Destinations

Arusha National Park is a compact 137 km² park about 25 km east of Arusha city, gazetted in 1960 around the Ngurdoto Crater and later extended to include Mount Meru and the Momella Lakes. It packs three distinct landscapes into a small area: the grassy floor of Ngurdoto Crater, a chain of shallow alkaline lakes in the north-east, and the forested slopes of Mount Meru, Tanzania's second-highest mountain at 4,566 m. The forest holds black-and-white colobus and blue monkeys, bushbuck and forest birds such as the Narina trogon, while giraffe, buffalo, zebra and warthog graze the open ground. The Momella Lakes carry large numbers of waders and, seasonally, flamingos. Because the park has no lions, it is one of the few places on the northern circuit where ranger-led walking safaris and canoeing on the lakes are routine. It is also the base for the four-day Mount Meru climb from Momella Gate.

Best June–October (dry season); Meru climbs also Dec–Feb

Sikjunior · CC0

Gombe Stream is the strip of forested hills on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika where Jane Goodall began her study of wild chimpanzees in July 1960, at the age of 26. Her observations of tool use among the Kasekela community changed the scientific understanding of primate behaviour, and the Gombe Stream Research Centre, founded in 1967, is now the longest-running field study of any wild animal, at more than sixty years. At only 35 km² it is Tanzania's smallest national park, reached by boat from Kigoma, about 20 km to the south; there is no road access. Visits centre on guided treks to find the habituated chimpanzee families, which move between the valley streams and the ridge tops. Olive baboons frequent the lakeshore, and red colobus, red-tailed and blue monkeys share the forest canopy. Around 200 bird species have been recorded, and the clear lake water in front of the camp is suitable for swimming and snorkelling.

Best Jun–Oct

fabulousfabs · CC BY 2.0

Gombe Stream National Park protects 35 km² of steep, forested valleys rising from the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika in Kigoma Region. Established in 1968, it is the smallest of Tanzania's national parks and is accessible only by boat from Kigoma town. The park's chimpanzee population, studied continuously since 1960, is its main draw. Trekking with a guide through the valleys usually leads to one of the habituated communities, and time with the animals is limited to an hour to reduce disturbance. Leopards are the main predator in the park, and hippos, small antelope and around 200 bird species are also present. The forest is a mosaic of evergreen valley woodland and grassy ridges, and a walk to the Kakombe waterfall or to Jane's Peak gives views across the lake to the Congo. Accommodation is limited to a lodge and TANAPA bandas on the lakeshore, so numbers are small and advance booking is needed.

Best June–October (dry season)

fabulousfabs · CC BY 2.0

The island's last stand of groundwater forest and the only home of the Zanzibar red colobus.

Best Year-round

Mnazini · CC BY 4.0

Katavi National Park covers 4,471 km² of western Tanzania, about 40 km south of Mpanda. It began as a game reserve, was gazetted as a national park in 1974 and was extended to its present size in 1997. The park is built around the Katuma River and the seasonal floodplains of Lake Katavi and Lake Chada, which are broad grassy expanses for most of the year. Its reputation rests on the late dry season, when the Katuma shrinks to a chain of pools and hundreds of hippos crowd into the remaining mud, with crocodiles retreating into riverbank caves. Very large herds of buffalo, together with zebra, giraffe, elephant and their attendant lions, gather along the same water. Katavi is one of the least-visited parks in the country — around 1,500 international visitors in a year — because access is by charter flight or a long unpaved drive. Camps are few and offer game drives and walks with little other traffic.

Best June–October (dry season); Aug–Oct for hippo concentrations

Calle v H · CC BY 2.0

The 'Garden of God' — a highland plateau that flowers with orchids after the rains.

Best December–April (flowering)

Daniel Msirikale · CC BY-SA 4.0

Lake Manyara is a shallow alkaline lake at the foot of the western wall of the Gregory Rift, about 126 km south-west of Arusha on the road to Ngorongoro. It is a closed basin with no outflow, so its extent swings widely between seasons: it can stretch 40 km long and 15 km wide yet reaches a maximum depth of only about 3.7 m at the end of the rains, and its pH sits near 9.5. The soda water supports dense blooms of algae and, in the right conditions, very large flocks of lesser flamingos, together with pelicans, storks and other waterbirds; historic counts have exceeded two million birds. The lake was included in a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1981, and roughly 200 km² of its surface lies inside Lake Manyara National Park along the western shore. Visitors see the lake from the park's forest and shoreline tracks, from the viewpoint on the escarpment road above Mto wa Mbu, and from canoes when water levels allow.

Best Jun–Oct, Jan–Feb

Gaurav Pandit · CC BY-SA 3.0

Lake Manyara National Park is a narrow strip of land between the wall of the Gregory Rift and the western shore of Lake Manyara, about 126 km from Arusha. It was a game reserve from 1957 and became a national park in 1960; the park covers 648 km², of which roughly 230 km² is lake surface, and it forms part of a UNESCO biosphere reserve declared in 1981. Springs at the base of the escarpment feed a groundwater forest of fig and mahogany just inside the gate, home to blue monkeys, baboon troops and elephants. Beyond it the ground opens into acacia woodland and grassy floodplain, where the park's lions are known for resting in trees. Around 390 bird species have been recorded, and flamingos gather on the lake in large numbers when conditions suit. Most visitors spend a half or full day here between Tarangire and Ngorongoro. A treetop walkway, night game drives and canoeing on the lake add to the standard circuit.

Best Jun–Oct (dry) and Jan–Feb

Gaurav Pandit · CC BY-SA 3.0

The Mahale Mountains rise straight from the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika in Kigoma Region, their forested ridges climbing to Mount Nkungwe. The range is protected within Mahale Mountains National Park, gazetted in 1985 after Japanese primatologists had studied its chimpanzees since the 1960s, and it is home to one of the largest known populations of eastern chimpanzees. There are no roads in or near the park. Visitors arrive by light aircraft to a lakeshore airstrip and then by boat, and all exploration is on foot. Chimpanzee trekking starts from the beach camps and follows the habituated M group up steep forest paths; encounters are limited to an hour. The setting is unusual for a chimpanzee destination: white-sand beaches, clear water for swimming and snorkelling among Tanganyika's endemic cichlids, and dhow trips at sunset. With around a thousand visitors a year and a handful of camps, the mountains remain one of the quietest wildlife areas in Tanzania.

Best Jun–Oct

Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the University of Maryland’s Global Land Cover Facility. · Public domain

Mahale Mountains National Park covers 1,650 km² on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika in western Tanzania. Research began in 1979 and the park was established in 1985; it is one of only two protected areas for chimpanzees in the country and holds the larger population. The park has no roads or internal infrastructure — the only way in and out is by boat, usually after a charter flight from Arusha or Dar es Salaam. The park is explored on foot. Daily treks with a guide lead into the lower forest to find the habituated chimpanzees; other primates include red colobus, blue and red-tailed monkeys, and the forest holds forest species such as bushpig and leopard. The upper slopes carry montane forest and grassland, and the eastern side, drier miombo woodland. The lakeshore in front of the camps has sandy beaches and clear water, and afternoons are typically spent swimming, kayaking or fishing. The park recorded 1,074 visitors in 2012, which gives a sense of how few people share it.

Best June–October (dry season)

Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the University of Maryland’s Global Land Cover Facility. · Public domain

Mikumi National Park lies about 283 km west of Dar es Salaam on the surfaced A7 highway to Iringa, which crosses the park and makes it the most accessible wildlife area from the coast. Established in 1964, it covers 3,230 km² and borders the former Selous Game Reserve, now Nyerere National Park, to the south, so that the two form a single ecosystem. The heart of the park is the Mkata floodplain, an open grassland with scattered acacia, baobab and palm that is often compared to the Serengeti. Elephant, buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, eland and lion are seen on the plain, and the hippo pools near the main gate are a reliable stop. More than 400 bird species have been recorded. The Uluguru and Udzungwa ranges frame the horizons, and Malundwe Mountain at 1,290 m is the park's highest point. Mikumi suits short trips from Dar es Salaam and combines with Udzungwa Mountains National Park for forest hiking and waterfalls.

Best June–October (dry season)

Muhammad Mahdi Karim · CC BY-SA 3.0

Dry savannah under the Pare and Usambara ranges, with black rhino and wild dog sanctuaries.

Best June–October (dry)

Nicola Avery · CC BY-SA 2.0

Kilimanjaro National Park protects the upper slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, from the montane forest belt above about 1,820 m to the 5,895 m summit. It was established in 1973, opened to the public in 1977 and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987; it covers 1,688 km² in Kilimanjaro Region, near the town of Moshi and roughly 300 km south of the equator. The park exists chiefly for climbing. Seven designated routes — Marangu, Machame, Lemosho, Shira, Rongai, Umbwe and the Northern Circuit — lead through the forest and moorland to the summit crater, and every group must be accompanied by a licensed guide and registered porters. Around 50,000 people enter the park each year, and in 2012–13 some 16,400 attempted the summit. The forest belt holds blue monkeys, colobus, bushbuck and duiker, with elephant, buffalo and leopard present but rarely seen. Day walks from Marangu Gate to the Mandara Huts and the Maundi Crater give non-climbers a taste of the mountain.

Best Jan–Feb and Jun–Oct (dry seasons)

Sergey Pesterev · CC BY-SA 4.0

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area covers 8,292 km² of highlands and plains between Lake Manyara and the Serengeti, about 180 km west of Arusha. Established in 1959 and administered by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, it is the only protected area in Tanzania where wildlife conservation and resident Maasai pastoralism are managed together. UNESCO listed it as a natural World Heritage Site in 1979 and extended the listing to a mixed natural and cultural site in 2010. The Ngorongoro Crater is the centrepiece, but the area also contains the Empakaai and Olmoti craters, the Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli fossil sites, and the short-grass plains around Lake Ndutu where the wildebeest migration calves between December and March. Activities range from crater game drives to walks on the crater highlands with Maasai guides, visits to bomas, and the museum at Olduvai. The area received 752,232 visitors in 2023.

Best Year-round; Jun–Oct dry, Dec–Mar for calving

Zenith4237 · CC BY-SA 4.0

The Ngorongoro Crater is a large volcanic caldera formed two to three million years ago when a volcano, thought to have stood 4,500–5,800 m high, collapsed in on itself. The floor lies about 610 m below the rim at roughly 1,800 m above sea level and covers around 260 km², some 19 km across, enclosed on all sides by steep, forested walls. Around 25,000 large animals live on the floor year-round: wildebeest, zebra and gazelle on the grassland, hippos in the Ngoitokitok springs, elephant bulls in the Lerai fever-tree forest, and one of Africa's densest lion populations. It is one of the most reliable places in Tanzania to see black rhino, whose numbers recovered from 13 in 1993 to 55 by 2018. Lake Magadi in the centre draws lesser flamingos. Game drives descend by one road and leave by another, with a limit of 50 vehicles on the floor at a time and a daily crater service fee per vehicle. The crater was named one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa in 2013.

Best Year-round

Giles Laurent · CC BY-SA 4.0

Nyerere National Park was created in 2019 from the northern and eastern part of the Selous Game Reserve and named after Julius Nyerere, Tanzania's first president. At 30,893 km² it is the largest national park in the country, comparable in size to Belgium, and it lies roughly 200 km south-west of Dar es Salaam by road, with several airstrips for fly-in safaris. The park is defined by the Rufiji River, Tanzania's largest, which spreads into a network of lakes and channels north of Stiegler's Gorge. Boat safaris among hippos, crocodiles and riverside birdlife are the signature activity, alongside walking safaris and fly camping, which the former reserve's regulations allowed and the park has retained. Wildlife includes lion, leopard, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and one of Africa's most significant populations of African wild dogs. Elephant numbers fell by about two-thirds between 2009 and 2013 through poaching; national park status was intended to strengthen protection. The Julius Nyerere hydropower dam at Stiegler's Gorge, completed in the 2020s, sits within the park.

Best Jun–Oct

Erasmus Kamugisha · CC BY-SA 4.0

Nyerere National Park is the photographic-safari portion of the old Selous ecosystem, gazetted in 2019 and managed by TANAPA. It takes in the Rufiji River corridor and the lakes north of it — Tagalala, Manze, Nzerakera and Siwandu — where most of the lodges of the former Selous northern sector stand, so operators still commonly describe it as "the Selous". The river gives Nyerere a character unlike the northern parks. Boat trips drift past sandbanks packed with crocodiles and pods of hippo, with skimmers, fish eagles and carmine bee-eaters along the banks; guided walks and overnight fly camps are part of the standard programme. Game drives run through miombo woodland, palm-fringed lakeshores and open floodplain, with lion, elephant, giraffe, buffalo and good chances of African wild dog. At 30,893 km² the park is enormous and lightly visited outside the lake sector. The dry season from June to October concentrates animals on the water; the long rains from March to May close many camps.

Best June–October (dry)

Erasmus Kamugisha · CC BY-SA 4.0

Ruaha National Park lies about 130 km west of Iringa in south-central Tanzania. It was gazetted in 1964 from the southern part of the Rungwa Game Reserve and, after the Usangu wetlands were added in 2008, covers 20,226 km², making it one of the largest national parks in Africa. It is named after the Great Ruaha River, which runs along its south-eastern boundary and is the focus of game viewing. The park sits where the East African savanna meets the miombo woodland of southern Africa, so it holds both greater and lesser kudu, sable and roan alongside the more familiar plains species. Lion numbers are high — the park has been a Lion Conservation Unit since 2005 — and leopard, cheetah and wild dog are present. Elephant numbers fell sharply through poaching between 2009 and 2015 but remain substantial. More than 570 bird species have been recorded. Granite kopjes, baobab-studded hills and sand rivers give the landscape its character. Access is by road from Iringa or by air to the Msembe and Jongomeru airstrips, and most visitors stay in a handful of camps along the river.

Best Jun–Oct

Henry Hertle datevape · CC0

An island park in Lake Victoria — forest, shoreline and introduced chimpanzees.

Best Year-round

Macabe5387 · CC BY-SA 4.0

The one park where the beach meets the bush — game drives and a boat safari on the Wami River.

Best Year-round

Rasheedhrasheed · CC BY-SA 4.0

Serengeti National Park covers 14,763 km² of grassland, savanna woodland and riverine forest in northern Tanzania, stretching from the Ngorongoro highlands to the Kenyan border and Lake Victoria. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and forms the core of an ecosystem that also includes the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the Maswa, Grumeti and Ikorongo reserves, Loliondo and Kenya's Maasai Mara. The park is best known for the annual migration of some 1.5 million wildebeest and 250,000 zebra, which calve on the southern short-grass plains between January and March, move north-west through the Grumeti corridor in May and June, cross the Mara River in the north between July and October, and return south with the short rains. Resident wildlife is dense year-round, with more than 3,000 lions in the ecosystem, cheetah on the plains, leopard along the Seronera river and over 500 bird species. Seronera in the centre is the administrative hub with the main airstrip; lodges and mobile camps are spread across the southern, central, western and northern sectors.

Best Jun–Oct (dry, river crossings); Jan–Mar for calving

Giles Laurent · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tarangire National Park covers 2,850 km² in Manyara Region, about two hours' drive south-west of Arusha on a surfaced road. Established in 1970, it takes its name from the Tarangire River, which winds the length of the park and is the only permanent fresh water in the surrounding ecosystem during the dry season. That single fact shapes a visit. From June to November, animals that have dispersed across the Maasai steppe converge on the river and the Silale swamp: large elephant herds, zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, eland and oryx, followed by lion, leopard and cheetah. The park is known for its density of elephants and for the ancient baobab trees scattered across the grassland. In the green season the herds thin out but the birdlife — more than 550 recorded species — is at its best. Tarangire is usually the first or last park on a northern circuit and rewards a full day or an overnight stay in the quieter southern sector.

Best June–November (dry season)

Giles Laurent · CC BY-SA 4.0

Rainforest walked rather than driven, with the Sanje Falls at its centre.

Best Year-round

Jens Klinzing · CC BY 3.0

The Selous Game Reserve was first protected in 1896 under German rule, became a hunting reserve in 1905 and was named after Frederick Selous, the hunter and naturalist killed at Beho Beho in 1917. For most of the twentieth century it was Africa's largest game reserve at around 50,000 km², and UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in 1982, placing it on the danger list in 2014 after elephant numbers collapsed from about 109,000 in 1976 to some 13,000 by 2013. In 2019 the northern part along the Rufiji River — the photographic-tourism sector — was carved out as Nyerere National Park. The name Selous now refers to the remaining reserve to the south and west, roughly 19,000 km² of miombo woodland, seasonal rivers and wetlands managed by the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority and let mostly as hunting blocks. The reserve retains elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard, sable and wild dog, but it has almost no photographic lodges or public roads, so visitors on safari itineraries are in practice in Nyerere rather than the reserve proper.

Best Jun–Oct

Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia · CC BY 2.0

Mafia Island lies in the Indian Ocean off the Rufiji delta, about 130 km south of Dar es Salaam, and is reached by a short scheduled flight. The main island covers 394 km² and had 66,180 residents in 2022, most living from fishing and small-scale farming around the town of Kilindoni. The island's southern and eastern waters form the Mafia Island Marine Park, Tanzania's first multi-use marine park, established in 1995 and covering 822 km². Its core is Chole Bay, a deep, reef-sheltered anchorage dotted with islets and sandbanks, where the diving and snorkelling are concentrated. Off the west coast a resident population of whale sharks is seen from around October to March, and swimming with them is the island's best-known activity. On Juani Island the ruins of Kua, a Swahili trading town, and on Chole Island the remains of a nineteenth-century settlement give historical interest. Lodges are few and small, so the island stays quiet compared with Zanzibar.

Best Oct–Mar

Nina R from Africa · CC BY 2.0

A private island ringed by the island's best-known reef, dived and snorkelled from Matemwe.

Best Year-round

I've Got It On Film! · CC BY 2.0

The Lemosho Route approaches Kilimanjaro from the west, starting at Londorossi Gate and crossing the Shira Plateau before joining the southern circuit at Lava Tower and Barranco. It is normally climbed in seven or eight days over about 56 km, and the long, gradual ascent to the summit is why it is generally considered to give the best acclimatisation of the main routes. The first days pass through montane forest with a chance of seeing colobus monkeys and elephant tracks, then open onto the heath and moorland of the Shira Plateau, the remnant of Kilimanjaro's oldest cone at about 4,005 m. From Barranco the route climbs the Barranco Wall, crosses the Karanga valley to Barafu Camp and summits Uhuru Peak (5,895 m) by night, descending the Mweka trail. Because the western side is remote and less used, the early camps are quieter than on the Machame approach. Camping is in tents throughout; hut accommodation exists only on the Marangu Route.

Best Jan–Feb, Jun–Oct

lemosho.net · CC0

The Machame Route, nicknamed the "Whiskey Route", starts at Machame Gate on the south-western slopes of Kilimanjaro and is the second most popular way up the mountain. It is walked in six or seven days over about 49 km, and unlike Marangu it ascends and descends by different paths, which gives varied scenery throughout. The first day climbs through the rainforest belt to Machame Camp, then continues up the Shira ridge onto the moorland of the Shira Plateau. From there the route follows the southern circuit: up to Lava Tower at about 4,600 m and down to Barranco Camp on the same day, an ascent-and-descent that aids acclimatisation, then over the Barranco Wall, through the Karanga valley to Barafu Camp, and a night-time summit push to Uhuru Peak at 5,895 m before descending via Mweka. All nights are spent in tents at designated camps. The route is steeper and more physically demanding than Marangu but has a higher summit success rate when done over seven days.

Best Jan–Feb, Jun–Oct

Jorge Láscar from Australia · CC BY 2.0

The Marangu Route is the oldest and most established path up Kilimanjaro and the only one where climbers sleep in huts rather than tents, which earned it the nickname "Coca-Cola Route". It begins at Marangu Gate above Marangu village in Moshi District, about 39 km from Moshi, and is normally walked in five or six days over roughly 64 km, ascending and descending by the same trail. The path climbs through forest to the Mandara Huts, across moorland to the Horombo Huts, and over the alpine desert of the Saddle between Mawenzi (5,149 m) and Kibo to the Kibo Huts, from which the night ascent reaches Gilman's Point on the crater rim and then Uhuru Peak at 5,895 m. The gradient is the gentlest of the main routes, but the short itinerary leaves little time to acclimatise, and Marangu has one of the lower summit success rates. An extra night at Horombo is the usual remedy. The village of Marangu, whose name means "a place with many streams", has waterfalls and Chagga cultural visits for the days either side.

Best Jan–Feb, Jun–Oct

Christoph Strässler from Oberdorf BL, Schweiz · CC BY-SA 2.0

The Rongai Route is the only established path that climbs Kilimanjaro from the north, starting near the Kenyan border at the Rongai (Nale Moru) gate and finishing with a descent down the Marangu trail on the south-east side. It is usually done in six or seven days over about 65 km, including the long road transfer around the mountain to the trailhead. The northern slopes lie in the mountain's rain shadow, so the route is drier than the southern approaches and is the usual recommendation for climbs during the wetter months. The lower forest is thinner than on Machame or Lemosho, opening quickly onto moorland with views back towards Kenya and the Amboseli plains, and the trail passes beneath the jagged Mawenzi peak (5,149 m) before crossing the Saddle to Kibo Huts for the summit night. The gradient is gentle and traffic is light for most of the ascent, though the descent shares the busy Marangu trail. Camping is in tents; the seven-day variant with a night at Mawenzi Tarn improves acclimatisation.

Best Jan–Feb, Jun–Oct

Mount Meru is a dormant stratovolcano rising to 4,562 m inside Arusha National Park, about 70 km west of Kilimanjaro. It is Tanzania's second-highest mountain and the eighth-highest in Africa; a summit collapse around 7,800 years ago left its distinctive horseshoe crater, open to the east, with a younger ash cone standing on the crater floor. A minor eruption was recorded in 1910. The standard climb is the Momella Route, a three- or four-day ascent from Momella Gate on the eastern side, with nights at the Miriakamba and Saddle huts. Because the lower slopes carry buffalo and giraffe, an armed ranger accompanies every group. The final stage follows the crater rim by night to Socialist Peak, with sunrise views across to Kilimanjaro. The forest holds colobus monkeys and nearly 400 bird species, and the walk passes the Tululusia waterfall and the fig-tree arch. Meru is often used as acclimatisation before Kilimanjaro or as a shorter, quieter alternative to it.

Best Jun–Oct

AmyAbroad · CC BY-SA 4.0

Ol Doinyo Lengai is an active volcano in the Gregory Rift of northern Tanzania, about 16 km south of Lake Natron and 120 km north-west of Arusha. Its summit stands at 2,962 m, some 1,800 m above the rift floor. The Maasai name means "Mountain of God", and the peak is associated with their deity Engai. It is the only volcano on Earth known to erupt natrocarbonatite lava in historical times — a low-temperature, highly fluid magma that flows black and weathers white within days, giving the summit its snow-like cap. The mountain has been active since 1983; a major explosive eruption began in September 2007 and continued into 2008, and activity has been recorded as recently as 2024. The ascent is a single long night: climbers set out around midnight from the base near Engare Sero, gain the summit on steep ash and lava slopes for sunrise, and descend by mid-morning. It is strenuous rather than technical and is normally combined with Lake Natron's flamingo lagoons and the Engare Sero waterfalls.

Best Jun–Sep

Yonas Kidane · CC BY-SA 2.0

Mount Kilimanjaro is a dormant volcano in north-eastern Tanzania and, at 5,895 m, the highest mountain in Africa and the tallest free-standing mountain in the world. It has three cones: Kibo, the youngest and the summit, with fumaroles still active in its crater; Mawenzi at 5,149 m; and the eroded Shira at 4,005 m. The upper mountain and its forest belt form Kilimanjaro National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. Climbers pass through five zones on the way up — cultivated foothills, montane rainforest, heath and moorland, alpine desert and the arctic summit zone — and no technical skill is needed, only time to acclimatise. Seven routes are in use, from the hut-served Marangu path to the longer Lemosho and Northern Circuit approaches; most climbs take six to nine days. The ice cap that covered the summit in the 1880s has lost about 85% of its area since 1912, and the remaining Furtwängler, Rebmann and Credner glaciers are expected to disappear within decades.

Best Jan–Mar & Jun–Oct

Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0

Cool forested highlands above Lushoto, walked village to village.

Best Year-round

Jjgodox · CC BY-SA 4.0

A short boat from Stone Town, with a colony of Aldabra giant tortoises and a quarantine-station ruin.

Best Year-round

Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pemba is the northern island of the Zanzibar archipelago, about 50 km north of Unguja and separated from the mainland by the deep Pemba Channel. It covers 988 km² and is more hilly, greener and far less visited than Unguja; the 2022 census counted 543,441 residents, and Chake-Chake is the main town, with Wete and Mkoani the district capitals. The island's economy rests on cloves — some 3.5 million trees, the largest concentration in Zanzibar — with rice, coconut and fishing. For visitors the draw is underwater: the channel's steep walls, healthy coral and abundant pelagic fish make Pemba one of East Africa's best dive areas, and the Misali Island reserve offers sheltered snorkelling. Game fishing in the channel is well established. On land, the Ngezi forest in the north shelters the endemic Pemba flying fox, the island is a BirdLife Important Bird Area for its endemic green pigeon, scops owl, white-eye and sunbird, and ruins at Ras Mkumbuu and Pujini record medieval Swahili settlements.

Best Jun–Oct

Commander Keane · CC BY-SA 4.0

Kendwa is a village and beach on the north-west coast of Unguja, a few kilometres south of Nungwi and about 55 km from Stone Town, looking out across the water towards Tumbatu Island. It is a small settlement whose economy has shifted from fishing to the hotels and beach bars strung along the sand. The beach faces west, which gives it sunsets over the sea, and the shore shelves gently with a modest tidal range compared with the east coast, so the water stays swimmable through the day. Boats run from the beach to the Nungwi reefs and Tumbatu for snorkelling and diving, and sunset dhow cruises are a fixture. Kendwa is also known for its full-moon beach parties, which draw visitors from across the island. Accommodation ranges from budget bungalows to larger resorts, and the village makes an easy base for the Nungwi turtle sanctuary and dhow-building yards a short walk or ride to the north.

Best Jun–Oct, Jan–Feb

Giuseppe palumbo · CC0

Nungwi sits at the northern tip of Unguja, about 56 km from Stone Town, and with 30,762 residents in the 2022 census it is the island's second-largest settlement. It grew up as a fishing and dhow-building village, and the boatyards on the beach still build wooden dhows by hand; a lighthouse marks the headland. Since the 2000s it has become Zanzibar's main resort village, with hotel capacity more than doubling between 2008 and 2013 to around a thousand rooms, and its beach was named among CNN's hundred best in 2014. The sand faces west and north-west, the tidal range is small enough for swimming at most hours, and the reefs off the point and around Mnemba atoll, reached by boat, give some of the island's best snorkelling and diving. The Mnarani natural aquarium keeps rescued sea turtles in a tidal pool, and sunset dhow cruises leave from the beach. Nightlife is livelier than elsewhere on the island; Kendwa lies a short walk south.

Best Jun–Oct, Jan–Feb

Jang Woo Lee · CC BY 3.0

Paje is a village on the south-east coast of Unguja, between Bwejuu and Jambiani and about 50 km from Stone Town by a surfaced road across the island. It is a long, white beach fronted by a wide, shallow lagoon that is sheltered from the open ocean by an offshore reef. The lagoon is what defines the place. At low tide the water withdraws for hundreds of metres, leaving flat sand where village women tend seaweed farms; at high tide it fills to a swimmable depth. Steady side-onshore winds for much of the year, especially from December to March and June to September, together with the flat, shallow water, have made Paje the kitesurfing centre of East Africa, with schools and rental stations along the beach. Beyond kiting, visitors take boat trips to the Blue Lagoon and the reef, visit the Jozani forest for red colobus a short drive inland, and eat at the beach restaurants; the village keeps a low-key, backpacker-and-kiter atmosphere rather than a resort one.

Best Jun–Oct

Jadou5233 · CC BY-SA 4.0

The quiet stretch between Paje and Michamvi, palms to the waterline.

Best Year-round

Chris huh · CC BY-SA 4.0

A long south-east village beach, strung with seaweed farms and low-key guesthouses.

Best Year-round

Yann Macherez · CC BY-SA 4.0

A southern fishing village known for its resident dolphins and a 12th-century mosque.

Best Year-round

Behrang · CC0

A quiet north-east village facing Mnemba, and the closest coast to the atoll.

Best Year-round

Mangapwani · CC BY-SA 4.0

The headland that closes Chwaka Bay — the east coast's one west-facing sunset.

Best Year-round

A sandbar off Stone Town that surfaces at low tide and is gone by evening.

Best Year-round

Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania made up of the islands of Unguja (1,464 km²) and Pemba (985 km²) and their islets, lying 25–50 km off the mainland coast. The 2022 census recorded about 1.9 million residents. Ruled by the Omani sultans from the 1830s and then a British protectorate, it united with Tanganyika in 1964 after its own revolution, and it keeps its own government and president. The islands were the centre of the East African spice and slave trades, and cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and pepper are still grown and shown on farm tours. Stone Town, the old port city on Unguja's west coast, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The beaches on the north and east of Unguja — Nungwi, Kendwa, Matemwe, Paje and Jambiani — are the main resort areas, with Mnemba atoll for snorkelling and Jozani forest for the endemic Zanzibar red colobus. The long rains fall from March to May and a shorter wet spell in November; the driest months are June to October, with January and February hot and mostly dry.

Best June–October & December–February

A coastal town of caravan-route and abolition history, an hour north of Dar.

Best Year-round

Dominic Deusdedith · CC BY-SA 4.0

The UNESCO-listed ruins of a Swahili trading sultanate on an offshore island.

Best Year-round

David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada · CC BY 2.0

The Kondoa Rock-Art Sites are a collection of painted rock shelters on the eastern slopes of the Maasai escarpment in central Tanzania, roughly 20 km north of Kondoa town and 9 km east of the main Arusha–Dodoma road. UNESCO inscribed the sites on the World Heritage List in 2006; the listed area covers 233,600 hectares and is estimated to hold between 150 and 450 decorated shelters. The paintings span several traditions. The oldest are naturalistic red-ochre figures of animals and elongated humans attributed to hunter-gatherers; later "late white" paintings of cattle and geometric forms are linked to farming and pastoralist communities. Excavation at the Kisese II shelter shows the area was occupied more than 40,000 years ago. The most accessible shelters are around Kolo village, where the Antiquities office assigns guides; walks to the shelters take an hour or two on foot. The Sandawe people still use some shelters for healing ceremonies, so the sites remain a living tradition rather than a museum.

Best Jun–Oct

Nina R from Africa · CC BY 2.0

A coral cave and a slave chamber on the north-west coast, held after abolition.

Best Year-round

Post of Zanzibar · Public domain

Chagga homesteads, underground caves and waterfalls at the Kilimanjaro trailhead.

Best Year-round

The excavation site where the Leakeys found some of the earliest hominin remains.

Best Year-round

D. Gordon E. Robertson · CC BY-SA 3.0

Olduvai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine about 48 km long and up to 90 m deep, cut into ancient lake-bed sediments on the eastern edge of the Serengeti plains, inside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Its exposed beds span roughly the last 1.9 million years and have produced at least 85 hominid fossils, including Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei. Louis and Mary Leakey worked here from the 1930s. In July 1959 Mary Leakey found the skull of Zinjanthropus (Paranthropus boisei) at the FLK site, and in 1960 the jaw that became the type specimen of Homo habilis. Together with the 3.6-million-year-old hominin footprints at nearby Laetoli, these finds are why the region is called the cradle of mankind. The Olduvai Gorge Museum on the rim, rebuilt in 2017 and one of the largest on-site museums in Africa, sets out the stratigraphy, tools and fossils. Most visitors stop for an hour or two on the drive between Ngorongoro and the Serengeti; guided walks to the excavation sites can be arranged.

Best Jun–Oct

Pi3.124 · CC BY-SA 4.0

The plantations inland of Stone Town where cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon are grown and the island got its name.

Best Year-round

Rwebogora · CC BY-SA 4.0

Stone Town is the old quarter of Zanzibar City on the western shore of Unguja, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. It grew rapidly after the Omani sultan moved his court here in the 1830s, and its coral-stone buildings, narrow lanes and carved wooden doors record the Swahili, Arab, Persian, Indian and European influences of a nineteenth-century trading port that dealt in spices, ivory and slaves. The seafront holds the main landmarks: the seventeenth-century Old Fort, the House of Wonders of 1883 — the first building in East Africa with a lift — the Sultan's Palace museum and Forodhani Gardens, where a food market sets up each evening. Inland, the Anglican cathedral stands on the site of the former slave market, with a memorial and museum beside it. The house where Freddie Mercury was born is a short walk away. Most visits are on foot with a guide, taking in the market, the doors and the rooftop terraces at sunset; spice-farm tours and Prison Island boat trips start from here.

Best Jun–Oct, Jan–Feb

Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0

Arusha is the principal city of northern Tanzania and the usual starting point for the northern safari circuit and Kilimanjaro climbs. It sits at about 1,400 m on the southern slopes of Mount Meru, close to the eastern branch of the Great Rift Valley, and its altitude gives it a temperate climate despite the equatorial latitude. The 2022 census recorded 617,631 residents. The city is the headquarters of the East African Community and hosts the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights; the Arusha Declaration, which set out Tanzania's post-independence policy, was signed here in 1967. Arusha National Park lies about 25 km to the east and Kilimanjaro International Airport roughly 50 km away, while the road west leads to Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. Visitors typically spend a night either side of a safari, using the time for the Cultural Heritage Centre, the central market, coffee-farm visits and day trips into Arusha National Park.

Best Jun–Oct

Halidtz · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dar es Salaam is Tanzania's largest city and commercial centre, with a population of roughly 7.8 million in 2023. Founded in the 1860s by Sultan Majid of Zanzibar, it served as the national capital until the government's move to Dodoma, and its port still handles around 90% of the country's cargo. For travellers it is the main entry point to the southern safari circuit — Nyerere and Mikumi are reachable by road or light aircraft — and the departure point for ferries to Zanzibar. Within the city, the Kivukoni waterfront with its fish market, the National Museum with its palaeontological collection, the Kariakoo market and the Askari Monument give a half-day of sightseeing, and the Kigamboni beaches and Bongoyo Island lie a short boat ride away. The climate is hot and humid year-round; the long rains fall from March to May, with the driest and most comfortable months from June to September.

Best Jun–Sep

Hobbyfotowiki · CC0

The town under Kilimanjaro — coffee houses, markets and the base for most climbs.

Best Year-round

Lebu Ayiga · CC BY 4.0

A forested caldera with a soda lake at its floor, walked down rather than driven.

Best June–October (dry)

Halidtz · CC BY-SA 4.0

Spring-fed pools under fig roots, clear and warm year-round — the usual afternoon after a Kilimanjaro descent.

Best Year-round

ZuriyEyna · CC BY-SA 4.0

A crater lake on the Kenya border that changes colour with the light, walkable rim and kayaking below.

Best Year-round

Joachim Huber · CC BY-SA 2.0

A quiet crater lake outside Arusha, canoeing among monitor lizards and kingfishers.

Best Year-round

Fanny Schertzer · CC BY-SA 3.0

A Rift Valley lake and the home of the Hadzabe and Datoga communities.

Best June–October (dry)

NASA · Public domain

A caustic soda lake below Ol Doinyo Lengai and the breeding ground of East Africa's lesser flamingos.

Best June–October (dry)

NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team · Public domain

A 90-metre waterfall on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, reached through Chagga farmland and usually paired with a coffee tour in the village.

Best Year-round

Halidtz · CC BY-SA 4.0

The protected bay off the south-west coast — sandbanks, reefs and the Safari Blue day.

Best Year-round