Land of Lakes: Better known as the Land of Lakes, Arusha National Park is a rewarding and often over-looked park within easy reach of the centre of Arusha. The park offers an ideal day-trip, good walking  and excellent mountain-climbing (a day-trip walking the lower slopes or a three-day hike to the summit of Mount Meru).

The place of the baobab
One of the most accessible of Tanzania’s national parks, Mikumi lies in the lee of the Uluguru Mountains and is dominated by the floodplains of the Mkata River. Covering an area only 3,230 square kilometres, the park offers a wide range of habitats including: swamps, plains, hippo pools, palm groves and woodlands, whilst its array of wildlife is unusual indeed. 

The endless plains: The Serengeti, whose Maasai name ‘Siringet’ translates as ‘the endless plains’, offers unparalleled ornithological opportunities and a natural arena where the glory and harmony of nature can be appreciated as nowhere else on earth. The vast and rolling Serengeti National Park is the venue for ‘the greatest wildlife show on earth’ the annual migration of over one million wildebeest and their attendant cast of herbivores and predators.

Katavi, Tanzania's third largest national park, lies in the remote southwest of the country to the east of Lake Tanganyika, within a truncated arm of the Rift Valley that terminates in the shallow, brooding expanse of Lake Rukwa.  It is 4,471 square kilometers in size, and is home to substantial but elusive populations of the localized eland, sable and roan antelopes.  The main focus for game viewing is the Katuma River and associated floodplains such as the seasonal Lakes Katavi and Chada.

Forest home of the chimpanzees

On the shores of Lake Tanganyika, Gombe Stream is the smallest of Tanzania’s national parks, being only 5km wide and 15km long. Primarily a forest reserve, the park has gained world acclaim thanks to the pioneering work of Dr Jane Goodall, who has lived amongst the park’s chimpanzees since 1960. 

The highest mountain in Africa: The majestic snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro  (5,896 metres above sea level) is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing peak in the world. Topped with one fifth of the ice in Africa, the ‘Shining Mountain’ is the Mecca of every amateur climber in the world and is easily conquered by nearly 70,000 people every year (58 people per day on the popular Marangu Route, also known as the ‘Coca Cola Route’). 

Haunt of the famous tree-climbing lions: Established primarily to protect the alkaline waters of Lake Manyara, this small park offers some of the finest wildlife and ornithology in Tanzania. Dramatically placed at the foot of the towering walls of the Mto wa Mbu Escarpment and fringed by a narrow band of forest, it lies in a hollow at the base of the western wall of the Great Rift Valley. Typically hazy, it is often fringed by thousands of sugar pink flamingos.

An undiscovered gem: Mahale Mountains National Park is an undiscovered gem. Thirty times the size of its much more famous neighbour, Gombe Stream National Park, Mahale not only offers a wider diversity of plant and animal species than Gombe, but also a number of animals that are rarely seen there, such as elephants, buffaloes, roans, plains zebras and giraffes that remains isolated amid the ancient rainforests that line the eastern shores of Lake 

The place of the baobab trees

Named after the Tarangire River, which provides its only water, this is an essentially arid park characterized by its many ancient baobab trees and large termite mounds. 

Home of the ‘Great Ruaha River’
A pristine and largely undiscovered wilderness, the 23,000 square-kilometre Ruaha National Park is Tanzania’s second-largest park. An unforgettable landscape, one of the last remaining tracts of the original Africa as it existed millions of years ago, the park is dominated by the Great Ruaha River, from which it takes its name (Ruaha means ‘great’).