Tanzania Safari

Smaller national parks in northern Tanzania include Lake Manyara and Tarangire National Park. These are both located south of Arusha and offer excellent bird life and huge elephant herds respectively. A northern Tanzania safari itinerary usually starts from Arusha and combines a safari in Lake Manyara on route to the Ngorongoro Crater to stay for two or three nights. After your full day descent into the crater, you will then fly into the Serengeti National Park (dependent on where the herds are). To make the itinerary longer, you can add a few nights in Taranagire National Park at the beginning of the itinerary but we would only recommend this between the months of July and October as the wildlife begins to migrate outside of this period.

A safari in the southern parks of Tanzania is a very different experience to the northern parks. Although in our opinion there is no ‘better’ safari, for some people, the southern parks are definitely more suited to them compared to the northern parks. This is because of the fewer visitors, the varied safari activities and the overall landscape of the southern parks.

At a size of over 45,000 km², the Selous Game Reserve is Africa’s largest game reserve. To put that into perspective, the Selou is three times the size of the Serengeti. The Selous is a beautiful reserve and features a wealth of varying landscapes – from lakes, open plains, dense vegetation and palm-fringed streams. The main focus of the reserve is the mighty Rufiji River which runs through the park. Almost all of the safari activities are focussed around the river: your safari guide will drive along the river banks for your game drive, you will have lunch and sundowners on the boat safaris, and you can even enjoy catch-and-release fishing on the Rufiji.

So as you have just read, the southern parks offer a much wider variety of activities which allow you to get a broader safari experience. In the southern parks, you can do walking safaris, fishing, fly camping, game drives and boat safaris whereas in the northern parks, you are limited to just game drives most of the time. The southern parks are also much quieter, with much fewer camps and tourist numbers. This means that you will often get a sighting to yourself or, at least, with only one or two other vehicles nearby.

Because of the varied activities and the much lower tourist numbers, we would recommend the southern parks for honeymooners in particular. The camps in the Selous and Ruaha have no more than 8-10 rooms so they are all very intimate and have an authentic feel to them. This is great for honeymooners who are looking for fantastic service – the staff will immediately know you by name and will organise countless surprises to make your honeymoon special.