Tanzania is unsurpassed for its magnificent scenery and wildlife experience. The world renowned Serengeti, the Ngorongoro Crater and the vast Selous - all names synonymous with some of the best game viewing experiences the continent has to offer. Kilimanjaro is Africa’s highest point. At 5,895 meters (19,340 feet), Kilimanjaro, a dormant volcano, is snow-capped even though it is near the Equator.
Tanzania is the largest country in East Africa and over a quarter of its surface area its taken up in national parks and game reserves which harbour over 20% of Africa's large mammal population. During the great migration Tanzania is also home to over a million migrating wildebeest and zebra - one of the most dazzling wildlife spectacles on the planet.
Tanganyika, a British controlled UN trust territory, gained independence in 1961; and Zanzibar, a British protectorate with an Arab population, became independent in 1963. Tanganyika and Zanzibar united to form Tanzania in 1964. Until resigning as president in 1985, independence leader Julius K. Nyerere guided two decades of socialism - adapted to include a policy of village farming. A multiparty system was established in 1992 after a constitutional amendment.
The population of Tanzania is about 40 million; most live in the highlands around Kilimanjaro and the coast.
The Serengeti National Park spans 14,800 square kilometres reaching up to the Kenyan border in the north and is claimed to be one of the finest game parks in Africa, with its vast, open grasslands allowing for excellent wildlife sightings. The annual migration witnesses over one million wildebeest, 200,000 zebra’s and 300,000 Thomson’s Gazelle’s crossing seven hundred miles of the Serengeti Park to trek to new grazing lands in the Masai Mara in Kenya. This is one of the most spectacular and unique wildlife events in the world.
The Ngorongoro Crater is the largest intact caldera (sunken volcano) in the world, and some scientists maintain that, before it erupted, it would have been higher than Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa. The crater is situated in a Conservation Area, where wildlife is protected and the Masai herdsmen graze their cattle side by side with predators and prey.
The Selous ecosystem consists of the Selous reserve, the Kilombero game controlled area in the west, and the Mikumi National Park in the north. The Selous is of great historical interest, from prehistoric man, to the passage of caravans transporting slaves and ivory, to World War One campaigns to its current status as an excellent safari destination.
About 120 kilometres south of Arusha on the Dodoma road, Tarangire National Park rivals the Serengeti for the size of the herds that congregate from June to November when many of the animals mass along the Tarangire River.
The Mahale Mountains National Park lies 120 kilometres south of Kigoma, on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Tanganyika. The park covers an area of 1,613 square kilometres and its western boundary protects not only 63 kilometres of lakeshore but also the adjacent 1.6 kilometres wide strip of coastal waters. Tanzania’s Mahale is probably the finest place on earth to watch wild chimpanzees.
Isolated, untrammelled and seldom visited, Katavi National Park is a true wilderness, providing the few intrepid souls who make it there with a thrilling taste of Africa as it must have been a century ago. Tanzania's third largest national park, Katavi, lies in the remote southwest of the country, within a truncated arm of the Rift Valley that terminates in the shallow, brooding expanse of Lake Rukwa.
Tanzania includes the spice islands of Zanzibar, Pemba, and Mafia. There is always the option of ending a Tanzania safari on one of Tanzania’s Islands where Bantu and Arab cultures combine with some of the best beaches in the world.
Safaris in Tanzania are generally less expensive than in Botswana but more expensive than in Kenya.