Two weeks. Both Tanzanias.
Where the herds are the month you land. Which Kilimanjaro route actually summits. What a Zanzibar sandbank morning costs. The safaris, the climbs and the dhow days, reviewed one by one.
Tanzania is two trips stitched to one flight.
All 1,966 reviews →
The northern circuit runs on 4x4s, dawn starts and park fees paid by the day. Zanzibar runs on tides, dhows and twenty-dollar boat mornings. Most people do both, in that order, and the mainland half is what needs booking early.
Three to five days, canvas and a cook
Arusha at six in the morning, Tarangire by lunch, tents up on the crater rim. The cheapest honest way onto the plains, and the reason half of Arusha books out in July.
Same parks, a bed and a shower
The route barely changes. What changes is the evening: a lodge on the Serengeti escarpment instead of a groundsheet, and a driver who is yours for the week.
Fly in, game drive, fly back
Zanzibar to Nyerere or Mikumi and home by dark. It is the only way to see big game on a beach-only itinerary, and it books from the island rather than the mainland.
What Tanzania actually costs, by the day.
A Stone Town walking morning and a ten-day Serengeti safari sit on the same list here, two hundred dollars apart per hour. Here is the whole range, cheapest first.
Zanzibar boat mornings, spice farms, Stone Town walks, waterfall and coffee days out of Moshi.
Full-day sandbank and reef trips, Mikumi and Nyerere fly-in safaris, two and three day camping runs.
The long northern-circuit safaris and the Kilimanjaro routes, guides, park fees and camps included.
- 1Tanzania Classic – 7 Daysfrom $3,913
- 25 Days Group Camping Safarifrom $1,100
- 3Kilimanjaro climb by Lemosho Route (7-day)from $3,476
The tours most travellers to Tanzania actually book.
The full Tanzania list →Balloon baskets over the Serengeti, a boat out to Mnemba, the classic seven-day loop. What the crowd books, and what each one is really like.
1
Serengeti Balloon Safari and authentic bush breakfast
Review of the Serengeti sunrise balloon safari, wildlife views, champagne, bush breakfast, seasonal launch sites, price, and booking advice.
From · $550
Read our review →
2
Balloon Safari & Bush Breakfast in Serengeti – Miracle Experience
from $599
3
Mikumi Safari Day Trip with Flights and Meal
from $451
4
Quad Bike Adventure departing from Kendwa or Nungwi
from $72
5
Stone Town, Spice Tour, Prison Island with Lunch
from $68
6
Tanzania Classic – 7 Days
from $3,913
7
4 Days Group Camping Safari
from $900
8
Mnemba Boat Trip and Dolphin Snorkel Adventure
from $50
The herds move all year. Your dates decide what you see.
Calving on the Ndutu short grass from January to March, the Grumeti in June, the Mara River crossings from July into October. The crater holds its game year round and rescues a badly timed week.
The mountain is a walk. The route is the whole decision.
No ropes, no technical ground, 5,895 metres of altitude that does not care how fit you are. Summit odds track the number of nights you sleep on the way up, which is why the eight-day Lemosho beats a five-day dash every time.
On Zanzibar the tide sets the timetable.
Low water on the east coast walks you half a kilometre out over seagrass; high water floats the dhows off Nungwi. Boat trips go at the hour the sea allows, so book the day rather than the time and let the captain pick.
- 1Mikumi Safari Day Trip with Flights and Mealfrom $451
- 2Quad Bike Adventure departing from Kendwa or Nungwifrom $72
- 3Stone Town, Spice Tour, Prison Island with Lunchfrom $68
Three things only Tanzania can sell you.
Plenty of countries have beaches and game parks. The calving plains, a walkable 5,895 metre summit and the clove farms belong to this one.
The Calving Plains
The wildebeest do not migrate in a line, they turn in a slow circle that never stops, and the Serengeti holds most of it. Roughly half a million calves drop on the Ndutu short grass in about three weeks each February, which is why the predators concentrate there and why that fortnight books a year out. By July the same animals are queuing at the Mara River in the far north, a nine-hour drive from where they were born.
- 18 Days Great Wildebeest Calving Migration Safari from Arusha★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 254 reviews
- 210-Day Serengeti Wildebeest Migration Safari from Arusha★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 218 reviews
- 38 Day Spectacular Migration Serengeti mid -Range Tanzania Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 161 reviews
The Walkable Summit
Kilimanjaro asks for no rope and no technical skill, which is exactly what catches people out. Altitude is the whole problem, and the only real defence is nights: crews on the eight-day Lemosho summit far more often than the five-day Marangu parties who share the same trailhead. Porters carry the tents and the water. You carry a day pack and walk very slowly, on purpose.
- 1Kilimanjaro climb by Lemosho Route (7-day)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 651 reviews
- 2Kilimanjaro climb, Machame Route (7-day)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 262 reviews
- 3Kilimanjaro Climbing Lemosho Route 8 Days.★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 186 reviews
Cloves, Nutmeg, Vanilla
Zanzibar supplied most of the world with cloves for a century, and the farms behind Stone Town still grow the whole cabinet: nutmeg in its red lace, cinnamon peeled off the branch, vanilla pods drying on racks, lemongrass crushed in your hand as you pass. Two hours, a farmer walking you through it, and a lunch cooked from the same rows.
- 1Stone Town, Spice Tour, Prison Island with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 1,219 reviews
- 2Prison Island, Stone Town, & Spice Farm Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 579 reviews
- 3Stone Town, Spice tour & Prison Island with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 453 reviews
Stone Town is a working city, not a museum piece.
Coral rag walls, carved doors, laundry across the alleys and a fish market that starts before dawn. Guided walks cover the Omani and German trading years, the seafront forts and the sites of the slave trade that the town was built on. Half a day, on foot, at walking pace.
Stone Town walking tours →
Four Tanzanian bookings that will not wait for your arrival.
Most of Zanzibar can be arranged over breakfast for the same afternoon. These four run on permits, baskets and calendars that were full before your flight was.
- 01Serengeti Balloon Safari and authentic bush breakfastOne basket carries sixteen people and each operator flies a handful of mornings. Peak-season baskets go months out.
- 02Kilimanjaro climb by Lemosho Route (7-day)Park fees, hut or camp permits and a full crew are lodged in your name before you land. Nobody sells a summit attempt at short notice.
- 038 Days Great Wildebeest Calving Migration Safari from ArushaThe herds are only in one part of the park at a time, and the camps in that part are booked out a season ahead.
- 043 Days Serengeti & Ngorongoro Group Camping SafariCrater descent is a paid, dated permit per vehicle. The day is fixed in advance, and it decides the shape of the rest of the trip.
March to May is wet, cheap, and better than its reputation.
The masika rains fall hard in the afternoon and stop. Roads in the western Serengeti turn, but the crater stays open, the parks empty out, and safari prices drop by a third. On Zanzibar the sea goes warm and grey, and everything under a roof carries on regardless.
By base, mainland and island
Arusha921 tours
Moshi327 tours
Zanzibar300 tours
Nungwi & Kendwa55 tours
Pingwe & Michamvi55 tours
Kizimkazi16 tours
Dar es Salaam172 tours- Every base on the map →
By day, what kind of morning is it?
Crater to coast, the way the flights actually work.
Arusha
Tarangire
Lake Manyara
Serengeti & the Crater
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