Six days of dust. Then the boat to Zanzibar.
What a three-day Serengeti circuit really costs out of Arusha. Whether the crater earns its permit day. Which Stone Town walk ends at the spice farms, and what the dhow out to Nakupenda charges. Reviews of every tour you can book in Tanzania.
A balloon at dawn, a camping circuit, a spice walk and a mountain.
The four bookings a first Tanzanian itinerary is usually built around, and what each one costs.
01The dawn flightSerengeti Balloon Safari and authentic bush breakfastUp before the sun over the Seronera plains, down to a bush breakfast under an acacia. The morning nobody regrets paying for.
02The three-day circuit3 Days Serengeti & Ngorongoro Group Camping SafariSerengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater out of Arusha, sleeping in camp. The cheapest straight way to see both.
03The island dayStone Town, Spice Tour, Prison Island with LunchStone Town lanes, a spice farm outside town and the boat over to Prison Island, in one run.
04The mountainKilimanjaro climb by Lemosho Route (7-day)Lemosho over seven days, the route that gives your lungs the most time to catch up.
Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire: choose the parks before the dates.
Almost every safari leaving Arusha is a different mix of the same handful of parks. What each one is for, and what it costs to get through the gate.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Serengeti Balloon Safari and authentic bush breakfast
The SerengetiOpen plains, big cats, and herds that keep moving.
Ngorongoro CraterA collapsed volcano floor you drive down into for a day.
TarangireElephants under baobabs, an easy first park out of Arusha.
MikumiThe southern park you can reach on a day flight from Zanzibar.
All 625 safaris in Tanzania →
Arusha for the parks, Moshi for the mountain, the island for everything after.
Six places tours actually leave from, and the day out each one is known for.
Zanzibar runs on boats: Prison Island, Nakupenda, Mnemba.
Most island days begin by wading out to a dhow. A sandbank that disappears at high tide, the atoll where the dolphins are, and the spice farms inland for the mornings the water is rough.
The days out more travellers take than anything else in Tanzania.
Every Tanzanian tour we have reviewed →A twenty-dollar snorkel run and a balloon over the Serengeti sit on the same shortlist. Most popular first.
1
Serengeti Balloon Safari and authentic bush breakfast
You’ll leave camp around 5:00 am for a sunrise balloon flight over the Serengeti, guided by an experienced pilot such as Paul, Jeff, Kevin, Mohamed, or Derek. After about an hour in the air, celebrate with bubbly and a full English breakfast beneath an acacia tree.
From · $550
Read our review →
2
Mikumi Safari Day Trip with Flights and Meal
from $451
3
Quad Bike Adventure departing from Kendwa or Nungwi
4
Stone Town, Spice Tour, Prison Island with Lunch
from $68
5
Tanzania Classic – 7 Days
from $3,913
6
4 Days Group Camping Safari
from $900
7
Mnemba Boat Trip and Dolphin Snorkel Adventure
from $50
8
Day Selous Game Reserve Safari with Flights
from $470
Kilimanjaro is a long walk, and the route decides whether you finish it.
Machame is the busy one and the handsome one. Lemosho starts further west and buys an extra day to acclimatise. Marangu sleeps in huts and turns the most people back. Prices are per person, with everything on the mountain included.
- 1Kilimanjaro climb by Lemosho Route (7-day)from $3,476
- 2Kilimanjaro climb, Machame Route (7-day)from $3,377
- 38-Day Small-group Lemosho Kilimanjaro Summit Trekkingfrom $2,895
From a $20 dhow to a $3,000 mountain: the Tanzanian price ladder.
Every tour on the site grouped by what it costs. The island days sit at the bottom, the parks and the mountain at the top.
Stone Town walks, spice farms, snorkel runs off Nungwi and the sunset dhows.
Full island days with lunch, Materuni and the hot springs, the Jozani forest run.
Park circuits with a vehicle and a guide, crater permits, flights south, and every route up the mountain.
Three things that happen in Tanzania and nowhere else.
Beaches and big animals are everywhere. A collapsed volcano you drive down into, a dining room on a rock in the tide, and a monkey that lives on one island do not travel.
The Ngorongoro Crater
The crater floor sits some two thousand feet below the rim and runs about a hundred square miles, walled by the caldera itself. Because almost everything stays down there year round, lion, elephant and rhino can turn up between breakfast and lunch. Vehicles descend on a permit for a fixed window, so the whole day is planned around the descent rather than the other way round.
- 13 Days Serengeti & Ngorongoro Group Camping Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 574 reviews
- 2Safari Serengeti And Ngorongoro★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 288 reviews
- 35 Days Camping Tarangire, Serengeti & Ngorongoro crater & Visiting Maasai★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 229 reviews
The Rock
A single dining room stands on a coral outcrop off the east coast at Michamvi. At low tide you walk out across the sand; a few hours later the same crossing is made by boat, because the water is over your head. Island day trips build the stop around the tide table rather than the clock.
- 1Dolphin tour, Jozani Forest, Jambiani Kuza Cave, Paje Beach &The Rock restaurent★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 164 reviews
- 2Swim with Sea Turtles, Kuza Cave, Paje Beach, The Rock Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 77 reviews
- 3Jozani Forest, Salaam Cave & The Rock Restaurant★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 77 reviews
Jozani and the red colobus
The Zanzibar red colobus lives in this patch of groundwater forest and nowhere else on earth. They sit low in the trees beside the track and are entirely used to people, so the walk is twenty slow minutes rather than a search. The mangrove boardwalk behind the forest comes with the same ticket.
- 1Jozani Forest & Sea Tortoises Sanctuary Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 204 reviews
- 2Dolphin tour, Jozani Forest, Jambiani Kuza Cave, Paje Beach &The Rock restaurent★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 164 reviews
- 3Zanzibar full day Jozani forest + Spice farm and stone town★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 90 reviews
Four Tanzanian bookings that will not wait for you to land.
Much of the island can be arranged over breakfast the day before. These four run on permits, park gates, seats on small planes and a tide table, none of which care when you arrive.
- 01Kilimanjaro climb by Lemosho Route (7-day)A climb is five to nine days of booked camps, park fees and a crew of porters and guides. Nobody assembles that from a hotel lobby.
- 023 Days Serengeti & Ngorongoro Group Camping SafariVehicles enter the crater on a permit for a fixed daily window, sold ahead and sold in a fixed number.
- 03Mikumi Safari Day Trip with Flights and MealThe southern parks are a day trip only because of the flight. The seats on the small planes are the limit, not the game drive.
- 04Serengeti Balloon Safari and authentic bush breakfastBalloons lift at first light with a set number of baskets, and the good mornings go long before the season does.
March to May, Tanzania goes quiet and the park tracks go soft.
The masika rains shut some camps, turn the murram roads to mud and empty the island. What still works is everything under a roof or under trees: the spice farms, the lanes of Stone Town, a coffee morning on the Kilimanjaro slopes, somebody else’s kitchen.
By place — mainland and island
By kind of day — park, reef, mountain or kitchen
Arusha, Tarangire, Ngorongoro, Serengeti, then the short flight to Zanzibar.
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Jozani Forest, Salaam Cave & The Rock Restaurant
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