguru and Udzungwa hills close the horizon, and the plain's waterholes draw hippos. The dry season, June to October, concentrates the animals; the rains, November to April, make some tracks impassable but turn the plain green.

Gombe is one of Tanzania's smallest national parks: a strip of steep forest on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, some fifteen kilometres north of Kigoma, reachable only by boat. This is where Jane Goodall began in 1960 the chimpanzee study that still continues; the habituated groups can be approached in a small party with a ranger, after a sometimes steep walk through the forest.

The park also shelters olive baboons, red colobus, red-tailed monkeys and more than 200 bird species, and the lake itself, one of the deepest in the world, is good for swimming and snorkelling among the cichlids. Dry season June to October for tracking; Kigoma is reached by air from Dar es Salaam or Arusha, or by train.

Saadani is Tanzania's only national park on the Indian Ocean, about a hundred kilometres north of Dar es Salaam, across from Zanzibar. Over about 1,100 km² it mixes savannah, coastal forest, mangroves and beach: you see giraffes, buffalo, elephants, waterbuck and, with luck, lions, before ending the day with your feet in the water. The Wami River, in the south of the park, is cruised by boat among hippos, crocodiles and birds.

Green turtles nest on Madete beach, and the fishing village of Saadani, one of the oldest trading posts on the coast, can be visited. The park is reached by road from Dar es Salaam (4 to 5 hours) or by light aircraft, including from Zanzibar, making it a natural stop between safari and beach.

The Udzungwa Mountains belong to the Eastern Arc, an ancient range whose isolated forests have produced unique wildlife: the Iringa red colobus and the Sanje mangabey live nowhere else. The park, created in 1992, protects about 1,990 km² of unbroken forest from 250 m to over 2,500 m and counts more than 400 bird species. No 4x4 game drives here: everything is done on foot with a ranger.

The most popular hike climbs to the Sanje falls, a three-tier cascade of about 170 m with a swimmable pool (4 to 5 hours return from the gate). The hardier set off for the Mwanihana plateau or several days' trek towards Luhomero. The park gate is at Mang'ula, an hour's drive south of Mikumi.