7 Best Places to Visit in Tanzania

Tanzania is the rare country where the famous things genuinely live up to their reputation. The northern safari circuit holds four of Africa's best-known parks within a few hours of each other, Kilimanjaro sits at the edge of it, and Zanzibar is a short flight away when you want to stop moving.

These seven places are what most Tanzania itineraries are built from.

1. Serengeti National Park

The Serengeti is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the best-known wildlife destination in Africa. Its defining event is the annual migration, in which well over a million wildebeest and several hundred thousand zebra move in a continuous loop between the Serengeti and the Masai Mara across the Kenyan border. Where they are depends entirely on the month, so the timing of a visit matters more here than almost anywhere.

2. Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro is the largest intact volcanic caldera in the world, roughly 260 square kilometres of crater floor enclosed by walls several hundred metres high. Because the crater supports water and grazing year-round, its wildlife is largely resident rather than migratory, so game viewing does not depend on the season. It forms part of the wider Ngorongoro Conservation Area, itself a UNESCO site.

3. Mount Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro is Africa's highest mountain at 5,895 metres and the tallest free-standing mountain in the world, rising from open plains rather than from a range. It is a dormant stratovolcano with three volcanic cones, of which Kibo carries the summit. No technical climbing is required on the standard routes, which is why so many non-mountaineers attempt it — though the altitude still turns back a significant share of them.

4. Tarangire National Park

Tarangire is known for two things: very large elephant herds, and baobab trees scattered across the landscape in unusual density. The Tarangire River runs through the park and holds water through the dry season, which concentrates wildlife along it from roughly July to October. It sits close enough to Arusha to work as the first stop on a northern circuit.

5. Lake Manyara National Park

Lake Manyara is a shallow alkaline lake at the foot of the Rift Valley escarpment, and the park is a narrow strip of ground between the two. The lake draws large numbers of flamingos and other waterbirds when levels are right. Manyara is also one of the few places where lions are regularly seen resting in trees, though it is never a guarantee.

6. Stone Town, Zanzibar

Stone Town is the old quarter of Zanzibar City and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, built from coral stone in a mix of Swahili, Arab, Indian and European styles. Its carved and brass-studded wooden doors are the detail most visitors remember. The town was a major East African trading hub, and its history as a centre of the spice and slave trades is documented at sites across the old quarter.

7. Nungwi and Kendwa, Zanzibar

The beaches at the northern tip of Unguja, around Nungwi and Kendwa, are the ones most people picture when they think of Zanzibar. Unlike much of the island's east coast, the tidal range here is small enough that swimming works throughout the day rather than only at high tide. Both villages are about an hour and a half by road from Stone Town.

Staying connected while you travel

Mobile coverage is reliable in Arusha, Moshi, Dar es Salaam and across Zanzibar, and generally works along the main roads between the northern parks. Inside the Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Tarangire it ranges from patchy to nothing at all — lodge wifi is the realistic plan there.

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