Get acquainted with wildlife in Lake Manyara

Lake Manyara is one of the classic North national parks to visit when in Northern Tanzania. To be honest, it is not the best park in the area, but it can be a great start to your safari. There is a huge lake with a nice population of hippos in it, which is nice to check out. There is a nice rainforest as well, where you can find some cool animals. This is probably the best park to find baboons and some other primates. You can also find giraffes, elephants, gazelles, buffaloes, zebras, and more, and when lucky, a lion or another cat (no cheetah).

Price: 50$ (but you need a car and recommended a driver, which makes the cost way higher)

Tourist occurrence: Medium

How to get here: 2-3 hour drive from Arusha.

How much time needed: 1 day

Understand Masai culture

The Masai are a tribe living in the Eastern Africa countries Kenya and Tanzania. They are a semi-nomadic tribe with a population of around 1.5 million. When in Tanzania, you will see them in your hotel, or you will find them with their livestock on the road, visit a Masai village, or have the most authentic experience at the Amini Maasai Lodge (Africa Amini Life).

Price: Depending on the experience, you can encounter them randomly.

Tourist occurrence: High, in villages

How much time needed: 1-2 hours

Find as many elephants as possible in Tarangire national park

Tarangire is a very interesting national park as it has many baobab trees (see picture below), which are very cool. The scenery is very different from the other national parks in Tanzania, with these trees, cool hills, and the river. However, the highlight of Tarangire for me is the huge amount of elephants here. It is insane how many were around, and you can see them many times and be alone with them. Seeing elephants is one of my favourite animals to observe, as they are so huge. You can find many herbivores, zebras, buffaloes, lions, hyenas, and way more wildlife. If you are very lucky, you can find leopards and cheetahs as well. Birding is also good in Tarangire.

There are also many animals who are adapted to drier environments, like the gerenuk and bat-eared foxes. The park is more quiet than other national parks in the area, which gives you the option to find wildlife and be alone with these animals.

Price: 50$ (but you need a car and recommended a driver, which makes the cost way higher)

Tourist occurrence: Low

How to get here: 2-3 hour drive from Arusha.

How much time needed: 1 night at least, but preferable 2 nights.

Always see wildlife in the Ngorongoro crater

When you enter the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, you will have a great view of the crater, which is around 20 kilometres wide. The highlight, however, will be when you enter the crater and see all the wildlife inside. When you are down in the crater, there is almost no moment you are not seeing a zebra, an eland, a wildebeest, or a Thompsons gazelle. There are animals everywhere. The only 2 regularly seen animals in the national park but not present in the crater are giraffes and cheetahs. For the rest, you can find all of the Big Five with the best chances to find rhinos in Tanzania. There are around 30 black rhinos in the crater, and that is a huge amount. It is not uncommon to find every member of the Big Five on one day, although a leopard can be tough. 

Also, birding is very good in Ngorongoro. The three classic birds who are most sought after are the flamingo, crowned cranes (picture above), and kori bustard, a huge and heavy bird. 

Price: 71$ for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area per person, and a $295 fee per vehicle for entering the crater (but you need a car and recommended a driver, which makes the cost higher)

Tourist occurrence: Very high

How to get here: 3-4 hour drive from Arusha.

How much time needed: 2 nights, so you can have a full day to enter the crater. 

Enjoy the great sunsets and sunrises of the country

Do you want to see a great sunset or sunrise? Tanzania is a perfect place. The wide area is perfect for a great orange glow above the animals and the wide fields. Get somewhere high to get the best experience. Have a sundowner as the sun sets or grab a coffee in the morning to enjoy this amazing scenery.

See soo many wildlife in Serengeti

The Serengeti maybe is the best park in the world to find wildlife. This is the park with the highest animal densities in the world. The park is mostly famous for the migration of a million wildebeests, zebras, and Thompson gazelles. There are crossings of the Mara River between June and October, and those are the famous crossings from the shows. On other parts of the year, the herds are in different parts of the Serengeti. But the Serengeti is so much more than only the migration. The amount of cats is enormous. If you go on a full day on game drive, it is not uncommon to see lions, cheetahs, and a leopard. Lions are almost a guarantee, as is the cheetah. Leopards (see picture above) are a bit more rough, but if you stay here 3 to 4 days, there is a huge chance of finding him.

Besides the three famous cats and the migration, there are many other elephants, like giraffes, jackals, hyenas, hippos, crocodiles, more herbivores, buffaloes, and more. The only classic safari animal absent is the rhino.

Price: 70$ (but you need a car and recommended a driver, which makes the cost higher)

Tourist occurrence: High

How to get here: 6 hours drive from Arusha and 3 hours from the Ngorongoro Crater

How much time needed: 3-4 nights is perfect, especially if you stay in different areas of the Serengeti, but to be honest, I can stay here for weeks.

Have a fantastic view from a hot air balloon

Being in a hot air balloon above the Serengeti was probably the best thing I did in my life. I have a bit of vertigo, and I was very ok with this activity. Getting up is very funny, but the highlight is when you are in the air and you can find the wildlife. We were very lucky to find a hyena, elephants, lions, hippos, zebras, a vulture nest with a chick in it, and antelopes. The view from above is really impressive, and it is so cool seeing wildlife from a different view. You can also do a hot air balloon in Tarangire, but I did it in the Serengeti. 

A day with a hot air balloon is getting up very early so you can be in the balloon when the sun goes up. You will be an hour on the balloon with 16 people and a pilot, and then you have a champagne breakfast in the middle of the Serengeti. Your guide will pick you up, and you can go on a game drive.

Price: 600$ 

Tourist occurrence: Low

How much time needed: A morning including a one hour flight and a breakfast.

Relax a bit at Zanzibar

Zanzibar is a very nice island to enjoy some days after your safari. The island has real white sand beaches and blue seas. This is our time to relax, but there are good excursions as well:

• Have a walk through the cute Stone Town
• Find the endemic red colobus monkeys in Jozani Forest
• Do a snorkelling trip

Tourist occurrence: High

How much time needed: 4-5 days is nice to have a relaxed time.

Things I have not done, but could be cool

I have only been to the north of Tanzania and Zanzibar, so I have not been in the interesting west and south of Tanzania. In the north, you can also:

• Climb the Kilimanjaro
• Have a authentic tribe experience at Lake Eyasi
• Arusha national park

Final thoughts