Tourist Destinations

Serengeti
The name "Serengeti" has come to represent the safari experience itself, evoking images of sweeping savannahs swarming the lion, wildebeest, and gazelle. In the language of the Maasai the word means "endless pain" and the 5700sq. miles (14,763 sq. km) of park land in Northern Tanzania do indeed seem infinite. Upon these grasslands roam more game animals than anywhere in the world. There are over a million wildebeest alone.

Throughout the winter months of December to March (the best time to visit), many of the animals are concentrated in the park's southern regions, near Ngorongoro. During the spring months of May or June, the vast hears of Wildebeest and zebra start to head west in search of water, beginning a circuitous migration that takes some of them to shores of Lake Victoria, and others to northern areas and to Kenya's Maasai Marae park just across the border.

Virtually every African game animal can be seen in the Serengeti.

Ngorongoro
Ngorongoro is famous around the globe as an echo of Eden. It is a 12 mile (19 km) wide volcanic crater, ringed with towering walls and sheltering forests, grasslands, fresh springs, a large lake, and a dazzling abundance of animals of all sorts.

The sunken cone of the extinct volcano serves as a natural cradle for the wildlife, which remains in the vicinity year-round.

Selous Game Reserve
The Selous is the largest game reserve in Africa. With about 21,000 sq. miles (55,000 sq. km), the reserve carves out a huge portion of Southern Tanzania. The immense size of the game reserve makes it ideal for the traveller seeking a sense of isolation, exploration, and discovery. Few (if any) other people will be visible.

Gombe Stream National Park
Gombe Stream lies at the northern end of Lake Tanganyika. The park's forested mountain slopes, which help define the Great Rift Valley are home to chimpanzees. Visitors can discover these fascinating creatures for themselves. The chimps are accustomed to humans and therefore somewhat approachable.

Gombe Stream National Park is where Jane Goodall conducts her celebrated studies of chimpanzees.

Mt Kilimanjaro
Mt Kilimanjaro is a vision that has fed the human imagination for years, Much more than the highest mountain in Africa, it is innately and inexhaustibly symbolic. Writers render it, climbers conquer it, Africans worship it, and at the end of the day its magnetic singularity remains undiminished. Though speechless wonder reigns in its presence, the traveller who witnesses Kilimanjaro Mountain will speak of it for years.

Rising 19,340 ft (5895 m) above the African plain, Kilimanjaro truly stands alone among the mountains of the world. The huge, solitary volcano is unaccompanied by any mountain chain. Though its size is immense, it also has one of the world's most accessible peaks. People who are in good shape can make the ascent to its summit, Uhuru peak, in a matter of days, passing through five distinctive ecological zones along the way.

The lower slopes of the mountain are defined by coffee and banana fields that rise up and end where the mountain's forest begins. An average of 80 inches of rainfall a year make the forest home to some botanical treats. At an altitude of about 9,000 feet, the forest gives way to grasslands and shrubbery, the elephant can sometimes be spotted roaming the high slopes. At about 13,000 feet life begins to recede, a result of extreme weather conditions inhospitable to anything more than small mosses and lichens. Once the summit area is reached, three glaciers and three volcanic peaks sit in lofty, placid contemplation of the tremendous plains over 3.5 miles below.

It is highly advisable to take the mountain slowly. The thin air is a well-known killer of impatient weekend climbers, who misjudge their abilities and ascend too fast. Altitude sickness is common and can be fatal. No climb is permitted without a guide, and there are six routes up the mountain with varying degrees of difficulty. Huts are available at difference points along the way, and the final ascent begins near midnight and culminates with a spectacular sunrise at the peak.

Lake Manyara

This fine park has a stature that far exceeds it modest 125 square mile (325 sq. km) area, having been a Mecca for seekers of wildlife, and for hunters, since safari travel began. Along its western border lie the cliffs of the Great Rift Valley escarpment, and its eastern border runs along the shores of Lake Manyara. Within this long and narrow corridor are dense concentrations of wildlife inhabiting a lovely and diverse landscape, which ranges from forest of tamarind, mahogany, and fig in the north to the wide open grasslands of the park centre. Elephant, giraffe, lion, buffalo, and zebra are all to be found here, in addition to many other game and bird species.

Mikumi
Located only 283 km from Dar es Salaam, the park is an important educational centre 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. If has a landing strip and is home to, among others, the buffalo, zebra, giraffe, lion, wild dogs, python, monitor lizard, hartebeest, wildebeest, elephant (these elephants are grazers and do not damage trees), 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.

Ruaha
At 13,000 sq. km, it is the second largest Tanzanian park and one of the wildest. It is also the world's largest elephant sanctuary.

The park represents a transition zone where eastern and southern African species of fauna and flora overlap. It is the northernmost example of miombo woodland, common in central Africa, and the most southerly protected area in which Grant's gazelle, lesser kudu and striped hyena are found. To be able to see both greater and lesser kudu and roan and sable antelope in the same park is one of the special attractions of Ruaha.

In the dry season, the river is an excellent place for observing large numbers of game including lions, leopards, hunting dogs, giraffe, waterbuck, eland and warthogs. Thousands of birds flock to Ruaha on their annual migration from Europe to Asia, and 462 bird species have been sighted in the park. The park's residents include kingfishers, plovers, hornbills, green wood hoopoes, bee-eaters, sunbirds and egrets.

The best months for game viewing are July and November when the animals are concentrated around shrinking water holes.

Camping is permitted at various sites including around the park headquarters at Masembe. There are bandas equipped with beds at the headquarters. Essentials except food and drink are provided. There is also a lodge and a tented camp.

Tarangire National Park
Tarangire National Park is home to thousands of elephant in the dry season, when game congregates along the river, and is symbolised by the Baobab tree, growing in open acacia woodland. Tarangire is an ornithologists paradise rich in birds of prey and an incredible diversity of avifauna.

Zanzibar
The island of Zanzibar, the ornate and mysterious jewel of the Indian Ocean, was once the eastern gateway to Africa. It lies twenty-two miles off the Tanzanian coast, and it is no accident that the explorers Livingstone and Burton had homes here. Its lush forests and cloistered Arabic alleyways are indicative of all the esoteric wonders waiting in the continent beyond.

The island has long been a meeting a place of the world. Once the centre of the slave and ivory trade, Zanzibar welcomed into its harbour ships loaded with goods from India and the Far East as well as Europe and America. An Indian bazaar still operates on the island today, as well as the world's largest clove market.

The Oman Arabs who once ruled the island left behind white-washed architectural delights that are in great condition. Among them are the Sultan's Palace, the Arab fort and the Beit el Ajaib (House of Wonders), which is Zanzibar's tallest building.

Visitors often remark that a journey to Zanzibar is like going back in time, the atmosphere is that of the age of colonialism and exploration, the haunting ruins of the slave market would be driven here from the interior of the continent, sometimes over 1,000 miles. On some days, hawkers would sell away as many as 600 lives.