Tanzania is three holidays on one visa. The order is the hard part.
What a week of group camping in the Serengeti really costs against a fly-in day from Zanzibar. Which Kilimanjaro route gets more people to the summit. Whether the Mnemba boat is worth the money. Reviews of every tour you can book in Tanzania.
The four bookings a first Tanzanian trip hangs off.
The camping safari that sets the budget, the morning on the crater floor, the climb, and the boat out to the reef. What each costs and what the people who took it say.
01The safari week4 Days Group Camping SafariFour days of shared tents, a cook and a Land Cruiser through Tarangire, the crater and the Serengeti. The number every other plan gets measured against.
02The crater dayNgorongoro Crater Day TripDown onto the floor of Ngorongoro for a morning, back up by lunch. The one park day that works without a week attached to it.
03The summit weekKilimanjaro climb by Lemosho Route (7-day)Seven days up Lemosho, the route that buys you an extra night to acclimatise. Book the porters and the park fees long before the flight.
04The Mnemba morningFrom Kendwa: Mnemba Boat Trip and Dolphin Snorkel AdventureOut from Kendwa to the Mnemba reef for dolphins and a snorkel stop. Go on the early boat, before the wind gets up.
Northern parks, one mountain, and an island running on its own clock.
Tanzania does not have a single centre. Six starting points, what each is actually for, and the best day out in every one.
Camping, mid-range lodge or fly-in: the safari decision comes first.
Every other line in a Tanzanian budget is set by this one. Four ways onto the northern plains, what it costs to join each and how many days it wants from you.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Serengeti Balloon Safari and authentic bush breakfast
Group campingShared tents, a cook travelling with you, the cheapest seat onto the plains.
Mid-rangeA bed and a hot shower between game drives, usually just outside the gate.
LodgeA lodge inside the park boundary, so the dawn drive starts where the animals already are.
Fly-in day safariA light aircraft from the coast, one long game drive, back before dark.
All 604 safaris on the site →
Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Tarangire are sold as one circuit because the road makes them one.
Tarangire for the elephant herds, a morning down on the crater floor, then the Serengeti for as long as the budget holds. Reverse it and you spend the good light driving.
On Zanzibar the day is decided at the jetty, not the hotel desk.
Everything on Zanzibar →
Three kinds of day, and they do not combine well. North for the reef and the dolphins, out to the sandbank for the swim and a grilled lunch, or the old town on foot. These carry more travellers than anything else on the island.
Mnemba, dolphins and a snorkel stop
Boats leave Kendwa and Matemwe early because the channel gets choppy by eleven. You snorkel the edge of the atoll, not the island itself, which is private and stays that way.
Prison Island, Nakupenda and lunch on the sand
A sandbar that appears at low tide and is gone by evening, usually paired with the giant tortoises on Prison Island. Check the tide time before you book the date, not after.
Stone Town on foot
Coral-rag lanes, carved doors, the spice market and the old slave market, which is a memorial and is guided as one. Go before ten or after four; the middle of the day is unwalkable.
On Kilimanjaro the route decides your summit odds, not your fitness.
Machame is the busy classic. Lemosho adds two days of walking and a night of acclimatisation, which is why more of its climbers reach Uhuru Peak. Marangu sleeps in huts and is the one people underestimate.
- 1Kilimanjaro climb by Lemosho Route (7-day)from $3,476
- 2The Best of Machame Route in 6 Days: Your World’s Summit Guidefrom $1,150
- 3marangu Route 6 Days Itineraryfrom $1,950
Tanzania’s most booked days out.
Every Tanzanian review →Nothing else in the country carries these numbers of travellers, and the reason differs every time.
1
Serengeti Balloon Safari and authentic bush breakfast
You’ll leave your lodge around 5:00 am for a sunrise balloon flight over the Serengeti, guided by an experienced pilot such as Kevin, Paul, Jeff, or Mohamed. Flights last about an hour, followed by bubbly and a full English breakfast beneath an acacia. Seasonal launch areas include Seronera, Kogatende, Ndutu, and Kiwarira.
From · $550
Read our review →
2
From Zanzibar: Mikumi Safari Day Trip with Flights and Meal
from $451
3
Quad Bike Adventure departing from Kendwa or Nungwi
4
Stone Town, Spice Tour, Prison Island with Lunch
from $68
5
Tanzania Classic – 7 Days
from $3,913
6
4 Days Group Camping Safari
from $900
7
From Kendwa: Mnemba Boat Trip and Dolphin Snorkel Adventure
from $50
8
From Zanzibar: Day Selous Game Reserve Safari with Flights
from $470
Two million animals, and they are never where the brochure says.
The herds run a loop. December to March they calve on the short-grass plains in the south; June to August they are pushing north over the rivers. A trip sold as the migration with no month attached is selling you the Serengeti, which is worth having anyway.
Arusha and Moshi sell the same three day trips, and each is worth a day.
Materuni waterfall with the Chagga coffee that grows under it, the hot springs at Kikuletwa where the water is clear enough to count the tree roots, and a walking morning through Arusha’s market streets. All under $110, all back for dinner.
- 1Materuni Waterfalls, coffee tour & Kikuletwa Hot Springsfrom $100
- 2Materuni Waterfall, Coffee Tour and Picnic Hot Lunchfrom $70
- 3Materuni Waterfalls & Chemka Hotsprings Day Tripfrom $100
What a day out in Tanzania costs, and what a week in the parks costs.
Every tour on the site grouped by price. The island days are cheap and the parks are not, and that gap is the whole planning problem.
Stone Town walking mornings, spice farms, snorkel trips and the short hops out of Nungwi.
Full days: the sandbank boat, Materuni and the coffee, Jozani forest, a crater picnic lunch.
Multi-day safaris, Kilimanjaro climbs, and the fly-in day trips from the coast.
Three things that only happen in Tanzania.
Beaches and game parks exist all over Africa. A herd two million strong on the move, a crater floor with its own resident lions, and a monkey that lives in one forest and nowhere else do not.
The Great Migration
Roughly a million and a half wildebeest and a few hundred thousand zebra circle between the southern Serengeti and the Masai Mara, following the rain rather than a calendar. The calving weeks on the short grass in February are the easiest to plan around; the river crossings in the north are the ones people photograph, and nobody can promise you a date for them.
- 18 Days Great Wildebeest Calving Migration Safari from Arusha★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 254 reviews
- 28 Day Spectacular Migration Serengeti mid -Range Tanzania Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 161 reviews
- 3Private 6-Day Great Migration Ndutu Serengeti Safari Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 47 reviews
The Ngorongoro Crater
A volcano collapsed here two and a half million years ago and left a bowl twenty kilometres across with its own permanent population: lions that never leave, elephants with tusks nobody sees elsewhere, and the last black rhino most visitors will ever get near. Vehicles must be down on the floor early and out by late afternoon, so the day starts before dawn.
- 1Ngorongoro Crater Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 72 reviews
- 26 days 5 nights safari Ngorongoro, Serengeti and Tarangire National Parks★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 39 reviews
- 3Ngorongoro Adventure Day Tour from Arusha★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 15 reviews
Jozani’s Red Colobus
The Zanzibar red colobus lives in this one patch of groundwater forest and nowhere else on earth, and there are only a few thousand of them left. The troops sit low in the trees beside the path, which is why the visit takes an hour rather than a morning. The boardwalk through the mangroves at the far end is the quiet half.
- 1Jozani Forest & Sea Tortoises Sanctuary Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 204 reviews
- 2Dolphin tour, Jozani Forest, Jambiani Kuza Cave, Paje Beach &The Rock restaurent★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 164 reviews
- 3Zanzibar full day Jozani forest + Spice farm and stone town★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 90 reviews
Four Tanzanian bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on park permits, aircraft seats and the movements of animals, none of which take any interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Kilimanjaro climb by Lemosho Route (7-day)Park fees are paid per day in advance and the crew has to be booked with them. Good operators fill their July and August departures months out.
- 02Serengeti Balloon Safari and authentic bush breakfastOne flight a morning, a fixed number of seats in the basket, and it is weather-dependent on top of that. In the dry season the Serengeti balloons are gone weeks ahead.
- 038 Days Great Wildebeest Calving Migration Safari from ArushaThe herds are only in the south to calve and only in the north to cross the rivers. Picking the month is the booking; the camp is the easy part.
- 04From Zanzibar: Mikumi Safari Day Trip with Flights and MealA fly-in day safari is a light aircraft with a handful of seats out of Zanzibar. They sell out first in the dry months, and the plane does not wait.
March to May, when the park tracks turn to mud and the small boats stay in.
The long rains shut some camps outright, put the black-cotton tracks in the western Serengeti out of use, and cancel the Zanzibar boats at a few hours’ notice. What still works is anything on a made road or under a roof: a spice farm, a coffee morning up in the Chagga villages, a kitchen, the old town on foot.
By place — parks, mountain and coast
By kind of day — plains, reef, mountain or kitchen
Arusha, Tarangire, Ngorongoro, Serengeti, then the coast.
Latest out of Tanzania.
The rest of what landed →
Turtle Snorkeling, Jozani Forest, Kuza Cave, Rock Restaurant
Read our review →
Prison island(Changuu island) & stone town walking tour
Read our review →
1-Day Fly in Shared Safari to Mikumi National Park from Zanzibar
Read our review →
