Tanzania is one of the most beautiful safari countries in East Africa.  The country has top class wildlife parks and reserves set aside for big game viewing with stunning natural scenery. Tanzania also offers amazing beach holiday along the Indian Ocean.

Safari Camps in the remote areas of southern and western Tanzania are usually visited on fly-in safaris, which use light aircraft to fly between the parks and camp. Flying allows quick access to even remote camps, and scheduled aircraft run frequently. Once at the camps, their own guides will use 4WDs and boats to get you around the parks.

In the northern circuit, the choice is more complex. The main parks here are relatively close together, and so private-guided safaris work very well – and are the obvious choice when small groups or families are traveling together. These have the advantage that you’ll drive through the towns and rural areas, and be able to stop there – giving you insights into local life, and showing you what Tanzania is like outside its safari areas. However, traveling by road is a lot slower, and journeys can be bumpy, dusty and long.

Safari Holidays in Tanzania can be seen in 4 regions:

Northern Circuit Parks 2. Western circuit parks 3. Southern Circuit reserves 4. Coastal Area and the Islands:

Northern Tanzania Safaris
The parks in northern Tanzania were the first to be developed for Safaris. As such, they are better known in comparison with the other parks. Amongst them are the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, that attract thousands of tourists throughout the year.  Being so famous and attracting may visitors, the parks in the north can get rather crowded in some parts and during some seasons. That is why at Hallmark travel Planers, we guide you in finding the best spots to visit and the best travel to travel.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Tanzania’s greatest wildlife showpiece, the Ngorongoro Crater has breath-taking views, phenomenal game and a lot of visitors. Look out for elephants, buffalo and black rhino on the crater floor; the large lion population is far from camera shy. Ngorongoro is regarded as a natural wonder of the world and has been declared a World Heritage Site. It is the largest intact crater in the world, being 610 meters deep, 16 kilometers across and covering an area of 540 square kilometers. On the crater floor, grassland blends into swamps, lakes, rivers, woodland and mountains – all a heaven for wildlife, including the dearest predator population in Africa. The volcanic crater is jam-packed with wildlife, including all the big game. Its pride and joy, however, is that it remains the last great wild refuge for black rhino.

Lake Manyara National Park
This is one of the most diverse of Tanzania’s national parks, a tiny (325km²) combination of Rift valley lake, dense woodlands and steep mountainside. Manyara is a birding paradise (more than 380 species), especially for waterfowl and migrants and the forests are one of the best places around to see leopards. Lions hunt on the grassy shores of the lake and were once known for their habit of climbing trees, although this behavior seems to have been dropped in recent years. The park can easily be seen in a day. Most visitors will tailor a visit to Manyara to fit in with a trip to one of the Big Three parks (Serengeti, Tarangire and Ngorongoro).

Tarangire National Park
At 2,600km², Tarangire is far from being the biggest of theTanzanian parks, but its unrivalled landscape of open plains, dotted with thousands of baobabs, is unforgettable. About 120kms south of Arusha. Tarangire is known for its tree-climbing lions and for its very big herds of buffalo. This is one of Africa’s little-known gems and should be on the itinerary of all lovers of wilderness and solitude. The game numbers are staggering: 30,000 zebra, 25,000 wildebeest, 5,000 buffalo, 3,000 elephant, 2,500 Maasai giraffe and over 1,000 fringe-eared oryx (gemsbok).

Serengeti National Park
The name ‘Serengeti’ comes from the Maasai language and appropriately means an ‘endless plains’. The National Park is as big as Northern Ireland, but its ecosystem, which includes the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the Maswa Game Reserve and the Maasai Mara Game reserve (in Kenya). It lies between the shores of Lake Victoria in the west, Lake Eyasi in the south, and the Great Rift Valley to the east. As such, it offers the most complex and least disturbed ecosystem on earth. A unique combination of diverse habitats enables it to support more than 30 species of large herbivores and nearly 500 species of birds.

Southern Tanzania Safaris
The parks of southern Tanzania are almost similar to the safaris in Southern Africa – Botswana, Zimbabwe etc.  They cover vast remote protected areas with small safari lodges. Game drives are done in open 4WD vehicles with no crowds around the animals.

Selous Game Reserve
Selous is one of the most remote and least visited game parks in Africa, but at 15,000 square miles, it is the world’s largest game reserve. The name derives from hunter-explorer Frederick Courtenay Selous, a keen naturalist and conservationist as well as a hunter. He was killed in the First World War in the Beho Beho region of the reserve. The defining feature of the Selous is the great Rufiji River, which naturally splits the ecosystem into two distinct parts. The area can be explored by boat, sailing through swamps and lagoons where elephant often come to bathe, or even by foot, as the Selous is one of few Tanzanian reserves to allow walking tours. It has the world’s largest number of big game, more than 120,000 elephants, 160,000 buffaloes and about 2,000 rhinoceros. In addition, the Selous contains Africa’s greatest concentration of hippopotamus, crocodile and wild dog

Ruaha National Park
The Ruaha National Park is Tanzania’s second largest park and the world’s largest elephant sanctuary. Although set in spectacular scenery with an abundance of wildlife, the park is one of the lesser visited in the country, keeping it an isolated and peaceful wilderness. Amongst the game found at the park are elephant, buffalo, giraffe, cheetah, lion, leopard, a wide variety of antelope, and over 465 recorded species of bird life.

Mikumi and Udzungwa national parks
Mikumi National Park covers 3237 square and lies within the Mkata River plain bordered by the Uluguru Mountain range to the east and the Rubeho Mountains on the west, an area of lush vegetation which particularly attracts elephants and buffalos. It is one of Tanzania’s smaller parks, best visited with a 4WD and driver/guide. Open grasslands dominate in the flood plain, eventually merging with the Miombo woodland covering the lower hills. Wildlife is abundant with giraffe, zebra, buffalo, hartebeest, wildebeest, elephant, wild dog, and smaller mammals and reptiles.

Western Tanzania Safaris
Of all the tourists circuits in Tanzania, the western parks circuit is the least developed and most remote. So in as much as the game viewing there is fantastic, they are more expensive and receive very few visitors. The two main parks here are:

Katavi National Park
Arguably one of Tanzania’s remotest and wildest parks, Katavi has magnificent safari experience. You will find lions and the bufallo.

Mahale Mountains National Park
With thick-forested and mountainous landscape, Mahale borders Lake Tanganyika on on side, with a superb beach.  But Mahale Mountains national park is better known as the best place to watch chimpanzees up and close. it is remote and therefore expensive to get to, but the safari experience is worth it.