Tanzania is renowned as a safari destination and boasts some of the finest wildlife areas anywhere in Africa. But a Tanzania safari trip is something that needs careful planning if you want to get the most out of what is for many visitors, a once-in-a-lifetime trip. When planning a safari in Tanzania, it is crucial to know the best locations to visit and the best times to go there.
Northern Tanzania offers many world class wildlife areas within a relatively small area. Serengeti, Kilimanjaro and Ngorongoro are the best known regions but Tarangire, Natron, Manyara, and Eyasi are also well worthy of consideration. Tanzania boasts some stunning scenery, incredible diversity and enormous variety and concentrations of wildlife. Almost four in every five visitors to Tanzania visit this Northern region alone, most of them on jeep safari or driving safaris. But most of these safari tourists concentrate only on the well known hotspots and miss out completely on the very best areas and experiences.
The success of any safari to Northern Tanzania largely depends on the Serengeti element of the trip and this area is the best illustration of how you need to understand not just the park but also the dynamics of the different areas within the park. For example, you should treat the busy Serengeti Central with caution and, wherever possible look at visiting the quieter areas, in particular the Serengeti North between August and October or the southern Serengeti Plains and Loliondo between December and May.
Southern Tanzania has really opened up a lot within the last decade but still retains a charm and sense of wilderness that some parts of Northern Tanzania lost a while back. The big hotspots are Selous and Ruaha and these compliment each other perfectly but areas like Saadani, Udzungwa and southern Highlands all have their highlights too. These are typically smaller and simpler bush camps but here you have many more opportunities to go on a walking safari or a boat safari, than you do in Northern Tanzania. The majority of safari tourists usually fly between the main areas rather than drive.
Western Tanzania is a small hidden gem in Africa. More and more people recognise this and perhaps talk about it with reverence but you’ll find that very few have visited it in any great depth. Katavi and Mahale National parks are the main areas but the rest of Lake Tanganyika is worth considering, along with places such as Rukwa, Malagarasi and Ugalla.
Strangely, the Tanzania Coast can sometimes be ignored by visitors. This is unfortunate since the coast of Tanzania includes Zanzibar and the other offshore islands of Pemba and Mafia. It also offers some of the finest beaches, diving and game fishing available anywhere in the Indian Ocean. Whether its a beach holiday with a few days safari added on, or the reverse, the combination of beach and safari holiday is about as good as it gets on the coast of Tanzania.
Within all the regions of Tanzania there are many lesser known options in the peripheries that should be considered along with the main game parks. An experienced safari tour operator should be able to take you through all these options and find the best matching safari trip depending on your requirements of a Tanzania safari.
Source by Alex Edwards
